DMN Interview: JVC’s Dave Walton
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DMN: Those extended definition displays are great for DVDs right now. It seems to me that until Blu-Ray completely comes on the scene with HD capability, a lot of times extended definition is just what the doctor ordered. If people want to watch a lot of DVDs and they can still get a good picture, even if it’s not true HD, it’ll do, wouldn’t you say so?
Walton: That’s exactly true. And the other thing that I think is important to point about our JY-HD10 – and a lot of people are doing this – you flip it to 480p/60 and you’re shooting in standard definition, albeit progressive, which is a knock-your-socks-off good-looking image in native 16x9, and the competition out there is still selling 4x3 cameras in that price category. You’re native 16x9; you’re filling the entire 16x9 images with discrete pixels. Now, we have enough pixels to do 1280x720, so when you just take a 720x480 of that, you’re now going to have a more zoomed-in image. So that’s one other application for the camera. But I would still go ahead and shoot my productions in the full high-definition mode, then burn my DVDs in standard definition from that material.
DMN: Aren’t some wedding videographers shooting in HD, and then outputting in standard definition and then archiving in HD so that later the people might have that as soon as they have the equipment to view it?
Walton: That is the concept that we’ve selling to the wedding videographers and others. This makes very good business sense because eventually that bride and groom will have an HDTV.
DMN: The material has good shelf life in HD.
Walton: Yes. The HD shelf life is a great additional selling point. Even if you don't post in HD, your masters will be in HD, and with the HDV format, using miniDV tapes is not that expensive. It’s not like D5 HD where you can spend hundreds of dollars on a cassette. We’re talking about a format where you can put an $8 cassette (less than that now), in your recorder and have an HD program. So why not shoot it in HD?
DMN: Does JVC have plans to get away from tape altogether in this category, say, maybe use solid state storage or one day maybe a Blu-Ray medium for storing this data instead of on tape?
Walton: That’s something that’s too early to talk about. All of the things you’re mentioning have been considered. I might point out that in the standard definition world, at NAB this year and last year, we have shown a very popular product in our line, a camcorder that records onto a hard disk, and it’s in a format that is native to the popular editing systems, so unlike some disk solutions where you have to then spool it into your editing system, you plug this disk into your editing system and it’s part of your editing system.
DMN: You gotta love that.
Walton: Oh, yeah, your clips are already there. You can begin editing immediately, as soon as you’re done shooting. You can even hot-swap, and so you can pull the disk out of the camcorder, plug another one in and plug this disk into an editing system, and begin doing your editing. This is a concept that we recognize as being very important. And the fact is, that DV system we have presently is recording at 25 megabits per second – hint, hint. There’s no reason why we wouldn’t be able to output the HDV material onto a system like that. Again, there are a lot of pieces that have to fit into the puzzle at the right time. But, it's not just a matter of waving the magic wand, although we’d sure love to do that.
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DMN: JVC is in the Blu-Ray camp, you’re not with those NEC/Toshiba people with the HD/DVD. Can you talk with us about Blu-Ray – what are the plans with it for JVC, and why is it better than HD/DVD?
Walton: I am not at all prepared to talk about Blu-Ray. Our chairman has made the statements publicly that JVC will offer Blu-Ray and it’s one of our priorities. But it’s too early to talk about anything we’re doing on the professional side with respect to Blu-Ray.
DMN: It just seems to be such a great way to store data, but like you’re saying, it’s too early, it’s off in the distance. I’m hearing some people saying we won’t see much from Blu-Ray until 2005. What’s your take on that? Is it way off, a year off, or are we going to see it pretty soon, do you think?
Walton: I really don’t know. I don’t have the answer to that. Timing is everything in this business, especially when it comes to formats, because formats are things that other companies have to invest in, and when a format idea comes along, it may be better, it may not be as good, but its success is really determined by its ability to deliver what it promises and what the market wants. And also, its timing.
DMN: And its price, too.
Walton: It has to deliver what the market wants, and one of those things is price.
DMN: I’m sure JVC could deliver a Blu-Ray camcorder right now, but it might cost $100,000. That’s not in line with what you said in the beginning, where you’re looking for a new market category for HD.
Walton: We are firmly committed to the prospect that HD needs to be affordable. And that is what’s driving our entire HDV initiative. We call it “HD for the Masses.” It’s affordable HD for everyone. We’d like to call it “HD Now.” It does come in stages. It doesn’t all come at once, because that’s the reality of being in the manufacturing business. But those points that I mentioned are not going away. This option of HD programming, this nonlinear growth rate of the HD displays, and the mandates from the FCC -- they’re going to drive this. It’s just going to happen.
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