JVC's GY-HM100 / GY-HM700 ProHD camcorders capture QuickTime straight to SDHC

Before buying either the JVC GY-HM100 / GY-HM700, you better be darn well married to Apple's Final Cut Pro. Said ProHD camcorders are the industry's first in the solid state line to store files in native QuickTime format onto SDHC cards. Apple's pushing the fact that users don't have to transcode or re-wrap prior to editing, and considering that each one cam can hold twin SDHC cards, you'll be able to capture a maximum of 64GB before needing to reload. And just think, this time next year the successor will hit with dual SDXC support, giving buyers a maximum capacity of 4TB. Decisions, decisions.

[BigDaddyM @ Jan 8th 2009 4:49PM]

This is awesome! It really is a huge time saver. Anybody that had t deal with the pain called M2T will rejoice!
M

[David Hildreth @ Jan 8th 2009 4:54PM]

I'm not sure the container really plays into transfer or capture speed, re-encoding Long GOP codecs is what is the real pain.
It's a great and welcomed idea for most FCP users but it's not going to be any faster then DVCPROHD P2 cards are now.

[Luke Henry @ Jan 8th 2009 4:52PM]

This is a dream for editors. so much time will be saved with this.

[TVGenius @ Jan 8th 2009 4:56PM]

GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME.

SDHC much cheaper than P2 cards though. And I can use it with a $10 Fry's 73-in-1 media reader too. Not a $2,000 P2 drive (or the camera).

[John @ Jan 8th 2009 5:00PM]

I'm pretty sure Avid Xpress, Media Composer, Liquid and Sony Vegas all import native Quicktime files with no transcoding necessary.

Then again everyone touts real-time editing with no rendering and that is true if you consider real-time is 10-15 fps at 30% quality.

[David Hildreth @ Jan 8th 2009 5:02PM]

Avid is always going to de-mux and then re-mux QT files into MXF or OMFI, transcoding is up to you.

[John @ Jan 8th 2009 8:57PM]

David,

How does de-muxing and re-muxing signifcantly change the workflow or necessarily commit you to FCP as this article implies? Even transcoding would be a significant time savings as opposed to real-time capture of HDV format.

The market for this specific camera would transcode to mpeg and export to DVD or H.264/mpeg for Blu-Ray.

[Gumoza @ Jan 8th 2009 5:11PM]

Waiting 4 4TB - Cool

[dee @ Jan 8th 2009 5:31PM]

Nice this could be a dream come true.

[Guy @ Jan 8th 2009 7:07PM]

Interesting little camera but 1/4" sux big time and the zoom range is very limited.
Touting Quicktime as the only wrapper choice is like cutting of your nose despite your face, most editors I work with use PCs with either Edius (and Storms) or Matrox & Premiere, only a few use Macs. Nothing against quicktime but why not a simple menu choice for the wrapper as either quicktime or transport stream?...

Funny how they claim a new feature is a new OIS, clearly they know what people say about poor the OIS is in their Everio.

[SPG @ Jan 8th 2009 8:03PM]

PC may be more prevalent for you, but for the prosumer HD market that this camera is intended for, Final Cut is king.

[Louis Sacock @ Jan 8th 2009 8:38PM]

Why would you even bother to look at the zoom range? If you're into that kind of thing, go get a cheapy, crappy DV camera which has a 500x zoom and go nuts.

And just to be picky, the phrase is "cutting off your nose to spite your face" - makes more sense that way.

[jakjak9210 @ Jan 8th 2009 8:24PM]

"cutting of your nose despite your face"
you mean "cutting your nose off to spite your face"

and that camera is awesome, now i have to choose between that or a Panasonic AG-HMC150, both record hd to sdhc cards, guess it will come down to price, what with me being a poor student.

[Guy @ Jan 8th 2009 8:13PM]

@SPG:
I work with a wide spread range of professional video producers and maybe 2 or 3 out of 50 use FCP. FCP's sidespread market use is highly over rated by FCP users, at least in my neck of the woods.

[Guy @ Jan 8th 2009 8:51PM]

"Why would you even bother to look at the zoom range? If you're into that kind of thing, go get a cheapy, crappy DV camera which has a 500x zoom and go nuts."

You've obviously never shot professionally, nor noticed that professional cameras have decent zooms too, look at the Canon HD pro range with 20x and the many broadcast level lens with built in doublers that cost more than your car. Zoom is needed by pro's in many areas where you can't get close to what you are recording, including sports and in many cases shooting concerts or conferences from the back of large auditoriums & halls etc


"And just to be picky, the phrase is "cutting off your nose to spite your face" - makes more sense that way."
I disagree, I have always taken this saying to mean to take one action ignoring (despite, dispite= in spite of, I'm not concerned about semantic of spelling) the negative repercussions on something closely related, rather than 'to spite' which means to take one action to deliberately cause a negative effect on something else closely related. I don't really care what the classic meaning of the saying is, this is what I meant.

[jakjak9210 @ Jan 8th 2009 10:51PM]

nice :)
has anyone seen any pictures of this elusive GY-HM700?
i cant seem to find any anywhere, and i would love to compare the two.

[Boards of Canada @ Jan 9th 2009 2:03AM]

Actually, wich format are they talking about?? there a lot of Quicktime codecs...

[superhobo @ Jan 9th 2009 5:58AM]

Quicktime?
.mov?

That sucks!

[Uncle @ Jan 9th 2009 9:07AM]

TARZAN SAY, BLOG POSTING EASY. RESEARCH HARD. Actually, Ouicktime only on these cameras is incorrect. From JVC's pro website (check the second paragraph):

"The GY-HM100 incorporates JVC's Native File Recording technology that stores video in the ready-to-edit format used by Apple's Final Cut Pro™ non-linear editing system. The ".mov" files created in the camera can be easily dragged onto the NLE timeline without conversion or rewrapping, saving time while keeping the recorded material first generation. There is no need to use an intermediate codec.

The camera can also store files in the ISO Base Media File Format (MPEG-2 Long GOP), compatible with all major non-linear editing systems. In this mode, the files and folders are recorded so that they can be easily accessed in the post production process."

http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/tech_desc.jsp?model_id=MDL101845&feature_id=02

[redfanboy @ Jan 9th 2009 4:38PM]

@Boards of Canada They are referring to a quicktime wrapper that encases the .m2t MPEG video stream. Being able to edit the .mov directly after pulling it from the card saves editors a step, and potentially a conversion process.

The Engadget post summary doesn't really do these two new cameras justice, check out this article at PVC for some reasons why this is an important development. http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/freshdv/story/jvc_camcorder_native_quicktime/

[Robert Cofer @ Jan 9th 2009 5:38PM]

Some time's not getting your money when you want it pay's off. Was going to get the sony EX3, with DOF adapter at 13-15 grand. If this Gy-HM700 is my holygrail and help's editing for a moron. Hail JVC...lense questions and DOF adapter ? any help? Price? Robert C.

[SuperDre @ Jan 9th 2009 6:55PM]

Nice camera, only fault is the 'native apple quicktime' format, it should definitly have been an option, OR JVC should provide the quicktime codecs for Windows/Linux users as a lot of people aren't using Apple's final cut pro.. The fact JVC is dancing to Apple's iTunes isn't going to improve my regard for them..

[dan @ Jan 14th 2009 12:29AM]

Again, who are you people?
Hobbyists?
Wedding videographers?

Fine if you are, but please don't mention Edius, or Premiere or any Third tier platform.

There is a reason FCP dominates the market. FCP or Avid. Only two options out there.
Deal with it.

[SuperDre @ Jan 9th 2009 6:57PM]

Hmmm.. As Redfanboy above said, the article doesn't really do it justice, as the article implies that the JVC now only records in quicktime format.. but luckily it's just an extra option...

[cseeman @ Jan 10th 2009 6:55AM]

I don't think people are getting the full picture. At IBC Sony & JVC formed an alliance with JVC supporting XDCAM EX. JVC came out with a recorder that handles SxS. THIS JVC camera is an XDCAM EX. It uses the same codec as the EX1,3. It's MOV is the same thing Sony XDCAM Transfer Tool creates for FCP. This also may explain why Sony went with MP4 wrapper instead of MXF for XDCAM EX. Sony wanted a codec which could be used as is (MP4) or rewrapped to MXF or MOV. Basically a "universal" codec/wrapper/source. This is Betamax vs VHS again except it's XDCAM EX vs AVC. This time VHS's big gun (JVC) went with Sony. I'll bet Canon is being courted by both Sony and Panasonic as to which tapeless codec they go with.

David Hildreth above is way wrong! Long GOP is not a problem that it was a while back. For example, in FCP one edits in XDCAM EX natively and sets renders to Apple ProRes and there's NO GOP CONFORM. Very very fast! I'm already using SDHC in my EX1 and it copies at 2x to 4x. 32GB at around $150. 16GB now at under $30. P2 is dead IMHO. That's SLOW to copy, expensive to buy cards. That's why Panasonic is shifting/going to shift in a big way to AVC. That's why Sony is making maneuvers now to XDCAM EX wins the codec war. That's why Sony's firmware update opened the EX SDHC through USB Express Card compatibility. Let's see which format Canon goes with. XDCAM EX is inexpensive and fast and Sony's working to make it ubiquitous.

It's Beta vs VHS and this time Sony thought this through and decided it's not the casing (SxS) but the codec.

[Mike @ Jan 17th 2009 7:11PM]

In answer to the opening sentence, "Before buying either the JVC GY-HM100 / GY-HM700, you better be darn well married to Apple's Final Cut Pro." SuperDre is correct there is more than output for FCP and Quicktime.

See the Specs on JVC page at

http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/features.jsp?model_id=MDL101845&feature_id=01

Professional format recording with selectable data rates up to 35Mbps
Native Final Cut Pro format
Fastest HD shoot to edit workflow. Edit immediately without conversion or transcoding
ISO Base Media File Format
Compatible with all major non-linear editing systems

Hope this clears the Air a bit.

Mike

[CHEEMA @ Jan 17th 2009 9:31PM]

This camcorder looks very nice on paper, but I have two reservations:

1) Sensor size is very small 1/4″ sensor means 9.72 mm2 area per ccd multiplied by 3, so the combined area of the three ccds is approximately 29.16 mm2, when compared to single 1/2″ sensor with approximate area of 30.7 mm2, it turns out to be smaller than 1/2″ single sensor. As we are told this camcorder shoots in native 1080p. The native format will mean more pixels to fit into smaller area. This will mean very small pixels, and ultimately bad low light performance. When we talk about a professional camcorder worth $4000, bad low light performance is not acceptable.

Sony has done lot of research in this area and they have come up with EXMOR R BACKLIGHT SENSOR which is on test this year. Canon is trying to counter this problem by using larger lens and sensor and increasing the processing power, but this approach will produce larger and bulkier camcorders to achieve the same results as achieved by Sony’s camcorders. JVC and Canon and other manufacturer need to come up with some sensor based solution like Sony, otherwise they will need to buy sensors from Sony to make their camcorders.

2) The recording media is sdhc, which is going to be obsolete soon and taken over by sdxc announced this year in CES 2009, JVC must make some changes to ensure that camcorder is compatable with sdxc, otherwise any new camcorder offering sdxc will take over with the release of first sdxc card.

Overall this is good effort by JVC, there is no pro camcorder available with in this size with native 1080p resolution, 35 Mbps bit rate, NTSC/PAL switchable, Quick Time file format, and tons of other pro features. This camcorder will set a new trend and other manufacturers will be forced to come out with similar products. I think era of DV TAPE is over now.

Best of luck JVC.