Come March 2006, Sony will release the XDCAM HD camcorder which will support the recording of high definition footage directly to a Blu-ray disc. The new XDCAM HD camcorder will record at 1080i in a variety of bit-rates: 25 Mbps, 35 Mbps and 18 Mbps.

While most high-end camcorders record to tape, Sony took a different route for the XDCAM. Footage is captured and then stored onto the disc in MPEG-2 format. The disc is rewritable and allows for fast transfers to a harddrive and easy search of clips. Unlike tape, a video producer can skip to a clip shot in the middle of a shoot - tape users have to rewind or fast-forward to a clip.

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