XDCAM is a professional disc-based recording system with a storage capacity of either 23gb or 50gb Dual layer depending upon the camcorder model. It is available in Standard Definition (SD) or High Definition (HD).Standard Definition XDCAM Camcorders are available in either DVCAM resolution or MPEG IMX/DVCAM switchable resolution.
Dual XDCAM Design
The two designs can offer a recording time of 85 mins in DVCAM quality or 45 mins in MPEG IMX quality, depending upon the model. XDCAM HD records 1080-line high-definition video (1440 x 1080 Pixels) using the "MPEG HD" codec that uses the industry standard MPEG-2 compression with 4:2:0 sampling. Users can select desired bit rates depending upon their requirements for picture quality and recording length . And by using the latest 50GB Dual Layer Professional Disc, recording times are increased to more than 3 hours when shooting DVCAM, and to around 2.5 hours when shooting high quality HD
Reusable Quality Disc
XDCAM HD also records in DVCAM resolution for integration into existing SD environments. The professional disc is a 12-cm, Dual layer, reusable optical disc that is permanently protected within its protective cartridge. It can be re-recorded without any degradation for a minimum of 1000 cycles. XDCAM also records a Proxy data stream which is a lower resolution version of the original data enabling the immediate logging and off-line editing of your material.