JVC MiniDV Camcorder with 34x Optical Zoom and Dual Recording

thanks for the info about still on sd card only. I was about to push the button on this one… almost had me woot!

Sample video:

thanks for pointing that out…i was going to buy it to record video on sd…you saved me dollars and disappointment tonight…

Thanks for this info. I was misled and got a little excited about that possibility.

Debating… $130 is cheap, even if I just use it as a MiniDV deck for encoding.

You can store uncompressed digital video extremely cheap with MiniDV’s. If you’re looking to make short flims (vs. home videos of your kid’s birthday), MiniDV works great.

“Ed3rd”
Sample video:

Are they selling the plane on sellout.woot?

i could find NO reviews for this woot on amazon…

are you 100% sure you cant record video to SD?

You are wrong my old sony DCR-H30 records video to memory stick…video sucks, but it records.

Why would JVC call it Dual Format Recording if it didnt record ???

In for 1, before I realized it does not record video on SD :frowning: Shame on me for trusting Woot’s description. Still, I have 5 years of Mini DV’s stacked up next to a broken camcorder, so I need this either way.

at my local walmart brand new for $178.84

I own this exact model. Second JVC videocamera I have owned - been burned twice. First died exactly as the warranty expired, (figured it was a one off) and the current one immediately started having problems with a “dead pixel” on the CCD.

JVC customer service is horrible. If you are buying this, please do yourself a big favor and buy the square trade warranty as well - you’ll be very glad that you did.

~ $155 at Geeks.com and Ritzcamera.com

JVC makes decent camcorders. I still have a mini DV camcorder and a hard drive camcorder. As far as quality, I actually prefer the mini DV. It uses the least amount of compression on the video - believe it’s called DV25. 1 hr at full 720x480 resolution takes about 13GB on a hard drive. Doesn’t matter what you use to capture with, I prefer Pinnacle MovieBox, has a firewire port and connects via USB. My system doesn’t have a firewire port so this works perfectly. Capture is in realtime, i.e. 1 hr of your last vacation will take 1 hr to capture. My hard drive camcorder compresses the video in MPEG2. Takes much less space on the hard drive, and transfer is much faster since it’s just a file transfer.

In the end it boils down to usage and to desired quality levels. For best res I use the DV camcorder. For You Tube footage, I use the hard drive camcorder. But - I see an HD camcorder under the Christmas tree and it will be both high quality (AVCHD) and hard drive based. Probably from JVC.

This is a good deal for a good camcorder. You could even just get it for rewinding and capturing - this will save your “expensive” camcorder from wear and tear. Great woot - just not the right time for me with HD in my house soon.

Product page including manuals:

http://support.jvc.com/consumer/product.jsp?modelId=MODL027859&pathId=26&page=3&archive=true

It does not appear to have an external mic jack. No mention of add-on lenses either.

From the youtube comments:

“If that plane is actual size, that guy and that camera are HUGE!!!”

I lol’ed.

I am sure the JVC sales guy in charge of the woot account is monitoring this - can we get a clarification please? Thanks!

JVC GR-D770 product page has full specs including the manual (pdf).

Thanks JVC guy. :slight_smile:

Hmmmm.

How would you edit the video on your PC? What software/hardware would you need?

Quote from the manual says cassette is for movies, SD is for stills:

*p. 20, Dual Rec.

You can capture still images without disturbing the recording in progress … the still image is recorded to the memory card while video is recorded onto the cassette tape.*