Hitachi UltraVision DZMV730A DVD Camcorder - Press Release

[Photo-John]

Hitachi Introduces New DVD Camcorder With Sleek Design and Range of Technical Enhancements at Affordable Price

Hitachi DZMV730A Responds to Diverse Needs of Savvy but Cost-Conscious Consumers

The Home Electronics Division of Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), www.hitachi.us/tv, today introduced the new UltraVision(R) DZMV730A DVD Camcorder, the latest model in Hitachi's fifth generation product line-up that offers sleek and compact styling, the latest engineering innovations, and a great price for cost-conscious consumers.

At a retail cost of $499.99, the DZMV730A features a host of improvements, including the new Hitachi Image Engine that provides a 20 percent improvement in video noise reduction and 20 percent longer battery life. The Hitachi Image Engine is comprised of the camcorder lens and LSI circuitry as well as the DVD optical drive. Compared to previous generations, the new DVD drive has reduced the product size by 15 percent and a bare DVD load creates a sleeker, more compact design overall. In addition, the camcorder features an SD(TM) or MMC(TM) memory card to make sharing still photos even easier with other electronic devices, such as photo printers, digital print stations and SD-compatible PCs, TVs and DVD recorders. The DZMV730A also features a dedicated photo button for ease of use as well as a Quick Start functionality that allows for recording to begin seconds after power-on, an improvement of more than 50 percent over previous generation DVD Camcorders.

"Hitachi pioneered the first DVD Camcorder, anticipating the market trends and the needs of our customers," said Jeff Fochtman, product manager for Hitachi America, Ltd., Home Electronics Division. "We continue that dedication to users by constantly improving our products based on their feedback and the latest engineering innovations. Five years of refinement of DVD Camcorder engineering has allowed Hitachi to offer the DZMV730A at an incredible value. Consumers looking for the latest in camcorder technology now have a more cost-efficient solution."

Big Features, Low Price

The DZMV730A offers users a 16x9 widescreen recording for DVD-R and DVD-RAM formats as well as extensive in-camera editing capabilities on DVD-RAM recordings. Using the Hitachi Disc Navigation feature, each movie clip or still photo is presented as a thumbnail image on the LCD panel, which can be selected for instant playback. The sophisticated system allows users to fade, move, divide, delete and combine clips without the need for a computer, and also create up to 99 playlists for custom playback of movie clips. For the ultimate in convenience, the user can take a DVD-RAM or DVD-R disc directly out of the Hitachi DVD camcorder and play it back in select Hitachi DVD players/recorders.

Additionally, the DZMV730A camcorder utilizes high-quality and high-efficiency MPEG2 video recording technology. Users can select between increased recording quality or extended recording time. When using a DVD-RAM disc, the camcorder utilizes either variable bit rate (VBR) or constant bit rate (CBR) recording formats. With a double-sided DVD-RAM disc inserted, the camcorders record nearly 40 minutes of video in extra-fine mode (640x480, 3-6Mbps VBR), 60 minutes in fine mode (640x480, 6Mbps CBR) or 120 minutes in standard mode (352x480, 3Mbps CBR). A double-sided DVD-RAM disc can also hold 1,998 still images recorded at high (640x480) resolution.

Users can also record digital still photos directly to the DVD-RAM disc or to a SD or MMC removable memory card. Depending on the compression and the selected resolution, the camcorder can record 220-880 JPEG images on a 32MB memory card or 45-190 on 8MB of memory.

The DZMV730A features a 680k pixel 1/6-inch CCD and 16x optical zoom lens with 240x digital zoom capability. The unit's 2.5-inch 200K pixel color LCD monitor also works as light for "0 Lux" operation, a new feature for this product generation. Other features include an Electronic Image Stabilizer for video, a Hitachi exclusive Quick Mode simple menu for easy navigation, six-mode auto exposure, auto and manual white balance, and full auto and manual focus.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitachi.com/

[Gurkhaman]

Hi! I wonder if you or anyone else can help me with my problem.

On my recent trip to the USA, I bought this exact model camcorder. The salesman told me that any DVD player or newish pc's DVD drive would play the recorded mini DVD disc in the UK and that I would be able to copy it on a DVD disc. I used a Maxell DVD-Ram mini disc (as recommended by Hitachi) to record our time in America. When I got back home and tried to play the disc, nothing happened. Neither my DVD player nor the DVD drive of my pc seems to recognise this disc.

The drive on my pc is: _NEC DVD_RW ND_2500A, Device Type: DVD+RW/DVD-RW.

Am I doing something wrong? Do I need a drive that is multi/dual format and that also supports 8cm and 12 cm discs? Or does the camcorder itself need to be modified/converted for use in the UK? Or is this camcorder just for playback on TV only?

I have e-mailed Hitachi regarding this matter but,so far, I have not received any response.

All advice will be appreciated very much. Thanks.

[Photo-John]

I don't have an answer for you as I don't know much about digital video. But I wanted to point out that we have a digital video forum. You're not likely to get much help on the News and Rumors forum. I do know that there are different DVD standards for the US and most of the rest of the world. My guess is that's where your problem lies. You probably need to convert your files to whatever standard is used in the UK.

Here's a link to the digital video forum: http://forums.photographyreview.com/...splay.php?f=28

Hope that helps a little. And I hope you get it figured out. It would be terrible to lose all of your vacation videos. I'm sure there's a solution.

[Gurkhaman]

My apologies for posting in the wrong forum and thank you very much for pointing me towards the right one. I have posted my problem query there and dearly hope that someone out there will have an appropriate solution for me.

Your helpful response is appreciated.