IFA 2006: Hitachi shows off Full HD Plasma and Hybrid DVD and HDD Camcorder

Company has plenty of world firsts on show

3 September 2006 15:31 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Hitachi has shown off a wide range of new products at IFA 2006 in Germany with the announcement of new HD ready televisions, the world's first hybrid DVD and HDD camcorder and a new home cinema projector.

Taking centre stage was Hitachi's 42-inch ALIS 1080 Plasma panel - the world’s first plasma screen to offer Full HD 1024 x 1080 High Definition resolution and the flagship of the company's Picture Master 9000 and 8000 Series. The 9000 Series will come in 55-inch and 42-inch Plasma and 37-inch and 32-inch LCD formats that offer twin HDMI connectivity, integrated digital card readers, and a powered swivel base.

Hitachi also unveiled the world’s only Hybrid DVD and HDD Camcorder. Taking the concept a step further than JVC with its hard drive only based camcorder the new device will, according to Hitachi, allow users will now be able to shoot for hours, edit in minutes, and share in seconds - all from the camcorder without connecting to a PC or additional DVD burning hardware.

The 8GB HDD Hybrid camcorder is available in two specifications - the DZ-HS303 which boasts a 3.3 megapixel CCD and the DZ-HS301 which offers 1.3 megapixels. Both models are compatible with most standard DVD formats.

Hitachi also showed off its latest range of Memory Master HDD/DVD Recorders. The DV-DS163E (160GB hard disc drive) and DV-DS253E (250GB hard disc drive) both accept all main DVD formats and use HDMI with video up scaling to 1080i to deliver sharp and precise image and audio quality. Although not available for sale as yet, the company also showed a PVR with a whopping 1000Gb of storage, roughly 12.5 times that of the standard Sky Plus box.

Other new products on display included the "Piano-Black" 16:9 PJ-TX300 projector that offers HD capability, a whisper quiet fan and 10000:1 contrast ratio.