Main Menu
Login
News by Category
· Ask TechJapan
· Audio/Video
· Business
· Car AV
· Desktops
· Digital Cameras
· Gaming
· Handhelds
· Internet
· Mobile Phones
· Notebooks
· Other
· Peripherals
· Portable AV
· Product of the Week
· Rapid Reviews
· Robotics
· Saturday Statistics
· Site News
· Size Matters
· Software
· Storage
· The CRASH
· Toys
· Audio/Video
· Business
· Car AV
· Desktops
· Digital Cameras
· Gaming
· Handhelds
· Internet
· Mobile Phones
· Notebooks
· Other
· Peripherals
· Portable AV
· Product of the Week
· Rapid Reviews
· Robotics
· Saturday Statistics
· Site News
· Size Matters
· Software
· Storage
· The CRASH
· Toys
Theme from THEMES.crossworlds.ru
Portable AV: New Sony "Hi-MD PHOTO" walkman with camera and colour LCD
Posted on Mar 02, 2005 - 12:35 AM by sar7501
Email to a friend
| Print this article 
Posted on Mar 02, 2005 - 12:35 AM by sar7501
Email to a friend
| Print this article
Here's something we (well, me anyway) didn't see coming - a new Hi-MD Walkman from Sony with a built-in digital camera and support for a new "Hi-MD PHOTO" standard. The "MZ-DH10P" comes with a 1.3 megapixel CMOS digital camera, 1.5" LCD screen and, of course, support for MP3 playback. Shame about the price though.
The MZ-DH10P will be available in black, silver and red (Click to enlarge).
Sony will release the "MZ-DH10P" Hi-MD walkman with support for MP3 playback and the new "Hi-MD PHOTO" standard on 10 March. It will have no recommended retail price but is expected to retail for approximately 53,000 yen. It will be available in body colours of black, silver and red (Sony Style only).
The new Walkman has a 200x200 1.5" colour LCD and a 1.3MP effective resolution CMOS digital camera. In addition, while previous MD and Hi-MD Walkmans only supported the ATRAC3/ATRAC3plus audio codecs, the MZ-DH10P also supports MP3 playback.
The "SonicStage" audio jukebox software has been updated to version 3.0. Apart from MP3 support and GUI changes, other new functionality includes support for playlist registration, album art photo management and MP3CD creation.
To protect author's rights, music files (including MP3 files) must be transferred to Hi-MD using the SonicStage software and cannot be copied to another PC.
The MD and camera control buttons are mounted on the same side of the Walkman as the LCD display. The camera lens cover acts as a mode switch - open it and the Walkman switches to camera mode, close it and the Walkman switches to audio mode. The camera shutter release is mounted on the top surface of the Walkman.
LCD screen and controls (click to enlarge)
Supported audio codecs are ATRAC3/ATRAC3plus, MP3 and WAV. MP3 bitrates of 32kbps - 320 kbps are supported. Audio quality in Hi-MD mode has been refined using Sony's HD Digital Amp technology while DSP Type-S for ATRAC/ATRAC3 improves audio playback in MDLP mode. Although USB transfers are supported, the MD Walkman is not equipped with a recording function.
Several features have been added to SonicStage 3.0 to take advantage of the Walkman's colour LCD screen. In addition to being able to retrieve cover art for stored albums and search for albums by cover art, photos taken with the MZ-DH10P's digital camera can also be stored as album art. When the Walkman is in audio playback mode, JPEG images stored on Hi-MD can also be displayed as a slideshow. A stick remote-control supporting Kanji display is also included.
The digital camera has a 1/3.2" 1.3 megapixel CMOS sensor and the lens has a 35mm equivalent focal length of 36mm. It is equipped with a 4x digital zoom. The colour LCD screen acts as a viewfinder and is also used to review images in single-shot or thumbnail form. Four photo modes are available - 1.3MP Fine/Standard and VGA Fine/Standard.
Digital camera and lens cover/mode switch (click to enlarge)
With this new model, a new standard for recording photos on Hi-MD is also introduced - "Hi-MD PHOTO". The standard specifies that images be stored in the "DCF/EXIF" standard used by many digital cameras and also contains a thumbnail cache file. This allows the speed of thumbnail display to be increased and leads to improved ease-of-use for the image viewer function.
Apart from Hi-MD media, previous-generation MD media that has been Hi-MD formatted can also be used for recording. In VGA Standard mode, approximately 7200 images can be recorded to a Hi-MD disc (2100 images to an MD disc). As FAT is used for the Hi-MD file system, the Walkman is recognised as a USB storage device by a PC, allowing non-music files to be easily transferred to MD discs for data storage.
Power is supplied by a "LIP-4WM" lithium-ion battery which provides approximately 14 hours of continuous playback (Hi-LP/ATRAC3plus 64kbps). The external dimensions of the MZ-DH10P are 84.5 mm x 25.7 mm x 82.7 mm (W x H x D) and it weighs approximately 155 grams (including battery). An AC adapter and charging stand are also included.
Inspired by:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20050302/sony1.htm
News release (Japanese):
http://www.sony.jp/CorporateCruise/Press/200503/05-0302/
Product information (Japanese):
http://www.ecat.sony.co.jp/audio/walkman/products/index.cfm?PD=20299&KM=MZ-DH10P
Image gallery:
http://www.ecat.sony.co.jp/audio/walkman/products/image.cfm?PD=20299&KM=MZ-DH10P
Also in Portable AV: | Also in Sony: |
