For more information see: John Sokol's Resume

On Star Wars Episode 1, Phantom Menace, Lucas shot the equivalent of 1.2 million feet of 35mm film (or about 20,000 feet a day). This would have cost the production $684,000 just for the raw film stock alone. By comparison, Lucas only spent $15,000 for HD tape stock.
For Episode 1 they scanned over a million feet of 35mm film into the digital domain, so they could input it to their computers, making Episode 2,this step was skipped saving some $500,000.
During the shooting, they made true video clones of all the material each day. So they could produce a number of masters that were effectively indistinguishable from each other. This procedure dramatically reduced their negative insurance costs to the tune of about $125,000.

Additional information can be found in the article "Digital Cinema By George" published in the American Cinematographer magazine, September, 2001 page 66. Also in the article "Framing The Future" on page 76 in the same issue.
Filmmaker George Lucas has authored technological innovations feb18 2004, The HollyWood Reporter

Lucasfilm is now using Sony's New 4:4:4 High-Definition Recording System For Star Wars: Episode III, HDC-F950 HD camera and the SRW-5000 HDCAM SR VTR. The HDC-F950 captures uncompressed images at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 in 4:4:4 RGB
HDC-F950 brochure
Plus8Digital, the digital motion picture technology rental company with offices in Burbank, Calif., Vancouver and New York City, will supply the HDC-F950 camera and HDCAM SR equipment to Lucasfilm.
The HDC-F950 HD is a more advanced version of the HDW-F900 A significant system innovation is facilitated by a 3Gbps fiber optic link from the HDC-F950 camera head to the new HDCU-F950 camera control unit using the SMPTE 304M & SMPTE292M standardized composite fiber/copper cable system.

Common HD formats are :
SMPTE 274M 1920x1080

• 24/25/30 (1:1);
• 24/25/30 (PSF);
• 24/25 (1:1)/(PSF)-EM;
• 50/60 (2:1)

• 24/25/30/50/60(1:1)
• 24/25/30/50/60(1:1)-EM

Conventional Screens
Reflect all light, including a room's ambient light, making for a faded picture in a well-lit room

Sony's high-contrast screen
Reflects only red, green and blue light from teh projector, and absorbs ambient light

Other BlackScreen Technologies

Synelec Telecom Multimedia of France also make the LM 800 and LM 1000 black screen Rear-projection DLP Cubes

Lusoscreen from Portugal, can project images outdoors during daytime brightness levels.

CCTV DVR Video Technology Comming soon.

The 70 MegaPixel camera shoots a panoramic image. Internet visitors can view either the animated panorama (100 Kilobytes) or download a high resolution panorama from the database (5 Megabytes). The movie function allows to see panoramas over a day, a month or a year in a timeelapse view.

Founders: Peter and Werner Seitz

More info on the livecam at RoundShot Inc.

Addition info on Panoramas at:
Panoramas.dk features Full Screen Quicktime VR from the worlds best VR Photographers
The state-of-the-art in wide-field Imaging at CFHT Hawaii 340 megapixel camera

Portable Media Players

Archos Jukebox Multimedia was first release in 2002, since then there has been an explosion of player comming out. The AV320 video recorder has a 3.8" screen and supports MPEG-4 SP with MP3 stereo sound, near-DVD quality. Resolutions 352x288@30f/s, or 640x272@25f/s, up to 640x368@20f/s. AVI file format, reads XviD and DivX"* 4.0 & 5.0.

Archos 320 Archos AV340 with Dvr 100 Module can record in MPEG-4 SP NTSC / 304 X 224 @30 f/s and playback MPEG-4 SP with MP3 stereo sound, near-DVD quality. Resolutions 352x288@30f/s, or 640x272@25f/s, up to 640x368@20f/s. AVI file format, reads XviD and DivX"* 4.0 & 5.0. out to a TV. Also out is the Archos av380 with 80gig drive.
NEW

Audiovox 32 MB Portable Audio/Video Recorder/Player - PVR1000

RCA Lyra for around $400. supports MPEG-1 & MPEG 4

RCA Lyra Audio/Video 20GB Jukebox It has . 20GB hard drive . 3.5" backlit adjustable LED display . Handles other computer files like word processing, presentation, spreadsheets and JPEGS . MusicMatch music management software

Creative Labs NOMAD, Zen Portable Multimedia player that also supports plays Windows Media Video 7, 8 and 9.

Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra 40GB

Sony MSV-A1 2.5" LCD 560x220 resolution, MPEG4 $600

GoVideo PVP4040 Pocket Cinema Portable A/V Player with 3.5" LCD supports MPEG-4 audio/video, MP3, DivX 5.0, MPG, A/VI, MP4, DAT, WMV, ASF

Samsung Yepp YH-999 MP4 Player

IRiver PMC-100 play Windows Media Files 3.5" TFT Color Display

ZVUE Player

GameTrac Gizmondo has 2.8" Color Screen, MP3 Player, MP4 Video Player, Digital Camera, Bluetooth interface and Windows CE.

AVIAS MEC Station 6.5" LED Display 20 to 80Gig drive. Mpeg4, DivX, RMP, AVI, MPEG2 VOB, DVD and SVCD, MPEG1 QCIF to D1

And rumors of an iPod Movie Player. Jobs quashes iPod movie-player rumour on ZDNET

In addition many PDA's, SmartPhones (PDA Phones) and some camera Phones such as the Nokia 6600 and Siemens A700 can also play MPEG4 video. See last months article on the Nokia video.

ReplayTV, is a personal video recorder similar to the TiVo.

Roku’s initial product, the Roku HD1000, connects to any HDTV and provides a high-resolution canvas for digital media such as photos, art, music and other media applications. The company also introduced a new concept called LiveArt, which brings motion to still art.

The Roku HD1000 takes media from CompactFlash, SD/MMC, Memory Stick, SmartMedia and XD memory cards. It connects to a computer via built-in 10/100 Ethernet or wirelessly with a Wi-Fi adapter, and includes component, VGA, S-video and composite video out, for use with standard as well as high-definition TVs. Other connectors include component in, S-video in, composite in, RS-232, audio in and out, and digital audio out.

The Roku HD1000 connects to a computer via built-in 10/100 Ethernet or wirelessly with a Wi-Fi adapter, and includes component, VGA, S-video and composite video out, for use with standard as well as high-definition TVs.
Roku HD1000

Bigbruin

LeadTek TV2000

Skywire

videolan Streaming DVD's across a LAN

Hello Network Streaming Media Platform provides end-to-end software solutions for the delivery of live and on-demand video, audio, and data to any Java™-enabled device, including mobile phones, PDAs, PC Web browsers, and digital television set-top boxes - without the need for embedded chipsets, native implementations, PC media player installations, upgrades, or plug-ins. helloNetwork's product family comprises a true 'encode once, stream anywhere' philosophy for both wired and wireless delivery.