VIDEO looks set to become a battleground for standards again. Previous rows have been about tape formats, but this time the argument will be over two entirely different ways of storing information.
The competing proposals have emerged from rival Japanese electronics companies. NEC has developed a video player that uses memory chips instead of tape, while JVC will soon start selling a video camera no larger than a compact still camera, which uses miniature digital cassettes.
Byte for byte, memory chips currently cost thousands of times as much as tape. But NEC believes its solid-state system, which it is calling Silicon View, will become cost-effective within five years, by which time factories which the company is now building will be mass-producing gigabit memory chips.
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Silicon View plays back pictures from a solid-state memory card similar to those used in portable computers. This eliminates the problems of skipping, distortion or broken tape, says NEC.
NEC鈥檚 system relies on the MPEG digital compression scheme, which is currently used to store video on compact discs. MPEG鈥檚 data rate for VHS-quality pictures is 1.4 megabits per second. So 10 megabytes of memory are needed for each minute of movie material. Computer memory currently costs around 拢35 per megabyte, so storage for a minute鈥檚 worth of video on Silicon View would cost over 拢300 at today鈥檚 prices 鈥� or more than 拢20 000 for an hour.
So far NEC is using only a 40-megabyte card to store four minutes鈥� worth of data. In the future, the company is hoping to gang five 1-gigabit memory chips together to store an hour of video.
JVC, which invented the analogue VHS video system, is sticking with tape, although it is adopting a digital format. JVC鈥檚 GR-DV1 camcorder follows the standard agreed by 55 manufacturers and uses a cassette of 6.35-mlllimetre tape that can store an hour of video. The cassettes are the size of a small matchbox, and will cost around 拢10. The pocket-sized camcorder will cost around 拢1750 when it goes on sale in Japan in December.
