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I found this very interesting new 720p SD-memory based camcorder today.

More info: http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=93488
http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=95227
http://forums.steves-digicams.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=569962

Here are some native 720p .mov video samples taken with this camera: 1 (38mb), 2 (246mb), 3 (12mb), 4 (9mb), 5 (14mb) - If I’d have the camcorder to test, I’d film some people, do some handheld interviews outdoors instead of just filming cows, ducks, buildings and trees like in these samples.

What I find about this camcorder to be superior than Sony and Panasonic’s expensive AVCHD offerings, as well as interesting compared to Canons and Sanyo’s HD camcorders:

- It records 720p which I find to be better than 1080i, I haven’t seen any Sony, Panasonic, Canon camcorders be able to do 720p

- It records to about 4mbit/s, yes I find this low bitrate very convenient, in theory h264 720p should not use more than 4mbit/s for full quality, that depends only on the performance of the h264 encoding chip, the encoding chip of this one might not be the best but the bitrate is the one I’m targeting for, especially since I would like to be able to upload my HD videos on the Internet directly without conversion. This bitrate also provides 1 hour per 2 GB of the SD card capacity.

- It records to the .mov container using H264, and I don’t know which audio codec, hopefully it is not ADPCM but AAC. I would currently prefer a camcorder like this one to record directly to 720p DivX with Mp3 audioin the .avi container, since that is what I use on my video-blogs, and I think that the .avi container is more compatible with people’s current PC/Mac/Linux setups as well as DivX 720p playback requires less processing power to playback smoothly. H264 only improves quality about 5-10% over DivX at 720p according to some sources I have heard, so I don’t think that h264 really is absolutely needed. Hopefully that current Blueray, HDDVD, PS3 and other devices can support DivX 720p in the .avi container natively, so this isn’t about having a container standard monopoly.

- Price, 249$ is very disrupting I think for a HD camcorder price, even based on SD memory, which you can buy a 8GB capacity for 70$, have a couple of these and transport a portable multimedia player on the move with up to 160GB if you need to empty on of your SD cards with up to 4 houres of footage on 8GB SD while filming with your other SD card.

What seems to be unperfect about this product according to the samples I have seen on the above links:

- There seems to be somekind of Shutter, frame-rate, image stabilization kind of problem, since pans and handheld shots look quite bad.

- Auto-focus seems to be slow

- Zoom is noisy

Anyways, I will try to soon test this camcorder, especially post some shots of people and not only cows, ducks and dogs as the available samples currently are about. I think that this Aiptek Z300HD is very promizing of the upcomming lots of 720p HD camcorders that are gonna be available. This must mean that now there is a cheap DSP solution to use in SD, HDD and other camcorder solutions. So what I hope to see in the next few months, is one cheap camcorder like this with a slight better optics concerning image stabillization shutter smoothness of video framrate or whatever is wrong with this one concerning image quality, and I hope also to very soon see a DivX HD compliant camcorder, 720p 4mbit/s with 160kbit/s Mp3 stereo sound I think would be the greatest. And also I hope that camcorder manufacturers are thinking of adding Wi-Fi, usb-host to plug-in an external hard disc that takes the power from the usb-host connection, also a usb-host that works with an external keyboard, so that one can edit filenames, description and titles when uploading with the camcorder directly onto FTP servers and a 1-click solution to update ones HD video-blog. If a Wi-Fi solution can work to also synch with other camcorders through a portable editor to do a multi camera production and to also stream live the 4mbit/s stream by uploading that through Wi-Fi, thus being able to broadcast 4mbit/s video live.

Also, I hope that this DSP chip is great at encoding at this 4mbit/s using very intelligent variable bitrate algorithm, automatically detecting the action and adjusting more or less bitrate in realtime while recording.

I have launched a video-blog for OLPC XO video news at: http://olpc.tv

The OLPC XO is the laptop computer on the right, while the computer on the left is an old fashion bloated Intel or AMD-based computer running old fashioned and bloated Red Hat Linux OS (better than Microsoft software though). This picture is posted by Christoffer Blizzard.

- OLPC XO consumes much less power than old fashioned Intel/Microsoft laptop computers. Probably something like… 10 times less power.

- OLPC XO has a better, higher resolution and sunlight readable screen, much better than traditionnal LCDs on Intel/Microsoft computers.

- OLPC XO is ten times cheaper than Intel/Microsoft computers.

- OLPC XO comes with faster bootup, faster Linux OS, more optimized open-source OS and applications unlike Intel/Microsoft computers that forces Windows XP and proprietary software on us all.

- OLPC XO has developped a power-saving way of shutting down the AMD Geode processor and storing screen informations in a buffer most of the time, when the CPU is not required, a thing Intel/Microsoft computers do not have with their traditionnal Intel CPUs.

- OLPC XO comes with revolutionnary Wi-Fi Mesh chip that has its own processor, consuming less than 0.5 watts, maybe even as low as 0.2 watts to be running 24 hours a day for 5-6 days before recharge, constantly being able to forward packets for other OLPC XO or other Wi-Fi Mesh appliances. Something Intel/Microsoft computers provide non of. Intel/Microsoft computers consume lots of power having to run the main CPU all the time even when it is not needed. On a Intel/Microsoft computer, to use any Wi-Fi application, the main CPU has got to run, and sometimes also the LCD, making the Intel/Microsoft computers useless to use it as always-on VOIP devices, waking up on incomming VOIP/IM/Email/RSS or other incomming packets.

What happened since this computer revolution is underway? My theory is that some rich companies together with Nicholas Negroponte’s team at the MIT have finally decided to invest in ending the bloated Intel/Microsoft, also called Wintel monopoly. One based on forcing bloated software onto the public, bloated software requiring expensive supercomputers costing a 1000$ or more just to run basic applications. Of which 95% of normal computer users only need to browse the Internet together with some other basic features like Internet telephony, Internet messaging, Email notifications and Multimedia playback, all of which does not require expensive supercomputers to run at standard resolutions.

What will happen I think in the very near future, thanks partly to the amazing OLPC XO project, is that suddently very cheap computers will be replacing the traditionnal Intel/Microsoft platforms, I am in fact hoping that I can soon replace my year-old 2200$ Acer laptop computer running Windows XP on a dual-core Intel processor, that I will be able to replace it with a much better performing 300$ Linux computer, having optimized processing power for basic applications that I use like browsing/VOIP/IM/Email, and I will need to have the optimized HD video DSP co-processor, a removable iVDR slot for inserting any 2.5″ hard drive up to 200GB, with Wi-Fi Mesh, HSDPA and WiMax modules.

Who among Google, IBM or Dell are first going to be mass-producing optimized and commercial Linux solutions inspired by the innovations provided by the OLPC XO project? I think that they must all be hard at work on it, and we will see the transition in our society very soon from Intel/Microsoft platforms to Optimized-low-power-CPU with optionnal cheap and low-power DSP co-processor for HD video processing running free and open-source Linux software.

It is amazing how this Intel prototype is a copy of the concept of the One Laptop Per Child project. Though this runs Windows XP so it will be more expensive, rumors say its gonna be over 300$, battery, weight and other will suffer. Supposedly, Intel representatives claim, lots of educationnal software already exists for Windows XP, so it makes less sence to start developping education software on a new OS. And also the representative talks about why Intel does not make a cheaper laptop running the Intel Xscale type of processor.

Google Video (13m33s) Stream Download Page

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Accenture Labs spokesperson shows some big touch-screen system..

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Accenture Labs spokesperson demonstrate a vest that monitors several things and that can be connected in realtime with the doctors IT system.

Google Video (6m26s) Stream Download Page

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IBM spokesperson shows the new Nokia e61, which looks like a Blackberry, and which can go on WiFi hotpots to do SIP voice over IP phone calls.

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This is a review of the worlds first Windows CE PDA with a harddrive. A 440€ device which I found in early November 2005 on the electronics market in Beijing. It’s a Windows CE 4.2 PDA with a 20GB built-in harddrive and a function to switch to PMP mode which playsback Mpeg4-1-2 as well as is a Nintendo NES emulator. This is in my opinion the first attempt of a competition for the Archos PMA430 device which I talk more about on my website http://archosfans.com..
credits: Camera: Zhang June, Business man 1: Liu Song Bin, Business man 2: Song Bo Wen, Business man 3: Li Fulong, Music: Charbax

DivX HD: Play - Download (107mb)
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San Hao Jie street is an awesome computer and consumer electronics market, bigger and better even than the computer market in Beijing and Shanghai, because the prices are lower and the products are more diversified. I have spent many days at the computer market just looking at the awesome equipment. In this video I buy a wide-angle lense for my high definition camera.

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