The HDTV Camcorder and the March to Marketplace Reality

A complex 12-year development of high-definition television (HDTV) production standards has vied with consecutive generations of HDTV program origination equipment. While aspiring to the full promise of the ever-evolving standards, equipment designers have grappled with a multiplicity of marketplace realities as separately deifned by the world's broadcasters and program producers. HDTV program origination continues to be frustrated by unrealistic equipment costs and a lack of mobile battery-powered HDTV acquisition systems. The latter is central to the proper exploitation of the significant enhancement to television imagery latent within the technical parameters defined by the latest SMPTE 274M HDTV production standard. This paper describes a bold development thrust that sought to simultaneously lower costs and produce a high-performance, highly compact, HD acquisition system. The technological leap from contemporary HDTV cameras and digital recorders to an all-digital one-piece HD camcorder called for the best in engineering innovation, pragmatic design decisions, and a massive commitment to custom-built VLSI. This paper specifically describes the prototype of the 1920 × 1035 (SMPTE 260M) based camcorder. A modified product based on the later SMPTE 274M standard (1920 × 1080 format) will follow.

Print ISSN

0036-1682

Published

1998-03

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J04486