High Definition Digital Video Camera Enters Consumer Market

With the aggression into the market of high definition television sets, it is only a natural evolution to have a high definition digital video camera for live broadcasting. However, with falling prices, having a high definition digital video camera for your home movies to show on your new HD television is now possible.

While the definition of high definition is still somewhat confusing, most technology seems to point to 1080i that is 1080 lines scanned in interlaced format, or 720 progressive scanned lines. What this means is that for 1080 interlaced, a television will fill in the picture, from top to bottom first entering the information of the odd number lines. For example one, three, five and so on until it reaches the bottom, at which time it returns to the top and puts the rest of the information on the screen in the even-numbered lines.

With progressive scanning, all the information is entered at once, scanning the lines sequentially. Both methods take less than one-thirtieth of a second giving the viewer the idea the entire picture appears instantaneously. A high definition digital video camera can also offer interlaced or progressive scanning capability.

Price Still A Concern For High Definition

While high definition digital video camera manufacturers are touting their products for consumer use, you can expect to pay upwards of $5,000 or more for the privilege of shooting in high definition format. Many believe that as consumers move further into high definition television, and technology becomes cheaper, the demand for a high definition digital video camera will increase.

Most of the high definition digital video cameras on the market today are using a built-in hard drive for picture storage due to the massive amounts of memory required by a high definition digital video camera. Although some of them may still utilize DVD tape storage for recording. A hard drive would be good if you are planning to play back the videos as they were shot or record them to a disk. However, if you plan editing your movies, a tape recording is easier to play through editing software on your computer.

Once your editing is complete you can then erase the tape and use it again while saving your edited movie onto your computer hard drive and then save it onto disk for sharing with friends or relatives. Planning to edit your movies with a high definition digital video camera, it is probably still better to opt for a tape storage system.

Roland Parris Jefferson III is an online researcher based out of Los Angeles, California. Need more details and expert advice on Digital Cameras? Then please visit our High Definition Digital Video Camera Resource.