Prototype Hitachi Camcorder Streams HD Video to HDTV – No Wires Involved

The CEATEC show in Japan is in full swing as we speak, and even if the number of actual product announcements is lower than in the case of CEDIA or IFA, we're seeing a lot more interesting and highly innovative prototypes take central stage. And one such innovation comes from Hitachi, who's showcasing a camcorder capable of streaming HD video to a high-definition TV set without actually using any wire.

According to a report by Naoki Asakawa for Nikkei Electronics (TechOn), Hitachi's camcorder can stream HD video on a TV via a wireless LAN network. The video feed is compressed in the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format through an SDIO standard IEEE802.11g module and is broadcast to the TV via a wireless access point.

In order to stream the video stored onto the camcorder's HDD, Hitachi has incorporated a DLNA server into the camcorder itself. However, this means that only DLNA-supporting TV sets will be able to receive the signals. Additionally, users can take advantage of various playback functions (video selection, playback, stop, etc.) by using directly the TV's remote control.

Furthermore, for live video, the device sports a built-in IPTV server, which compresses the video in real time and then sends it to the HDTV (once again, the “target” TV must be compliant with the IPTV standard). And since most of Hitachi's latest-gen PDPs or LCDs are compliant with the aforementioned standards, they'll most likely be the first compatible ones as well.

Since this is a prototype, there's no word on the exact moment the first products to offer such features will actually arrive in stores, but given the fact that the “wireless” issue has become an extremely important one nowadays, we could might actually see them as early as next year's end (or perhaps at some point in early 2010).


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