Has anyone heard about this?

[Champale]

http://www.jvc.com/presentations/everio/index.html

Think iPod harddrive with a camcorder.

It looks cool but I don't see any Mac compatibility on the specs. Does anyone know? This could be the camcorder I've been waiting for...

[howard]

wow that looks pretty cool

it looks the software that comes with it is pc only, but you'd think that if you plugged it into your mac it would come up as a hard drive...

I would also like some reviews on this, as far as picture quality. I never really wanted a video camera before, but this kind of thing done right might change that.

[mulletman13]

I wish it would list the price somewhere...

to me it seems these could be made for *less* than mini dv camcorders...

$500-600 would be an astounding deal on one of these things... I can't imagine why it would be any more expensive... these kindof components (except 4gb microdrive) have been around for ages.

[Champale]

It does sound cool. I'm afraid the price ain't cheap. Maybe a grand or so.

My friend has the JVC that records on SD cards and loves it. He only gets 20 mins top at the highest resolution but it's all he needs for new baby footage and such.

I'll post any reviews when I find 'em.

[yellow]

Hmm.. these kinds of things really make me wonder. At least with MiniDV tapes I can record and then save the tapes for a while, knowing I have a "backup" of sorts. What do I do when I have a DVHD? Everything goes on my harddrive, but then I have to back it all up to say, dual-layer DVD or Bluwhatever (Sony's new larger DVD format), but a tape backup system? I can't put it on CD. All this just to make sure I can go back to it later?

I find that hard drive sizes are outstripping back up resources for the end user. Sure I have a lot of extra hard drives that I use for "back up" but how safe is that really?

[gwuMACaddict]

wow- super cool... i've been itching to get a digital camcorder for a while now... does anyone have one that they really love?

[dotnina]

Yep, this was on Gizmodo a while ago:

http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/jvcs-mystery-hard-drive-camcorders-revealed-theyre-hard-drive-camcorders-021273.php

$1500 for 4 gigs, though? I like the idea of hard-drive-in-the-camcorder though.

[jtgotsjets]

I like that idea too, but what format is the video in? (It probably said somewhere on the page, but I just skimmed it).

No matter what, that's a pretty cool idea.

[yellow]

I too didn't look, but I would think MPEG-4. Great compression to quality ratio.

[crazzyeddie]

http://www.jvc.com/presentations/everio/highlights/index.html

It uses MPEG2.

[bobpensik]

That thing looks VERY cool!!

[yellow]

It uses MPEG2.

There goes that theory. MPEG-4 would be better! :)

[virividox]

looks like a good idea but i dont want to be an early adopter of that tech

[LethalWolfe]

The DVD-Quality MPEG-2 is the killer there. MiniDV has about 3-4 times the data rate of DVD-Quality MPEG-2. Some day nonlinear, tapeless systems will replace tape, but not anytime soon. Why? Tape is cheap. A good quality 60 min MiniDV tape (which equates to around 13 gigs of storage) costs around $4-$5. Any HDDs or solid state media that can meet that price/performance ratio? ;)

Panasonic is pushing a new tapeless camera for use in b'cast news. Each solid state drive can hold 30min of b'cast quality footage (news shooters typically use 30 min tape stock). Besides being a real time saver these types of cameras should also be easier to maintain (few moving parts) and more resistent to the elements (high humidty+camera=major PITA).

Lethal

[solvs]

I remember reading about this somewhere a few days ago. It specifically said it was not Mac compatible, nor was it planned. Plus it was pretty expensive. I'm happy with my Sony.