Consumer-grade high-definition digital camcorders are starting to come out (the first, the GR-HD1 from JVC, hit the market recently), and Sony, Canon, JVC, and Sharp are jointly developing a common standard for the format that all manufacturers could use. I suppose this should help prevent the proliferation of lots of different, competing standards for consumer HD camcorders, but isn’t there already accepted standards for HDTV? Why would there need to be a separate standard for consumer camcorders?
UPDATE: Reader Matthew Smillie writes in with an explanation:
The reason is that HDTV is a broadcast standard, not a recording standard. A common recording standard would allow tapes recorded on one manufacturer’s equipment to be played back on another’s.
Thanks!
