HD Home Videos with Surround Sound

It looks like Sony is focusing its efforts on camcorders that record directly to the internal hard drive rather than to tape. A recent camera (the HDR-XR500V) records in HD quality with Dolby Digital 5.1 Creator. This is an impressive surround sound feature that helps match HD video with a much better quality and realistic surround sound experience. The microphone zooms as the picture zooms and sounds from other directions are captured in a way that the listener can recognize where those sounds were coming from at the time of recording. The tests that I've heard using such cameras have been a much more enjoyable listening experience than having all the audio coming out of the center channel.

In addition to the stunning video and surround sound, this also has a 12-mexapixel still camera using the same lens. Since the camera is small (especially considering its capabilities) it can be the only camera you carry, useful for both video and still shots.