We’ve added a Panasonic DVCPRO-HD Deck. The AJ-HD1400PJ deck allows us to playback DVCPRO 25, 50, and 100 (HD) content. The deck also allows us to record DVCPRO-HD content to tape as well.
Along with the DVCPRO HD deck, we’ve also added Blu-Ray and HD-DVD authoring and duplication services. Although the “Format War” is still on, we’ve opted to be format ambidextrous and provide support for both High Definition disc formats.
While the HD Disc formats are not quite ready for full scale distribution, they have their specific uses. Tradeshow video and lobby video’s on plasmas or LCD’s are a perfect place for HD. Standard definition video on those HD plasma’s and LCD’s just don’t do the displays justice.
The HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats both have their plusses and minuses.
On the Blu-Ray side, not all Blu-Ray players on the market will play Blu-Ray recordable discs (BD-R). We’ve had playback success with BD-R discs we have authored in the Panasonic DMP-BD10A player ($599 Amazon.com). Interesting to note, the Panasonic player that would play BD-R media, would not play Recordable DVD media (DVD-R). On the plus side, the BD-R discs hold 25GB of data - plenty of room for over 2 hours of 720P HD Content on a recordable disc.
On the HD-DVD side, HD-DVD recordable is playable on all HD-DVD players on the market currently. No guessing on weather a disc will play or not. The one drawback on the HD-DVD, currently the recordable media has a capacity for only 60 minutes of content, however most corporate content is under 60 minutes.
