Hitachi boiling up a Blu-Ray camcorder
When camcorders with mini-DVD recorders inside of them first hit the scene, geeks moaned as loud as the technologically clueless cheered: the convenience of not having to deal with tape was great, but the whole MPEG-2 compression thing coupled with the half hour recording time definitely ruined the party. Fortunately for both groups, Hiroto Yamauchi, a marketing guy for Hitachi -- a company which currently makes a line of interestingly-named Wooo DVD camcorders -- has revealed that the company is hoping to bring out a camcorder based off a mini Blu-Ray format within one to two years. The idea is sound in theory, but the current non-existence of both an 8cm Blu-Ray player/recorder drive and the actual physical discs makes this little more than a distant dream. A distant dream that could easily be shattered if the Blu-Ray medium as a whole fails, which is probably why this announcement takes the form of a long term promise, and not a short term commitment.
