Mike's Rants and Raves
Illustration: Zach TrenholmHigh Definition Redux Now that HDTV is here, it's high time I start pushing the next big thing, don't you think? Ultra-high-definition video (UHDV), demonstrated by Japanese broadcasting company NHK, produces video at 7680 by 4320 pixels, for a total of about 33 million pixels per frame. That's up from about 2.2 million pixels in a typical HDTV picture; a minute of this stuff requires nearly 200GB of storage. If you've just purchased an HDTV set, don't panic. UHDV products aren't likely to emerge for decades.
Home Movies in HD? High-def is taking the TV world by storm; movies of your peeps and pets look like the next stop: Sony's HDR-FX1 camcorder captures them all in 1080i resolution. It's neither light (4.5 pounds) nor cheap ($3700), but it's sure to be a hit with war correspondents, documentarians, and struggling indie filmmakers. Remember, Sony introduced the first MiniDV camcorder in 1995, and the format was a standard by 2000. Could sub-$1000 HD-capable camcorders be coming soon?
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