Monday, June 16,2008 @ 8:25am
JVC intros first AVC/MPEG-2 HD camcorders
JVC this morning unveiled three new HD Everio cameras that all offer something new to camcorders. The HD30 and HD40 (shown) are the first camcorders to capture HD in either AVCHD (H.264) or MPEG-2 format and give users the choice of format based on their editing environment; users can either record in the more efficient AVC format or else pick the larger but more widespread MPEG-2 format for easier editing on some computers.
The HD40 is also the longest-running HD camcorder available, JVC boasts: a built-in 120GB hard drive allows as much as 50 hours of 1920x1080 video with quality throttled back to Extended Play mode. Full quality is still long at 15 hours. The HD30 offers the same recording capability with a more modest 80GB hard drive, while both cameras include microSDHC card slots that add over three hours of HD on an 8GB card (one hour at full quality) or else a means of offloading videos.
A third camera, the HD10, carries just a 40GB hard drive and is limited to a 4:3 ratio 1440x1080 resolution for up to 16 hours (five at full quality) while keeping the microSDHC slot and most other features.
All the new Everios support HDMI 1.3 output with Deep Color on compatible HDTVs, a newer HD Gigabrid Duo image processing chip, and the choice of using either Firewire or uSB for transfers. The camera lines come with Windows editing software and a plug-in to allow MPEG-2 editing in Final Cut Pro and iMovie. AVCHD support for the camcorders is already built into Apple's newer software, JVC says. The camcorders ship in August at a price of $800 for the entry HD10, $1,000 for the HD30, and $1,300 for the HD40.
