VHS has been dead for some time now. And audio tapes are fast vanishing from music stores. Which means that the last stronghold for tape technology is the video camcorder.

But not for long. By August, JVC is launching its Everio G Series, which will store movies digitally straight to an internal hard drive (20GB or 30GB).

If anything, this move will reflect a trend that has been going on for some time now. Namely, that hard drives are becoming the digital storage medium of choice for large files, even for the consumer market. We have HD-based MP3 players like the iPod and the Zen Micro, as well as digital video recorders like the TiVo that are replacing videotape recorders in US homes. So it was just a matter of time before camcorders were touched by this technology as well.

The Everio G can store up to 10.5 hours of video (depending on mode), which is something to look forward to. No more fumbling with replacement Video-8 cassettes when you run out of tape during a shoot. And a USB 2.0 connection ensures an easy way of directly transferring your videos to a PC for archiving without any loss in video quality.

Hmmm. Hard drive? USB 2.0? I wouldn’t be surprised if your future videocam can be used as an MP3 player as well…