JVC Intros Compact 3-CCD Hard Drive Camcorder
May 30, 2006
Wayne, NJ - JVC Company of America announced the launch of a hard drive camcorder that combines a 3-CCD imaging device with the long recording time made possible by an internal 30GB (gigabyte) hard disk drive.
The new JVC Everio G Series GZ-MG505 ($1,300), like all Everio G Series camcorders, eliminates the need to carry tapes, discs or any media at all, yet, according to the company, can record up to seven hours of DVD movie-quality video or more than 10 hours at DVD camcorder-quality. In Eco mode, over 37 hours worth of video can be shot without any need to eject or reload recording media.
The GZ-MG505 sits at the top of the Everio G Series line because of its image quality, made possible by a 3-CCD imaging device that uses pixel-shift technology to deliver 5-megapixel quality. In addition to native full resolution 16:9 (1173x660x3 effective pixels) and 4:3 DVD movie quality video, this image sensor enables shooting of high-resolution JPEG photos of up to 2560x1920 pixels.
The hard disk's high capacity means that nearly 10,000 photos can be shot without a second thought, with plenty of room left for hours of video, even at the highest quality settings. To take this many snapshots would require 416 rolls of 24-exposure film on a film camera, making the GZ-MG505 the ideal camcorder for vacations where traveling light is the priority.
Despite the enormous storage capacity, the GZ-MG505 weighs-in at barely more than a pound (510 grams) including the battery and lens cap. It's small enough to easily take anywhere. Its classic camcorder-style design is topped off by a 2.7", widescreen 16:9 LCD that displays native 16:9 videos while they are being shot, as well as during playback.
A microphone input and accessory shoe provide flexibility to capture sound and attach lighting. Multiple interfaces, high speed 12x USB2.0 data transfer and supplied software (Macintosh and Windows), makes it easy to create and share wonderful memories.
The Everio GZ-MG505 creates images by dedicating a 1.33 (1.23 effective) megapixel CCD to each color -- red, green and blue. JVC's advanced prism optics and filterless 3-CCD pixel shift technology quadruple the pixel count to record 5 megapixel-class stills.
Simply put, the pixel shift technique, also used in JVC professional cameras, captures double the 1,228,800 pixel information in both the horizontal and vertical directions, creating a real full-color image pixel count multiplied by four for stills. (In photo mode, the Everio GZ-MG505 uses 1280x960 effective pixels for each RGB color.) The broader dynamic range delivers videos with bright realistic colors and photo-quality digital stills up to 2560x1920 pixels for beautiful A4 prints.
To fully capitalize on the camera's inherent picture performance, JVC's Megabrid Imaging Engine separately processes video and still signals, providing optimal processing for each. Megabrid technology was developed to assure high sensitivity and a high signal-to-noise ratio for moving pictures, and clear, high-resolution progressive still images.
Also present is JVC's 3D NR (3-Dimension Noise Reduction), which is designed to improve the signal-to-noise ratio by 2 dB and noise by about 30 percent. Flicker is eliminated and color reproduction is improved, enhancing overall picture quality.
The Everio G Series GZ-MG505 offers seven hours storage at 9 Mbps, which is close to the maximum bit rate for DVD movie quality recording, or 10.5 hours at 6 Mbps, comparable to DVD camcorder recordings.
Either way, the MPEG-2 recordings are in the same format used in DVD. Two more modes are available for even more recording time, offering sufficient quality for normal TV-connected viewing or for uploading to the Internet.
The benefits of recording video to a hard disk are the same benefits that have made hard disk-based audio players so popular -- random access to quickly locate desired material, the ability to effortlessly delete unwanted material, and to easily rearrange the playback sequence. What's more, there's no danger of mistakenly recording over something you want to keep.
The Everio GZ-MG505 offers built-in DVD burner control allowing it to be directly connected to an optional JVC DVD burner, the CU-VD10 SHARE STATION. The camcorder connects to the burner via a USB cable and the burner is easily controlled by the camcorder.
The Everio converts its .mod video files to DVD Video format so the SHARE STATION can create long-playing full size 12 cm DVD-R discs that play on most DVD players.
For use with Windows, the GZ-MG505 comes with CyberLink's PowerProducer 3 NE for authoring DVDs, PowerDirector Express NE for editing, and PowerDVD 5 NE for playback. For Macintosh users, JVC provides PIXELA's Capty MPEG Edit EX for simple editing and file conversion to popular editing formats, and Mono DVD for easy DVD authoring. An available option is Capty DVD/VCD 2 for enhanced function DVD authoring.
For quick downloading to a PC, simply connect the camera via its USB 2.0 interface. All transfer is digital-to-digital so there is no quality lost in the process. The accelerated transfer speed for this year's Everio G Series, including the GZ-MG505, is 12-times real-time speed, so a top-quality Ultra mode 60-minute (4GB) video clip can be transferred in about five minutes.
The JVC Everio GZ-MG505 will be available in July and will sell for approximately $1,300. For more information go to: www.jvc.com. Industry News is a service of WEVA International.
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