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Hitachi is releasing a new high-definition camcorder this coming September to the US market - the DZ-BD10HA HD camcorder. What makes this new camcorder from all the other innovative camcorders released by Hitachi is that it lets users record HD videos using a Blu-ray Disc, hard drive or SDHC memory card.

Aside from its 3 format recording feature, the DZ-BD10HA also offers a slew of features including a 7 megapixel CMOS image sensor, fullHD (1920x1080) video recording, a built-in 30GB HDD, dubbing function that allows users to transfer video recorded on the its HDD or SDHC onto the BD drive with a single push of a button, rich video editing functions, face detection, an 8cm BD/DVD drive, and optical image stabilization.

The Hitachi DZ-BD10HA will be available in US sometime around September with a retail price of around $999. If you can’t wait that long to buy this camcorder, you may want to check out your friendly Japanese electronics store who are already selling the DZ-BD10HA camcorder as it was already released in Japan last a couple of days ago.

Read [Business Wire]

Hitachi has announced the new, full HD-capable DZ-BD10H camcorder for the Japanese market. This camcorder touts a built-in Blu-ray recorder as one of its major selling factors.  But in addition, it also comes equipped with a 7-megapixel 1/2.7 CMOS sensor complemented by a 10x optical zoom. It has a 2.7-inch LCD screen, a 30GB hard drive, HDMI output, face detection functionality and a much needed SD/SDHC slot for storage expansion.

When recording video, users can select from the following five modes of the DZ-BD10H; HX (1920 x 1080) at 15Mbps, HF at 11Mbps, HS at 7.5Mbps, SX at 9Mbps and the LF at 6Mpbs. We also learned that the DZ-BD10H is a the successor of the DZ-BD9H camcorder which was released early this year.

The DZ-BD10H will set you back around $1,480, no word yet on whether or not Hitachi plans to release this camcorder for the international market.

Via [Akihabara News]

Hitachi has announced the US availability of their UltraThin 1.5 displays. The UltraThin line-up will be available in 32, 37, 42 and 47-inch sizes and are available in two product lines. The Director X Series which will range in price from $1,999 up to $4,699 and comes with a 2-year warranty or the UltraVision V Series which ranges in price from $1,799 to $4,499 and comes with just a 1-year warranty. On both series the smaller 32-inch displays will offer a 1366 x 768 resolution, while the larger 37, 42 and 47-inch displays are offering a 1920 x 1080 resolution. Availability seems to range from April up till September of 2008.

Product [Hitachi] Via [Akihabara News]

Hitachi has launched nine new models for its Wooo HDTV series, of which six are LCD’s while the ramaining three are plasma TV’s.

The first three of the new LCD’s belong to the Wooo UT series and are available in a 32-inch model with a 1366 x 768 resolution and a 37 and 42-inch model, both of which have a 1920 x 1080 resolution. These three LCD’s are slim with just about a 1.38-inch thickness and are loaded with 250GB internal hard drive, iV port for iVDR HDD cartridges, compatible with DLNA, support HD video in 1080p, and have DeepColor and x.v. support. The three LCD’s in the Wooo UT series all come with an external box that holds a dual TV tuner.

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With all the concern for being thin that has beset our modern world, the craze for “reduction of size” has infiltrated the world of technology as well. Enter Hitachi at CES 2008 and its spanking new ultra-thin, Plasma HDTV!

The Hitachi plasma display model (PDP) is 50 inches in screen size yet only a mere 1.5-inches in depth. This marks the third Hitachi ultra-thin product to show its skinny face at CES; the other two being the ultra-thin LCD HDTV and its super thin concept LED-backlit ¾-inch LCDS. Although thin LCDs have been around for a while, the plasma display is exciting and makes Hitachi among the first demonstrators to display one.

More than 1/3 of the thickness usually associated with today’s plasma displays has been shaved in this newest creation and this product represents a very important engineering achievement from Hitachi, a company that is very secretive and highly competitive. The innovative technology behind the creation of this ultra thin plasma HDTV, which will be the centerpiece of Hitachi’s Innovation Showcase at CES, is top secret and hush-hush.

Via [New Launches]

You may have to look very carefully at CES for the new Hitachi LCD and Plasma TV’s, as they are only 1.5” thick. Actually it wont be too hard to spot them as they come in a 32”, 37” and 42” models, with Full HD Resolution (1920x1080p) and a viewing angle of 178 degrees.

The new Ultra Thin Displays will be available as HDTV Monitors in the Director’s Series and V Series, with 1 HDMI (1.3) and 1 RGB D-Sub15 input with audio input. The S series will consist of the HDTV Monitor plus a separate Audio Video Center that includes an ATSC/NTSC tuner, 3HDMI(1.3) and 2 Component inputs.

They should be available early in 2008. While you are keeping your eyes peeled for them you may want to keep an eye out for the “new “super” ultra thin LCD at just .75 inches in depth, now that could be hard to spot!

Via [Pocket Lint]

Didn’t believe us that Hitachi actually released a 1 Terabyte, 1,000 GB hard drive for your computer (actually 1024 GB but we round)? We’ll here’s your proof. Enjoy calculating how many songs, pictures, videos, documents, and p0rn—we know you were thinking it.

More than ever before, hard drive technology is being adopted by gadget manufacturers to cater to the ever-increasing need for multimedia storage on personal devices.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has developed a new storage management system called Audio-Visual Storage Manager (AVSM) for managing the multimedia files in digital video recording devices including set-top boxes (STBs) that utilize hard disk drives.

Hitachi’s latest software is designed to seamlessly manage the mix of high-definition video streaming and file operations including electronic program guides or background IPTV downloads.

AVSM technology reduces duty cycle by up to 60 percent and eliminates disk fragmentation, helping to extend the life of the hard drive and the host system, which in turn maximizes performance and durability of the HDD in STB/DVR applications.

The combination of a streaming file system and sophisticated I/O scheduler in AVSM technology enables hard drives to work “smarter.” It handles the multiple HDTV streams present in multi-room households and optimizes task scheduling to help maximize HDD performance.

Simply put, AVSM technology promotes:

Exceptional hard drive reliability and longer STB service life by lowering hard disk drive duty cycle and protecting file system integrity;
Improved QoS and highly-predictable performance in multi-stream STB applications through reduction of file system fragmentation and related performance degradation;
Easy integration with multi-vendor support, minimal system footprint and no additional hardware resource requirement on the STB.
The ability to manage up to 14 HDTV (19.3Mb/s) streams from one 3.5-inch HDD.

Read [Hitachi] via [BusinessWire]

With the era of high definition upon us, storage media has become a more important part of our lives. All those high definition movies, music, and photos suddenly take up so much of our hard-drives that you might need Gigabytes and Gigabytes of storage just for keeping a couple of hi-def movies on hand.

Enter Hitachi, who at CES2007 showcases the world’s first TeraByte consumer hard-drive. The Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 will be in a 3.5” standard desktop form factor, running at 7200 rpm with a 32 MB buffer, available in Serial ATA/Parallel ATA interfaces and will be priced at about 40c/Mb at USD $399. It will be released sometime in the first quarter of 2007. In addition, it’ll also be available in a 750 GB version.

Also being announced at the same time is the Hitachi Cinemastar, which will be specifically optimized for DVR (Digital Video Recording) purposes. There’s little detail about the Cinemastar, except that it will be available in the second quarter of 2007.

Read [CES 2007 Business Wire Press Release] Via [Sci Fi Tech]

It all started with Dell. Mid August 2006, Dell finally announced that it will be re-calling 4.1 million lithium-ion batteries supplied by Sony, said to be “the largest safety recall in the history”. What followed after that move by Dell were beyond my wildest imagination even though any Tom Dick and Harry would have expected it but never really thought to be of this magnitude.

Apple, Toshiba, Lenovo/IBM, Fujitsu and Hitachi were also forced to join the party they wish their names were not on the invitation list. Poor Sony, just late Thursday announced that it would be recalling a total of 9.6 million batteries worldwide, 90,000 of which are for its Vaio batteries. The exercise so far has cost the Japanese giant total of ¥51 billion ($429 million) from July to September.

But the worst is not over. The Associated Press reports: “Sony spokesman Takashi Uehara said the 51 billion yen figure doesn’t include ‘provisions for possible lawsuits’,” speaking of which high-tech giants Toshiba and Fujitsu are considering demanding compensation from Sony over the fiasco. I am sure this is a party Apple, Toshiba, Lenovo/IBM would love their names to be on the invitation list. Anyone else wants to join the party?

Read [Australian IT]