Frederic:

That's generally true, and Sony's XDCAM is an excellent example; shown first at NAB last April, but it's still not available. However, there are a lot of products that are announced at or before NAB that become available in the channel either right after NAB or within 60-90 days.

I've found that manufacturers don't announce products too early if they're going to cannibalize their existing product line (the Osborne effect). If they don't think that they can ship by the end of the summer, they hold the product announcement for IBC in September. For example, the XDCAM was shown at NAB as a technology preview with no announced availability date, and it didn't impact sales of Sony's other products. It was "productized" at IBC, and it will likely ship in the next 60 days.

There are always exceptions, like Play's Trinity, which was shown at conferences for three years before it actually shipped, but by and large, companies that show working prototypes at NAB expect to be shipping no later than September.

Best wishes,
Len Feldman
Riverbend Entertainment

That' why
 

Panny came out with this camera so soon - everyone is already getting their HD stuff ready. The pdx100a has about a 6 month shelf life.

Not too sure about that! I'd say not until HD-DVD comes out. Sure you can shoot HD, but how are you going to distribute it? D-VHS? Windows Media 9? There just aren't any viable consumer HD distributable medium out there. So HD, although available on cable and satellite by broadcasters, is not yet a reality for those of us who rely on DVD (and God forbid, VHS) to distribute our content. SD/DV will still be here for the next couple of years. I'm not saying that HD does not have it's place, far from it. I'm just saying that SD is far from dead. Just remember that 480p is one of the ATSC standards for distributable HD... something to think about.

Wouldn't a regular DVD created from HD source look better than a regular DVD created from SD source? Assuming all the other factors like lenses/lighting/etc. (cost - ha!) are held constant.

Depends on the camera, but yes, of course it would. Even with the little HD1 camera, the image retains an incredible amount of sharpness and detail after downsizing to DVD. I don't care for the rest of the image, I think the DVX does a much better job with latitude, saturation, color rendition, motion, all other factors -- but the sharpness is retained.

I am eagerly awaiting the next HDV camera.

Adam Wilt's First Look at DVX100A
 

Alright...here you go: Adam Wilt's first-look at the DVX100A over at dv.com:

http://www.dv.com/features/features_...equestid=28488

Thanks John. This is a great pre-review.

Frame Grabs at http://www.adamwilt.com/24p/
 

Get your frame grabs here.