Stoking the Blu-ray camcorder rumor mill

Hitachi's possible Blu-ray designs were shown under glass at last year's Ceatec show in Japan.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Based on a post on a Japanese Web site, Gizmodo has decided to put its rumor mill into high gear, speculating that Blu-ray camcorders will be available by the end of the year. Of course, news that Hitachi is working on a Blu-ray camcorder is nothing new. As CNET's News.com reported in October of last year, Hitachi showed mock-ups of some Blu-ray camcorder designs at the Japanese trade show Ceatec. At the time, the company said that it planned to have such a camcorder on the market in one to two years. Kazuto Shimagami, senior manager in the company's storage products division added, "I hope it is one year." If Shimagami gets his wish, then that would put the company on track to bring the technology to market before 2007 is out.

The designs showed then--the same ones pictured in Gizmodo's article and shown here--are based on 8cm Blu-ray discs. This would put a Blu-ray camcorder in line with DVD camcorders, which use 8cm discs rather than the larger versions used by home players and various video game consoles.

According to our contact at Hitachi's PR company, Hitachi hasn't set any official release dates for its Blu-ray camcorders. Given that, Gizmodo's post doesn't really add any new information, which makes it more of a distraction than anything else. In the electronics world, when a company talks about a product that will never make it to store shelves, we call it "vaporware." When Gizmodo posts items like this one, it comes across as nothing more than a vapor blog.

[richardkstorm]

Media hypocrisy

Please don't be such a hypocrite. Isn't Crave not full of smoke and mirrors, like CNET is? Are you going to tell us that you don't report sometimes on vapor stories, knowingly or by mistake? Are you going to tell us that you don't make errors? That you are not late to report news? That you snatch stories from both Gizmodo and Engadget without linking to them?

Who are you kidding?

FYI, Gizmodo also reported on those camera prototypes at CES, as did Engadget. Look in Google. They were there, on the field, beating you like they both always do. That's why they are number one and two. And yes, both Gizmodo and Engadget reported on the Hitachi camera article from Impress. Crave didn't. And?

What I find funny, however, is that you only mention Gizmodo, which apparently is now the number one tech blog in visits and pageviews after skyrocketing during the past few months, but you don't mention Engadget. What is that about?

Obviously, there must something else here you are not telling us.

Here are my thoughts on this article: When you start to approach the quality and promptness of both sites, when you only publish facts with no agenda behind, when you report always the first, then, and only then, you will have the luxury to write this kind of articles.

Sadly, that's not happening. It seems to me like you should walk the talk, instead of just talking too much.

[boone51]

You need a hobby...

I can't imagine why someone who doesn't work for Engaget or Gizmodo would take the time out of their day to write such a negative and truly pointless post. Get a life, man. Seriously

[Madinat]

what the hell is a vapor blog?

urbandictionary.com? a lil help here guys....