Sony is bringing to the market their first HD video-conferencing solution called the Ipela next month. It’s very expensive and targetted to the enterprise, but it’s really cool and probably one of the highest quality HD video-conferencing solutions out there with the LifeSize and Talk and Vision solutions. I asked the Sony representative when it would become possible to do HD video-conferencing using the Sony PS3 and probably something like a cheap sub-100-dollar 720p or 1080p webcam, but he didn’t have any exclusive informations to give about such consumer oriented HD video-conferencing solution yet. Sony probably doesn’t want to cannibalize their own new product category by releasing a cheap HD videoconferencing solution using the PS3. HD video-conferencing is totally awesome, the next best thing to being there with the other person. One day very soon hopefully we will all have direct HD video-conferencing connections to our families with a small HD webcam to put on our chea HDTVs.

Filmed using the Sanyo HD1000.

DivX HD 1280×720 3.5mbit/s: Play

Flash versions: Blip, Dailymotion, Google, Putfile, Revver, Sevenload, Sumo, Vsocial, Youtube

Totally awesome, the best screens in the world. Quad HD is completely insane quality. I heard from some CMO engineers once that the difference in manufacturing price from 720p to 1080p screens was about 20 dollars two years ago, what would the price difference be between a 1080p and a 2160p quad-HD screen? Perhaps is it just a different chip in there? So what if there isn’t any quad-HD content yet, that the bitrate required for quad-HD is four times the bitrate required for 1080p, getting a 8 megapixel digital still camera is cheap and once you see the 8 megapixel digital pictures on a quad HD screen, actually any picture taken that’s over 2 megapixel will thus show it’s full detail on a quad-HD screen for up to 8 megapixels. So imagine streaming some up-to-8megapixel slideshows, displaying 8MP scanns of paintings. Quad-HD is cool. The OLED screen was good to.

This video was filmed using the Sanyo HD1000.

DivX HD 1280×720 3.5mbit/s: Play

Flash versions: Blip, Dailymotion, Google, Putfile, Revver, Sevenload, Sumo, Vsocial, Youtube

Showing an testing the DXG DVH 566 HD, DVV 568 HD, DVV 581 HD, DVH 595 HD and DVS 567 HD.

DivX HD 1280×720 3.5mbit/s: Play

Flash versions: Blip, Dailymotion, Google, Putfile, Revver, Sevenload, Sumo, Vsocial, Youtube

In this 17 minute HD video, I review the Sanyo HD2 camcorder, which is the latest Mpeg4 H263 1280×720 6-9mbit/s camcorder from Sanyo, which was released globally within the last six months. Sanyo has announce the H264 1080i/720p60/720p30 successor called the HD1000 which I have shown in another interview with a representative at Sanyo Fisher Sales booth at IFA 2007 last week. Will Sanyo definately move away from encoding Mpeg4 H263 to exclusively encoding H264 in all of its future HD camcorders? That is to be seen. One of the specific useful features of the HD2, is that it records in the standard Mpeg4 format, which is recognizable by common editing and encoding software and thus might be a little easier to manage, also being easier to simply playback on any normal computer, the encoding algorithm also being easier for a CPU to decode. So my overall suggestion, although the HD1000 brings better optics, better low light recording, better resolution, better framerates and new features, the HD2 still stays a good camera, and which I recommend especially if you can find it at a sensibly lower price than the HD1000, for example at possibly 400-500€ within the next few months, it would be a good value for such very practical 720p Mpeg4 camcorder.

All the videos posted on this video-blog filmed at the IFA 2007 were filmed using the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2 camcorder: http://techvideoblog.com/ifa/?year=2007. Those videos are all released in 720p encoded in DivX which shows you well the approximate full quality that can be achieved using this camcorder to release 720p videos on the Internet.

DivX HD: Play, Download, Stage6

Flash versions: Google, Youtube, Revver, Vimeo, Vsocial

The first half of the video was filmed by Bogdan of http://digitaldreamsdesign.net

Set-top-box based on the latest Sigma Designs chips for accessing video-on-demand, functions as a full HD media extender with all codecs support including h264 support in the home, IPTV and more Linux based software can be made for it, and it can be bought in batches of 1000 starting at $100 each unit for the basic model and $10-20 more for the high end model that includes a HDMI output.

DivX HD: Play, Download, Stage6
(filmed with the Sanyo Xacti HD2 720p camcorder using its built-in microphone)

Flash versions:Blip, Dailymotion, Facebook, Google, Metacafe, Myspace, Photobucket, Putfile, Revver, Sevenload, Veoh, Vimeo, Vsocial, Yahoo, Youtube

Sanyo announced a new great looking ultra compact HD camcorder, the HD1000, that films in 1080i 12mbit/s, 720p60 12mbit/s and 720p30 9mbit/s. You can also download a 300mb sample shot in 1080i with the camera here below.

DivX HD: Play
(filmed with the Sanyo Xacti HD2 720p camcorder using its built-in microphone)

Flash versions: Blip, Dailymotion, Facebook, Google, Metacafe, Myspace, Photobucket, Putfile, Revver, Sevenload, Veoh, Vimeo, Vsocial, Yahoo, Youtube

Here is a link to download a 263mb sample recorded with this new Sanyo HD1000 30fps 1080i camcorder (which also has got a 60fps and 30fps 720p mode which I didn’t test yet): SANY0003.MP4 (The camcorder’s firmware still is being worked on by the engineers so this might not be the exact quality using the finalized production model that will be launched in October.) You can use QuicktimeAlternative with CoreAVC codec to playback this native 1080i H264 video file.

Sanyo is one of the leaders for 720p projectors with their Z3, Z4 and Z5. This is Sanyo’s first 1080p projector which features the latest 3LCD technologies for one of the best quality 1080p projections available, and this Z2000 will be available at a competitive price below 2790€.

DivX HD: Play, BitTorrent
(filmed with the Sanyo Xacti HD2 720p camcorder using its built-in microphone)

Flash versions: Blip, Dailymotion, Facebook, Google, Metacafe, Myspace, Photobucket, Putfile, Revver, Sevenload, Veoh, Vimeo, Vsocial, Yahoo, Youtube

DivX Inc. is launching a new platform that is called DivX Connected, demonstrated by this first beta testing model manufactured by D-Link. It’s a standard suitable for any device that has an Ethernet port and that can playback DivX. It makes it very easy and cheap to add the functionality of accessing any content from the PC, from the local network and from the Internet using a computer in the house as the host and real-time DivX encoder. So anything that your PC can run, will be available directly on your TV using the remote control. Even advanced AJAX, Flash, 3D games, Applications, whatever, can be added as Plugins to the DivX Connected platform rather easilly using a DivX Connected Plugins SDK. The price for DivX Connected devices could be below $100 soon, since currently DivX Certified DVD players cost $39, then they just need to add an Ethernet port to those boxes to provide the DivX Connected abillity. Which will include all VOD content, Stage6 DivX progressive downloading and instant seeking in progressively downloaded video over the Internet. It also can support up to 1080p video, and the hardware can upscale standard resolution DivX video to make it look better on HD screens.

DivX HD: Play, Download, Stage6
(filmed with the Sanyo Xacti HD2 720p camcorder using its built-in microphone)

Flash versions: Blip, Dailymotion, Facebook, Google, Metacafe, Myspace, Photobucket, Putfile, Sevenload, Veoh, Vimeo, Vsocial, Yahoo, Youtube

Mitsubishi-Electric decided to remove the upscaling mechanism in the HC4900 to make it the worlds cheapest 3LCD based 1080p projector to be released at below $2000. So if you have got a DVD player and set-top-box that already upscales decently to 1080p, you wouldn’t need to have a built-in upscaler in the projector even though Mitsubishi-Electric’s upscaler called HQV shows impressive video when I saw a demonstration last year of a Star Wars DVD which looked nearly as good as the HDDVD version when upscaled.

DivX HD: Play

Flash versions: Blip, Dailymotion, Facebook, Google, Metacafe, Myspace, Photobucket, Putfile, Revver, Sevenload, Veoh, Vimeo, Vsocial, Yahoo, Youtube

Samsung comes with a very impressive and very compact 720p HD camcorder, which records in 50fps H264 at 1280×720 progressive. This video interview was filmed using that camera at the booth onto one of my SD cards. I re-encoded that video from 50fps to 25fps using an unproven technique of using a server-side ffmpeg process, so that might explain some of the stuttering that there is in this DivX HD version, and it´s encoded in only one pass Mpeg4 720p just as every other of my IFA 2007 videos (while all the other videos are filmed using the Sanyo HD2). To view the full quality sample from that camcorder, you can download the sample recording below.

DivX HD: Play

Flash versions: Blip, Dailymotion, Facebook, Google, Metacafe, Myspace, Photobucket, Putfile, Revver, Veoh, Vimeo, Vsocial, Yahoo, Youtube

Here is a link to download a 700mb sample recorded with this new Samsung 50fps 720p camcorder:

http://charbax.videohost.eu/ifa2007/HDV_0074.MP4 (the .MP4 file that this Samsung HD camcorder produces is not a common h264 .mp4 file, VLC won´t play it easilly. At the Samsung booth, they told me a software that plays it is http://www.gomplayer.com/download.html)