JVC Everio Hard Disk Camcorder Update
Applies to GZ-MG20U, GZ-MG30U, GZ-MG40U, GZ-MG50U
Well, I’ve been using the JVC Everio as my primary camcorder for a month now, so it’s time to update the site with my experiences.
The camera startup time is about five seconds—pretty much the same as any modern camcorder. You don’t need to worry much about getting setup in advance.
Video quality is fantastic. While you can observe some video artifacts if you pan the camera rapidly at basic quality, the video is essentially perfect at medium, high, and ultra quality. You can’t see any defects on an NTSC television at these resolutions. The Ultra-resolution mode is 9.8Mb/sec, the maximum standard for DVD and MPEG-2. At this quality, the video is very close to raw uncompressed DV in quality. I’ve been very happy with the video quality—the real-time MPEG2 compression engine in the camera is superior to that of my Sony DVD Handycam and my Phillips console DVD burner—and better than any of the software compressors I’ve used. It’s as close to professional as you’re going to get.
One negative: The auto exposure mode frequently seems washed out. I’ve found that I have to use the spot exposure mode to be happy with the exposure settings–Auto exposure and the varous fixed modes (cloudy, sport, etc.) don’t seem to be well calibrated and they vary too much while you’re shooting.
Editing videos is pretty easy. Both the Mac and PC packages are easy to use and relatively powerful—CaptyEx for the Mac is the best non-linear MPEG-2 editor (i.e., no wasted time transcoding) I’ve seen for less than $1000. Since you’ve got to use your PC to burn the video anyway, you might as well spend some time cutting out the garbage. I’ve actually been using the included software to edit commercials out of DVDs burned on my TiVo.
Erik Dp asked “Can material stored on two separate discs be merged into one disc with the editing programs? (I don’t want to store too much raw material on my computer if a “best ofâ€-disc has to be created.)â€. The included editing software can be used to edit existing DVD material, if that’s what you’re asking. So if you’ve already burned your video to DVD and you later want to create a compilation disk, that’s no problem. You will have to copy the .VOB files back onto your PC and rename them to MPG in order to edit them, but that’s easy to do. The editing programs will allow you to cut and paste video pretty much however you want. You can keep many hours of video on the camera depending on the hard disk size and the quality of video you are recording (Generally a full day of ultra-quality or a week’s worth of basic quality) , before you have to start moving it off to DVD.
Not having to worry about changing tapes or DVDs is fantastic! It makes this camera considerably cheaper than tape or disc based cameras because you don’t have to buy media. With DVDs blanks down to about 0.50/each, this camera costs far less to operate than MiniDV or Mini-DVD camcorders—and it’s future proof: Current dual-layer 9GB DVDs and future ultra-high capacity Blu-Ray or DVD HD burners for PCs will work with MPEG2 video from this camera.
Turning the camera off before unplugging the USB cable reliably solves the disk corruption issue that I mentioned in the original article. When you turn the camera off, you can see that it accesses the hard disk for a few seconds, probably to flush an internal hard disk cache. Never unplug the camera without turning it off first.
If you’re a Mac user, Don’t bother purchasing CaptyDVD to author. Just use Toast 7 Titanium. Rename your VOB files to end in MPG and drag them into the Toast video window. Click burn, and you’ll have your DVD in about 20 minutes. Plus, unlike CaptyDVD, Toast 7 is useful for a lot of other burning needs.
Buy a JVC 1400mAh battery (BN-VF714U). The battery that comes with the camera only lasts about a half an hour. This one lasts about five. The Cellboost disposeable camcorder battery for JVC also works well as an emergency power source (it plugs into the DC adapter port) and costs about $12 at Fry’s/Outpost Electronics.
Lenmark aftermarket batteries do not work in the camera. They lack a security chip that JVC builds into newer cameras to force you to use JVC batteries. Sony does the same thing, and they both claim that it’s necessary for their smart battery power measurement to work, which is simply not true.
In summary, this is the best casual use camcorder I’ve ever used. If you’re a PC user and not afraid of burning DVDs, this is definitely the camcorder for you.
Great tip about using windows multimedia to read these .mod files, however the first one I moved over played great video and had no audio; are the audio files in a separate file on the JVC hard drive?
Comment by Mike Bottorff — March 29, 2007 @ 6:57 pm
Hi Mike,
No, the audio is interleaved with the video. The fact that you cannot hear it means that your computer lacks the correct audio codec driver. Usually, the audio codec is installed by DVD playing software–do you have any installed? Or you could install the software that came with the camera, since it too will include the audio codec.
Comment by Matthew Strebe — September 23, 2007 @ 7:35 pm
Hi Matthew,
I have a JVC GZ-MG50AA and I’m having difficulty producing sound after transferring the video from the camera to the PC.
We have PoweDVD 5, PowerDircetor and PowerProducer loaded on to the Desktop and can clearly see all videos but there is no sound.
I’m not tenhnically minded, but you mnetioned the audio codec may need to to be installed?
Where do I get this from??
Craig
Comment by Craig Corcoran — October 27, 2007 @ 7:02 pm
Hi I just bought an Everio GZ HD7 and upgraded the supplied software to Power Director 6. I’m having difficulty downloading video from it to be edited in the Pc. Any ideas? The camcorder is superb – picture quality remarkable, but I’m finding it difficult to do anything with it!
Comment by `Mike — December 14, 2007 @ 7:52 am
Hi Mike,
There could be many things wrong. Do you see a new drive in “My Computer” when you connect the camera? If so, you just need to use the software that came with the camera to do the uploading. If not, something is wrong with the USB connection.
Comment by Matthew — December 15, 2007 @ 12:01 pm
Hi Matthew Thanks for the reply I discovered that the 4 hub port I was feeding the camera thro wasn’t helping so I went in directly to the PC. My Everio GZ-MG130EK worked with the supplied Everio software. I got a picture of the camera itself and the words EVERIOHDD (J)- the drive – and I could edit all!! Great!! When I plugged in the Everio HD7 it showed a hard drive image and the words “EVERIOHDD (J)” but not a picture of the camera as with the little GZ! Nothing could be edited. In “My Computer” both show up as hard drives. Any idea whats going on? Both installation discs look exactly the same, no difference whatsoever.
Cheers
Mike
Comment by mike — December 30, 2007 @ 9:09 am
Matthew, I have a GZ-MG330 and wonder if there is a way to use the camera connected to the DC outlet and continue to record at the same time?
Cheers Steve
Comment by Steve Anderson — January 26, 2008 @ 9:39 am
Hi Matt,
i have had an Everio for a while and really enjoyed it. Yesterday I used the camera and in the middle of recording I got an error message that says the hard disk is full. I checked and deleted all the video on the camera. Now it says the hard disk is full and there are no files on it (in a separate message). I tried the reset button and took the battery out. No dice. Can you help?
Alissa
Comment by Alissa Gardenhire — February 7, 2008 @ 3:55 pm
I have a JVC GZ-MG505AA and have lost the software that came with it. Do you know where i could download this or is there other programs i could download so i can edit and play my video footage on my PC? Thankyou
Comment by Kate — March 27, 2008 @ 9:47 pm
Hi Kate,
If you contact JVC technical support (go to the JVC website) they will be able to send you new disks for a small fee. There are a number of programs that can be used to burn DVDs from the camera files but the process is somewhat technical. You are probably best off ordering replacement CDs.
Comment by Matthew — March 27, 2008 @ 10:15 pm
I have a JVC GZ-MG20U. I try to video at my son’s dirt track race, and the picture is dark and just doesn’t have the quality that my old Sony 360x has. I am filming in low light.
I have tried many different settings, and can figure it out. Can you help me with this problem?
Coyal
Comment by Coyal — June 21, 2008 @ 10:30 am
i have used a jcv everio camcorder and the sound on it worked fine until a few days ago and now it doesnt produce sound anymore how can i fix this?
Comment by alex — October 27, 2009 @ 4:20 pm