Lots of things are happening at CES this year, and I can’t keep up with it all. The news is coming fast and furious, and here is some HD camcorder news from Sony and Panasonic.

Panasonic announced that their HDC-SD1 camcorder ($1,499) will record HD on SDHC Memory Cards. Their HDC-DX1 camcorder ($1,399) will record HD material on DVD discs. Both camcorders will use the AVCHD format to record in 1080i. A 4GB memory card will hold about an hour of HD, while a dual-layer DVD will store about 40 minutes on a dual-layer DVD-R, which sounds a bit backwards to me.

Sony also announced four HD camcorders to be released in February and March. Two will store in AVCHD on DVD-R discs, and two will store on mini-HDV tapes. Prices will range from $1000 to $1400.

Panasonic’s New HD Camcorder Line
Sony’s HD Camcorders

Sony introduced a new HD camcorder, and this time it’s 24p. It does a resolution of 920 x 1080 lines, interpolated up to 1920 and then down to 1440. That’s the HDV format.

The Gizmodo writer says:

But don’t let all the trickery scare you. After playing with this camera for a few hours and looking at lots of its footage, I must say the 24p look of this camera is remarkable. It’s the closest to full HDTV I’ve seen this 25mbit/s HDV format get. That’s helped along tremendously by its CMOS sensors, instead of the CCDs of previous HDV camcorders from Sony and others. These refined CMOS sensors give the camera better interpolation, higher dynamic range and increased perceived resolution, too. It’s all good.

It’s a cool-looking camera with great imagery. But I look forward to the day that a camcorder can record 1920 x 1080 at 30 fps. At a price that I can afford.

Sony Intros HVR-V1U HDV Pro Camcorder, Filmmakers Ogle Its 24p-ness

So you have an HDTV and want to take some home movies in full 1080i glory to show on that HDTV? Sony has some new camcorders for you. The HDR-UX1 records to the small DVD discs, the HDR-SR1 includes a 30GB HDD.

The camcorders have HDMI connectors, and you can even use them with a wireless Bluetooth microphone. You might be wondering what format these things use to store their content, and the answer is AVCHD(TM), based on MPEG4 AVC/H.264.

The HDR-UX1 will be available in September for about $1400, and the HDR-SR1 will go for $1500 in October.

Sony Ushers in Next Wave of High-Def Home Movies

T3 has a mini-review of Sanyo’s Xacti HD1 camcorder up on their site. It’s a flash-based device that can record HD video in 720p. T3 thinks that this camcorder is decent for recording video in bright daylight, or close to a nuclear reactor. But if you have less than optimal lighting conditions, that’s where this camcorder falls down. The camcorder has a 10x optical zoom and a 5 megapixel display. A 2GB flash memory card can hold 29 minutes of high quality video, or 43 minutes of not-so-good quality. And by “high quality” I assume they mean “high quality recorded at high brightness”.

So while this little camcorder looks like a steal, you may wish to look elsewhere for a camcorder. I noticed on Amazon’s page that after viewing the listing for this camcorder, 62% of Amazon shoppers actually ended up buying Sony’s HDR-HC3 camcorder instead.

Sanyo Xacti HD1 Camcorder

InterVideo and Ulead will be showing off their HD DVD authoring solution at the HD DVD Promotion Group Seminar held at NEC, in Tokyo, Japan on May 18, 2006.

“At InterVideo Ulead, we are at the forefront of providing complete solutions for the digital home,” said Steve Ro, CEO and president of InterVideo. “It is very exciting for us to empower consumers who want to author, burn and play HD DVDs.”

Makes me wonder how long HD DVD or BD authoring will come to applications like iMovie and iDVD. I guess we’ll have to wait for the price of BD burners to come down first. The ones from Pioneer and Panasonic will cost $1000 and $900, respectively. My current VAIO PC is old enough that I had to pay a premium for its DVD burner, and I said that I’d never do that again!

InterVideo Ulead to Showcase HD DVD Playback and Disc Authoring at HD DVD Seminar