JVC has missed, again. GZ-HD5 and GZ-HD6 Everio camcorders.

January 30, 2008 - JVC unveiled two new high definition camcorders, the GZ-HD5 and GZ-HD6. Both camcorders bear "Everio" moniker, meaning that they record onto a built-in HDD instead of tape. It is not clear yet, will these models expand existing high definition Everio product line, which is currently represented by the prosumer-grade GZ-HD7 and the smaller GZ-HD3, or will they replace one of existing models or both of them.

JVC motto for 2008 - Reuse!

New models is a result of marriage of a diminutive HD3 body with three tiny 1/5" CCD sensors and underperforming optical image stabilization system from the HD7. One can only hope that the stabilization system has been improved, last year it was considered adequate only by those who always shoot from a tripod. New models do not seem to have major upgrades in features, controls and overall handling, compared to the HD3. Focus ring and viewfinder had been lost in the cutting costs battle, and did not find their way back.

Being the pioneer in HDD-based camcorder market, JVC pushes on, increasing storage capacity. The HD5 has 60GB HDD, microphone jack and accessory shoe. The HD6 adds a headphone jack and gets twice larger hard drive, which is on par with Sony HDR-SR12. The Sony provides almost twice larger recording time though, because it uses more efficient AVCHD compression instead of tried, true and somewhat tired MPEG-2 encoding used in JVC camcorders.

One serious downgrade is switching from full-size SDHC memory card to microSD. That is right, not even miniSD, which is used by Canon in its HV20/30 and HG10 models, but microSD, the format that is used in cell phones. It is easy to understand the reasoning of JVC engineers: "we give you 120GB hard drive, why would you need to record on these dinky memory cards?"

Well, there are 16GB full-sized SDHC cards already, and they are not that expensive. In summer we should see 32GB cards on sale. MicroSD cards reached 4GB capacity just recently, and they cost more per gigabyte.

Recording to solid-state media is The Big Thing for 2008. Panasonic, Sony and Canon all rolling out solid-state camcorders, and it is no surprise they use full-size memory cards. Bigger cards give larger capacity for less money, therefore camcorders utilizing bigger cards are more attractive to a consumer. JVC goes against the tide, again. MicroSD cards are expensive and they will always be lagging in capacity compared to normal SDHC cards.

1080p60 video, for real?

Here is what you have been waiting for, 1080p mode. The new Everios are claimed to be the first consumer camcorders to output 1080p60 video. Finally, true HD is here! Everyone please stand up, give JVC big warm applause! Stop, the last year models were already dubbed true HD by JVC, so this year models are what? Even-truer-HD, I guess. I almost feel the tension in JVC marketing department, "What other, cooler name can we come up with? MegaHD? GigaHD?" After all, they "upgraded" their Megabrid techology to Gigabrid with a simple change of prefix.

Notice though, the new models are not said to record 1080p60 video, they are said to output 1080p60 video, which is not the same thing. More precicely, they are said to output 1080p60 over HDMI. What does this mean? In short, this means that JVC wants to screw you and run with your money, but if you want a longer story, here it goes.

September 29, 2006 - JVC published a press-release, entitled "JVC Develops First Consumer Full HD 3-CCD Camera System Featuring 16:9 Progressive Scan CCDs". In this document JVC stated, that it had developed "the first consumer full High-Definition 3-CCD camera system capable of producing full HD images (1920 x 1080i)." For those who argued that full HD must be progressive, JVC explained that "full HD" is not a technical term, and JVC defined full HD as 1920x1080, no matter progressive or interlaced. I can swallow that, you sleasy JVC marketoids. "Full HD" is not a technical term indeed.

JVC explained in brief, how the system works: the image from three 1/5-inch 16:9 progressive scan CCDs, each having approximately 530,000 effective pixels, is combined, using pixel-shift technology, and produce large 1920x1080 frame. It is up to you to trust JVC in these calculations, because 530,000 x 3 = 1,590,000, while 1920 x 1080 = 2,073,600. Some industry observers say that it is incorrect to compare these numbers directly, that technologies and calculations used in the process allow to bring full 1920x1080 frame. Maybe. Let us accept that JVC technology indeed delivers full 1920x1080 resolution.

February 7, 2007 - JVC unveiled its top-of-the-line high definition camcorder, the GZ-HD7, which utilized the aforementioned HD technology. With all the hype about progressive scan CCDs and true HD, one might had expected 1080p60 recording, this would have only seemed natural. Nope, the HD7 records in 1080i mode only. After spending considerable effort of building a full HD frame out of three tiny sensors, the camera discards half of the lines! In JVC marketing materials this is called "converting to 1920 x 1080i interlace signals for recording".

Again, one might think that the full frame is written as two halves, one half as an even video field, another half as an odd video field. Such recording scheme is called Progressie Segmented Frame and allows recording beautiful 30p cinematic video, preserving full frame resolution. No, this is not how the system works. 2007 JVC high definition consumer camcorders record interlaced video only, so every video field contains half of a full frame. JVC had the nerve calling it true HD, I call it true loss. What is the point of creating full frame using progressive CCDs, only to throw half of it when recording to disk?

Fast forward one year, to January 30, 2008. JVC announced even-truer-HD models with 1080p60 capability. Have they finally utilized full potential of progressive CCDs? No, they have not. JVC engineers use the same faulty approach of generating progressive frames and then converting them to interlaced fields. Don't believe me? Here is the list of all recording modes, pulled directly from JVC website, these are exactly the same modes used in the HD3 and the HD7:

What really happens is that the same interlaced video that the GZ-HD7 was already capable to record, is put through electronic post-processing when you watch video directly from the camera via HDMI port. While I certainly appreciate a built-in deinterlacing and scaling engine, this does not seem to be true 60p, does it? Only testing will tell, how good this upscaling actually is, but it is not true 1080p60, end of story. Anyone can do such a postprocessing in a video editing program. Yes, it will take time to build missing fields, but the result will be likely the same. Outboard scalers can do this for you. New 120Hz televisions can do this for you too. Creating frames out of thin air, this is not what camcorder had been intended to do.

Mind you, the software post-processing does not go away, because 60p signal is delivered over HDMI only. Video is stored on disk as good old 1080i. When it is downloaded to a computer over USB, there will be no 60p in this video. You can get 60p only if you watch video from the camcorder directly on a TV through HDMI connection, and again, this will be fake 60p.

Good marketing, bad technology

It is amazing how JVC could not deliver for the second time straight - call it third time if you count crappy standard definition models - being so close. Progressive scan CCDs? Check. Fujinon lens? Check. Large hard drive? Check. Marketing? Hell, yeah. Putting it all together to create an amazing product? Oops. Maybe next time.