&#91HOME ENTERTAINMENT&#93High-definition video comes to the amateur moviemaker

In the timeline of the television industry there’s the introduction of color televisions, VCR players, camcorders, DVD players and the rest of the digital revolution. Years from now, JVC just might be on that timeline for its high-definition digital video camera.
At the launching of “HD World,” held earlier this month at the Westin Chosen hotel in downtown Seoul, JVC unveiled the GR-HD1, which records and plays back digital high-definition images. The camera targets consumers, not broadcasters. Family videos may never be the same again.
But the “HD World” is more than a digital video camera. It is a trio of entertainment gadgets, all in the high-definition realm: high-definition digital camcorder, digital VHS recorders and high-definition playback monitors.

HD DIGITAL CAMCORDER
With the GR-HD1 video camera, digital enthusiasts can shoot, record and edit real ATSC-standard high-definition content. The camcorder comes with an editing software program, MPEG Edit Studio Pro LE, that allows content to be saved on a digital VHS or burned on a DVD.
The images can then be viewed on a variety of HD-compatible digital television sets, from plasma models to cathode-ray tube models to rear projection televisions. The camera uses a newly developed 1.18 million pixel progressive scan charge-coupled device integrated with JVC proprietary processing. The images are viewable at a resolution of 1,280 by 720 pixels. The camcorder costs 4 million won ($3,400).

DIGITAL VHS
Movies look great on DVDs, but that recording format is plagued by piracy issues. Enter JVC with a new recording format, digital VHS, based on an old format, VHS. Not only are videos on the D-VHS tape uncompressed, making the information too bulky to upload to the Internet, but the image quality is high, with up to 1,080 lines of vertical resolution.
JVC launched the D-VHS in Japan and the United States in 2001, and other companies soon followed. In the United States, four Hollywood studios, Fox, Universal, DreamWorks and Artisan, back this format.
In Korea, JVC launched HM-DH40000K, a digital VHS recorder, earlier this month. It is only available in Japan, the United States and Korea. According to Wired magazine, the D-VHS has twice the resolution of DVD and a high definition recording option that “could give DVD a major run for its money.” Cost is 1 million won.

HD TV
The newest digital televisions from JVC are the PD-42DX, the AV-36X1500, and the AV-32X1500.
All three use the company’s proprietary three-dimensional interpolating processing, called digital emotional technology. After converting 525 horizontal lines to 1,500 lines, the images are clearer. All three come as part as a home entertainment package. The units range in size from 32- to 42-inch screens and are priced from 1.9 million to 8.9 million won.

by Joe Yong-hee