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JVC Everio - WTF?

Lycanthrope

Lycanthrope

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 1, 2005
566
92
Brussels, Belgium, Europe
So I purchased this JVC Everio HDD camcorder on Saturday. I specifically chose a HDD model over a MiniDV because I was recording a music event and it allows me to capture 7 hours without pause. On the box of the device it tells me that it is Mac OSX compatable.

I get the device home and first play a bit through the AV port directly onto my TV, no problem, quality is better than I expected. Then I plug the thing into my Mac USB2.0 port and get the message "USC error" (or simillar) on the screen of the device. Furthermore I would have expected the device to mount as an external hard drive allowing me to copy off the MPEG files in order to convert or whatever to the appropriate format.

There's a CDROM with some windows software supplied but no software for Mac and there's nothing on the JVC (absolitely crap) support site. I expected the devide just to be recognised by OSX and that would be that. This is seriously annoying...

Is this normal behaviour? Must I find some suitable software in order to get the files?? Alternatively I could load the JVC supplied software on Windoze via bootcamp and copy from the device there?

Now I come here (like I should have before) and see all sorts of problems with HDD camcorders. I'm annoyed, this day and age this should just work without intervention. I'm probably going to return the camcorder for a refund and then do some proper research before I buy again...
 
So,

I have an everio...when I plug it in, I leave the viewscreen on the camera closed, and set the switch to play mode. This mounts it as an external usb drive. I am able then to go through the folders to find the video clips, extension is .mod, and move the clips to the mac.

This is mpeg-2 video type, but needs to be converted using MPEG-Streamclip or ffmpegX (not ffmpeg), both freeware, for easy viewing on the mac and for editing using iMovieHD.

If you just want to view them, then change the extension from .mod to .mpg and play it in mplayer (free).

Mine came with OS X software on the same cd as the Windows software, but it sucks, so better you don't waste your time with it anyway.

hope this helps, and while it seems troublesome, once you get the right software in place, it's actually very easy to use.

Best,

Brian
 
Nope, all I get is "Incompatible USB device" on the screen, no HD mount. I've tried with the screen open, closed, the camera on/off, charging etc.

This is very frustrating!
 
Lycanthrope said:
Nope, all I get is "Incompatible USB device" on the screen, no HD mount. I've tried with the screen open, closed, the camera on/off, charging etc.

This is very frustrating!
Click to expand...
I have the Everio and t does mount as another drive, what I do is open the viewfinder and set the camera to play. I then copy all my files from the camera to my computer and disconnect the camera. use MPEG Streamclip to convert the files to a format I need.
 
cgratti said:
I have the Everio and t does mount as another drive, what I do is open the viewfinder and set the camera to play. I then copy all my files from the camera to my computer and disconnect the camera. use MPEG Streamclip to convert the files to a format I need.
Click to expand...

When I did this I kept getting "Incompatible USB Device" - also on my G5 iMac. When I did the same process under XP it worked fine. I don't like to use XP though so I will change thhe camera probably for a MiniDV which is more compatable and gives a higer quality picture for the same money (without the convenience of HDD recording though I admit).
 
the everio works fine

All you have to do to get the everio's files to mount is turn on the camera, plug in the usb or connect it to the dock and then open up the screen on the camera and select "connect to device". the disk image mounts. then copy the SD_VIDEO file to the hard drive. now you can convert it.
 
I'm sorry this didn't work out for you. I've really enjoyed mine, but I understand your frustration. I also wonder if the format of the Everio drive could have something to do with it. Perhaps it was preformatted in a Windows only format.

Anyway, best of luck with whatever you go with.

Brian
 
bmcgonag said:
I'm sorry this didn't work out for you. I've really enjoyed mine, but I understand your frustration. I also wonder if the format of the Everio drive could have something to do with it. Perhaps it was preformatted in a Windows only format.

Anyway, best of luck with whatever you go with.

Brian
Click to expand...

Not an issue as Mac OS X can read FAT16 / FAT32 and NTFS filesystems.
 
JVC Incompatible USB message

I have a JVC Everio 132 that has worked just fine with my Mac mini. Over the past few months I've made the move from PC to mac and purchased a mac book air and an iMac. What worked like a dream on the mini now presents the incompatible message on both the Air and the iMac.

I've tried connecting via a powered USB port but that hasnt made any difference.

Anyone else experienced this or maybe has had successful conversations with either JVC or Apple?

Cheers,

PM
 
I used to have a Everio HDD camcorder, back when HDD was pretty new and exciting. Thats when we still had a PC in the house, the software that came with it was so Crap, I ended up importing my clips and converting them and ended up using windows movie maker LOL.

When I got my mac I thought I would be saved from this awful work flow, but no! it was worse, the JVC basically is pretty Crap in my opinion. The files are saved as .MOD and .MOI which no program uses, it took me weeks to find a solution which was a program called Drop DV that worked fine, but this process still took forever.

In my experience MAC + JVC Everio = Nightmare

I use a Casio EX-F1 as my camera and camcorder at the moment until I get my Canon HV-30. Im looking foreword to using tape, All the pros of HD cams seem pointless in the end with the reduction of quality and hassle of conversion ect...
 
Lycanthrope said:
When I did this I kept getting "Incompatible USB Device" - also on my G5 iMac. When I did the same process under XP it worked fine. I don't like to use XP though so I will change thhe camera probably for a MiniDV which is more compatable and gives a higer quality picture for the same money (without the convenience of HDD recording though I admit).
Click to expand...

I don't know so I am asking, is the G5 iMac have usb 2.0 or 1.0? That might be an issue.

Some USB 2.0 devices will operate, yet at a greatly reduced speed of data transfer, through a USB 1.0 port. Others may fail completely.
Click to expand...
source: http://www.earthtym.net/USB-solutions.htm#6

I have my JVC for about 6 years. No problems with it. I did have a few issues when I came over to the mac side. But once I got all my software in line works like a charm.

For alot of the files I just rename the .mod to .mpg or .mpeg and I can then bring it into premiere. If I want it in .avi format I use ffmpegX.

Sorry to hear about the troubles you guys/gals are having. I know I will not go back to a tape system. Transferring large clips via real time recording just sucks. Won't do that again. Drag and drop.
 
When you plug in the camera select playback on PC from the camera.

It should show up as an external drive, then open iMovie and you can import it from there.
 
I just got a JVC - Digital Camcorder - Onyx Black Model: GZMG360BUS from BestBuy and I only have Macs at home and work... I downloaded MPEG-Streamclip (Will try ffmpegX later) and have had no issues with the camera to USB option and it mounts perfectly when I select "playback on PC" or when I used my 8GB micro SDHC in the MAC... For the size, price, quality and ease of use I can import it however I want... I for one like it and thanks to this thread learned how to install it on my MAC....
 
Resolved for me

I had this problem recently, the original one of this posting: had the message "Incompatible USB Device" on the camera screen, no choice of "Playback to PC", and no drive showing on the Mac desktop. After finding nothing but this page on the web and no help from JVC's web site, it occurred to me to try a different USB cable. I was using the one that came with the camera, which should have worked and did work when I first bought the camera, but stopped after a bit of time. Anyway, I tried a different cable and it worked. I didn't need to do anything else: no drivers, no software updates, nothing. I guess the camera was shipped with a cheap cable.
 
Bad USB cable

I too had this issue (unrecognised USB device or power off); changing the usb cable made it work no problem.
 
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