Nokia promises HD video for cellphones

Permalink: Nokia promises HD video for cellphones by Jan Harris

Nokia’s Chief Technology Officer, Tero Ojanpera, has told Reuters news agency that he expects video recording on cellphones to reach high definition (HD) quality in just a couple of years time.

Nokia’s recently launched N95 cellphone is the first in its range to have the ability to record television quality video.

HD quality video could drive sales of multimedia phones at the expense of camcorder manufacturers such as Panasonic, Samsung and JVC.

A number of technical challenges will have to be overcome before HD video comes to the cellphone market.

Video is power-intensive and significantly shortens battery life. Increasing the video quality also affects the quality of the phone’s still camera.

The small screen size of a cell phone would not be suitable for viewing HD images, although the phone could be connected to an HDTV.

Broadcom, a US-based chip manufacturer has recently started shipping its new single chip decoder which enables HD quality video also on cellphones.