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FEBRUARY 6, 2002 PC WORLD PRODUCT REVIEW By Richard Baguley Store Your Home Video on DVD-RAM The pricey Hitachi DV-MV100A offers an alternative to standard digital camcorders
Our shipping unit looks like a standard camcorder, but at 2.1 pounds, it is about twice as heavy as those in this month's roundup. Its main distinction is its DVD-RAM media format: A disc lasts longer than conventional tape, speeds video imports to a PC, and allows far more efficient navigation, letting you skip from scene to scene with one click instead of waiting for fast-forwards or rewinds. The DZ-MV100A uses 8cm discs instead of the more-familiar 12cm discs. Its media holds 60 minutes of video per disc (30 minutes per side) in fine mode (at a resolution of 704 by 480) and 120 minutes (60 minutes per side) in standard mode (352 by 480 resolution). In fine mode, the video quality is similar to that of a DV camcorder, but with slightly more background noise. In standard mode, the video was much blockier and showed obvious compression artifacts. The camera also lacks some common features, such as a low-light mode and digital effects. It has standard analog input and output ports, as well as a USB port, but no fast IEEE 1394 port. You can do basic video editing on the camera and hook it to your TV to play your videos. But to properly edit your video, you need to get it onto your PC, with either a DVD-RAM drive or a DVD-ROM drive that's compatible (most aren't). Hitachi bundles a suitable DVD-ROM drive with the camera for $46 more. PowerDVD-VR software is included for playback. Hitachi will soon add Panasonic's DVD-MovieAlbumSE for editing video (the camcorder currently lacks a compatible editing program). Unfortunately, the beta version of the Panasonic program failed to work on our test system under Windows XP and had problems on a Windows Me system, as well. Panasonic's software is currently the only one available that can import the video and convert it to a file format compatible with other video editing programs. Hitachi says these bugs should not be present in the shipping version of the software. Recording video onto DVD-RAM discs certainly has some advantages, but it is still way too expensive: At approximately $35 each, the DVD-RAM discs cost more than three times what a DV tape does, and the DZ-M100A is about twice the price of a comparable DV camcorder.  From the March 2002 issue of PC World magazine Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | FEBRUARY [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
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