Hitachi plans to develop Blu-ray recording video camera

Still waiting for 8cm disk to be finalised

3 October 2006 15:57 GMT / By Amber Maitland

A top manager at Hitachi has revealed that the company is developing a video camera with built-in Blu-ray burner, and hopes to have it ready in 1 to 2 years.

Hiroto Yamauchi, general manager of storage products marketing, told News.com that he has hopes it will be ready in as soon as 1 year.

The camcorder would have to use 8cm disks rather than convention 12cm ones; at the moment, Blu-ray developers are still figuring out the specifications for the smaller disks.

Smaller disks mean less storage, as an 8cm DVD holds 1.4GB versus the 4.7GB of a standard 12cm disk. An 8cm single-layer Blu-ray disk would likely hold around 7GB, and would hold quite a lot of high-definition footage, as 50GB disks are currently able to store 6 hours of high-def video.

Hitachi currently produces the best-selling camcorder in Japan, one capable of recording to the smaller DVDs.

Via Cnet News.com