I noticed that on DV.com there was a post about a new version of XDCAM entitled XDCAM jnr that would record what seemed to be 25m/b HD and 50m/b HD using 1/2" CCDs with a retail for $20,000

Strangely that thread was deleted at some point between yesterday and today.

Could there be some truth in that leaked information? There was no obvious reason why the post should have been deleted. I wonder...

It has been mentioned previously that the logical step up from HDV is an XDCAM-like MPEG2-based HD. At this point it's pure speculation, but considering that Panasonic is going P2 for their prosumer HD, and that Sony has already pitched XDCAM as the competition to P2, the rumor makes sense.

Most likely that post was in violation of a Non-Disclosure Agreement, which is a binding legal contract. Whoever leaked it, that's one thing. But the venue into which it was leaked, in this case it's the message board you mentioned, that's a separate deal. NDA material is intellectual property. Word gets back to the rightful holder of that intellectual property, that their material has been posted on some message board somewhere. Now they can go after that board, tell them that information is not for public release, and have it taken down, under threat of legal action if need be.

Somebody who's under NDA may not take it seriously, and they might think, "I'll just post this anonymously, no one will know it's me." But the thing is, wherever that post is made, that venue becomes a target for legal action because now they're publishing information which is supposed to be protected by copyright. So they get a phone call or an email saying, "you need to take this down immediately." And if advertising dollars are at stake, it's taken down even quicker.

It's not censorship; it's responsible journalism.

Ah, Chris, that's the point though, and the reason I posted about it, that because it was taken down there must be some, or quite a bit of, truth to the information. As such it's a very interesting development.

Indeed, I saw it as well! The most interesting part was at the bottom, which said something like "Confidential Note: Do not release info prior to 2005 NAB press releases." Y'know, I could whip up some fake news, attach a confidentiality note to it, an "eyes only" sort of thing, make it look real and then post it somewhere... if it stays up it's one thing, but if it's taken down...

The fact it was pulled, does that make it legitimate? Real info that's not supposed to be seen yet? Or was it a fake piece that seemed so real, it psyched out that site's publishers and theyed pulled it down on their own, fearing imminent reprisal? Which kind of muddies the water regarding its validity, eh?

I don't know; I'm just speculating. It probably was real! Things will be interesting in April!

I remember in the early days of DV, one of the 'big' Firewire board makers (since gone, I think) built a whole fake product web site & then 'leaked' the link to it ... got the other makers in a panic with promises of timecode support & RT output -- things we didn't even know we could beg for back when the DPS Spark was the hot ticket.

Internet rumors are fun, but worth no more than the ether they are written on, me thinks.

Cheers,
GB