I can assure you, if it is there, I will find it :-)

Lou Bruno

Keep us posted Lou.

Sadly I know exactly what you're referring to as it was the only way to defeat the vile Red Falcon. Now excuse me why I go and fire up my NES emulator! :)

I bought it as well. Send me a PM or an email and I'll give it to you (I don't have access to HD1/10s anymore).

My friend has my HD10, and I can't find the service manual. It's on a CD somewhere. Glad Xander is stepping up to help out.

heath

So, I got my hands on the HD10U's service manual (thanks, Patrick!). Does anyone have one of those JLIP serial cables for connecting a PC to the camcorder?

Here's a rough schematic to build one (midway down) + looks like a ton of info for debugging.

http://pagina.vizzavi.pt/~ng93827a/JVC/

You wanna build it for me? I have no clue how to read that.

In furthering my investigation into this hacking project, a very knowledgeable JVC dealer told me that there have been modifications to the HD10U since its release. From trying to read between the lines of what the dealer was 'saying' without saying it (NDA?? He would neither confirm nor deny this), several hardware changes have been made without the model number changing. This would lead to different firmware floating around.

The HD10U that I have access to was made in 10/03, so I'm assuming this has the 'original' programming. Does anyone have a camera that was made in '05? I'd like to compare the bit changes. If you do have an '05 camera that I can borrow, contact me off list, or if you know where I can rent one, please tell me.

Xander, that begs the question of how to determine one's camera's firmware version. My HD10 was in for service for two months between December 2004 and February 2005 for a CCD block replacement under warranty. I'm wondering if there's any way to determine whether they upgraded my firmware in the process. They had enough time.

When many of us here were battleing out the complexities of manual controll or lack of, it seemed that there were some differances in how the cams reacted. Although this could be put down as user error in the experiments it could be a sign of different firmwares. Our cam would always revert to 1/30th shutter at 720p and 1/60th when in 480p.
I have searched the net the best I could, have found one site where the guy had turned of edge enhancement on his PAL PD1. If this could be done for an HD1 it would make this cam a real bargin.
Please keep us posted if anyone finds anything.

Yeah, I've seen the guy's edge enhancement bit change for the PD1. I've emailed him too to see if he has discovered anything new since then. According to the thread that he's on, JVC had something to say about his modifying the firmware and that's why that particular thread slowed down; but the babelfish translation leaves alot to be desired and I can only pick out bits and pieces from the original French text (I took two years of French in high school; alors, je ne comprende pas boucoup). I checked the HD10U's manual for any "legalities" of moding the camera and couldn't find any. I don't think hardware carries "licensing" restrictions like computer software has.

I basically have two goals with HD10U: 1.) enable concurrent manual override of aperture and shutter, 2.) to see if there is a 25p (or even the rumored 24p) recording mode. If it's easy enough, I'll look into image settings to see if I can reduce the contrast of the 10U to bring out details in black and minimize the brightness clipping... something more logarithmic rather than "cinematone".

Murad, I'll get back to you with how to tell what firmware is installed on the camera when I get access to one again sometime next week.

Service Manual
 

Dear Xander, Patrick,

How can I get a copy of the service manual? Is it available as a PDF file? I bought my HD-10 about a month ago and am interested in exploring what is
available thru service menus. The camcorder has already made a trip to
JVC for repair and I am not feeling good about it. It corrupted two tapes
thathad important recordings. There may be some information in the
service manual that I could use.

Thanks.

The service manual isn't going to tell you how to modify the camera unless you're an electrician. Then you'll have to use resistors or whatnots to mod the camera to change the signal. The service manual is really nothing but disassembly directions to get to the components; it also contains the entire bill-of-materials ("BOM") for the camera, so if a technician needs to order a part, he has all the part numbers.

THERE ARE NO SERVICE MENUS ON THE HD10U.

The JLIP connector that is used for servicing the camera is not the normal JLIP device that ships with consumer camcorders for video capture and control. The "service menus" are actually a separate piece of software that runs on a PC. The technician makes the mods on the pc and then uploads it to the camcorder via the JLIP port.

To find out which bits do what, I've been making changes using the menu options and then downloading the EEPROM data to compare with the original data I downloaded before I began. I haven't figured out how to write back to the EEPROM.

I haven't read through all this, but there is a way to program the PD/HD cameras through hidden serial port, and people are using it for frame-rate (PD1) and other camera settings. There is information on the camcorderinfo site, and I think I posted information on it (and links to the original French site) in the dvinfo alternative information imaging forums.

Anyway you could be of help by remembering and reposting the info or a least providing us with a link?

http://www.repaire.net/forums/showth...0&pagenumber=1

Links from "kandinsky" has a lot of info..

Hacking PD1
 

I apologise for not coming back earlier. Life took me away from PD1 for awhile! I am planning to do some more hacking asap.

I don't have any secret knowledge about PD1 apart from service manuals (schematic and exploded views.) I have made a JLIP cable and was playing around with EEPROM contents, trying to correlate to the known EEPROMs of other JVC cameras. That gave very scarce and useless information (mostly recording circuits settings, etc)

In the end I have started to alter every single byte of EEPROM to see what happens. I have run across few interesting areas: something looking like image softness, colour matrix values (how RGB colours are deduced from Green-Yellow-Cyan-White matrix) and colour correction.

As everybody else I was hoping to get 24p or 720p25 but I did not find anything that looks like that. It is not a single bit that needs changing but a host of parameters: timing, CCD offsets, number of pixels per line, recording density?

I was really hoping to compare EEPROMs of PD1, HD1 and HD10 but I only have PD1 at the moment...

HDV is moving in fast so probably the motivation to squeeze more out of PD1 will be disappearing really fast keeping in mind that as a camera, PD1 is pretty mediocre (dark sensitivity, colour gamut, energy consumption)... Unless, of course, there is still an interest.

What do you think and where do you suggest we go next with PD1?

I am still very interested since I just got my HD1 in June. I'm a bit scared to do a dump of the HD1 but if the cable is right for you to do it on the PD1, I think I should be able to do a dump for you to compare.

Is your JLIP cable the same as the one featured in this links picture?

http://pagina.vizzavi.pt/~ng93827a/JVC/

I'm hoping to reduce the edge enhancement on the HD1.

Is it possible for us to send you eeprom dumps for comparison?
I think the main intrest lies in in the fact that the HD series is still the only progressive HDV on the market, and if the edge enhancement of the HD1 could be corrected to match the HD10, it would make it a steal on the used maket.

Sorry, I was going on a trip when I posted, and I have just got back, and am going out again, and have much to do for a while. Use search on my threads in Alternative imaging forum here. and look though the JVC HD forums over at www.Camcorderinfo.com there have been people posting there. The link posted here is to the French site, but one of those people is at camcorderinfo, and another with the separate project adjusting PD1. I wish you luck, I am not interested in the old JVC's rather wait to see new JVC's (or HC1). Any news on the PD1/HD1/HD10 replacement (the model under the HD100)?

Re-edit:

Just looked at updated repair net link, and yes, Looks like both mentioned there, and Leo is one of the people I meant.

Thanks. I had already searched and found the threads.

OK, after few days of trawling the eeprom data I have finally found the parameter that controls the sharpening itself. Originally I was altering some colour values that seems to have been bringing the contrast down therefore reducing the amount of edge enhancement but it was still there around bright lights, contrasty edges, etc. The drawback was that it has thrown the colours off.

Now I have finally found the way to actually switch the sharpening off. In fact there are two independent sharpenings: vertical and horizontal. Each of them can be smoothly controlled from total off to total on, producing horrible oversharpened image. Default settings are at about 200 steps out of total 64K.

Have a look at the two B&W frame grabs at the bottom of the page:
http://www.lbodnar.dsl.pipex.com/video/

Softer image has sharpening completely turned off. I seem to like it more.

I can now move on to finding HD1 to play with. :)

If somebody can send me an eeprom image of HD1 or HD10 it would help the process a lot, however this would require a cable which is a pain to make (or buy.)

Do you, guys, think it is worth spending time on it or HD10/HD1/PD1 are gone out of active use?

Great work Leo. I personaly think this is a very worth while project. These cams are still the only HDV progressive cams on the market, and soon to be the only models under $6000 USD. The HD1 has become quite the bargin especially in the used market, Ebay ect.. and getting rid of the EE will make that cam a steal!
I will do my best to get the eeprom image.

Question on the cable needed for the HD1 to get to the eeprom, is it the same one as the one for JVC's DV cams?

I agree with Ken that the HD1 is a bargain once these edge enhancement and sharpening can be turned down or off.

Please continue the efforts, Leo.

Leo - it's good to have you on board!!! You are definitely going to be an asset on this hacking project.

I took a brief look at the new images you posted with the enhancement turned off. Now, I understand why JVC decided to leave it on. The image with no EE looks like "soft focus". The HD10U is a bitch to focus on the low-res viewfinder and LCD screen, so JVC must've done the EE to make focusing manually easier (I always knew focus was good when I saw the EE). But I do concur that it has a very film-esque look to it which I think is what this group is after. The black and white image reminds me of the softness of Canon's XL-1 and 1s.

Allen - to dump the EEPROM, the JLIP service cable posted on pagina.vizzavi.pt needs to be used. The regular JLIP cables don't work (or at least they didn't work for me). Use the JVC EEPROM Manager to download the ROM. I have been in contact with Paulo Ramos who wrote the JVCEM and am trying to get more info out of him.

I found out that JVC uses Tao Group's Elate RTOS to control their camcorders; page 70 of the HD10U's user manual states: "The Camcorder is a microcomputer-controlled device." It might be possible to program functionality into the camcorder since it's running an "operating system" on a microcontroller, not just a bunch of ASICs doing all the work. Anybody know how to get a copy of Elate without paying developer fees? And I don't mean "pirating" either... just a single user license for like $100 or something like that.

I'll be checking the thread every now-and-again, but I got a DP job coming up and have just been buried in preproduction crap and production is starting early August, so I probably won't be able to devote a whole lot to the thread and the ROM hack until late August or even September.

Keep the ball rolling!!! I think this thread might be organizing the talent needed to give us the HD camcorder we really wanted out of JVC.

Yes, when cheaper competitors are released the secondhand price should be much less. I understand the newer HD1's might have improved performance in their sensors.

Personal request, any information on the possibility of 24fps conversion, or enabling gain (the reason it is stuck at 35lux) or the manual controls?

Thanks

Wayne.

I wish it were so, more likely it is a customised version of Elate for the camcorders that is not compatible with most others (you could still probably get around this on another Elate development package, but likely to be time consuming to do anything elaborate). The Amiga software player is based on Elate, I think that is available for $100 development kit (www.Amiga.com).

The camera might still have functionality locked in ASIC chips, and Elate might do little more than run applications beside them. Look at the data sheets for the central third party DSP that runs the camera, if it allows programming, a programmers manual for it would be a good place to start. You can probably find it's name from the HD1 announcements.

Thanks

Wayne.

Xander, I am glad we can pull the efforts together!

Softness: even taking CCD fuzziness out of equation you are still looking at the image produced by average quality lens on an area the size of few match-heads. I would compare the result to Super8. Anyway, it is much more convenient to increase the sharpness during postproduction if necessary. I am definitely happier with softer image. Again, some sensible degree of sharpening is OK but it will still show up as black contours around washed out areas like horizon or street lights. I will doublecheck if LCD image has the same softness as written on tape.

I am happy to reverse engineer the code if I could only extract it from the microcontroller (something I do for pleasure for years!) I feel they have two microcontrollers - main one with internal flash memory and mpeg chip with its software inside onboard flash chip. Again, so far we are only looking/playing around with the parameter memory, so to say .ini file for the camera, while its internal software is still completely unknown. There is a serial I2C protocol bus on the service connector (with a line called "Flash WR") but how do I use it?!

In theory I am not afraid to mess up EEPROM memory as I have its full copy and if needs be I can simply reprogram it back either in-circuit or having desoldered it off the board. If I mess up uC program flash memory, the camera will become a doorstop...

Anybody who has any ideas or hints, please speak up - let's move this forward!

I have tried to get JLIP protocol details from Paulo but he basically told me to go and find them myself. There are generic details of the protocol around but his software uses undocumented commands to switch into service mode. I also have service software for other JVC cameras (not for PD1/HD1) and it allows to read/write EEPROM too. I have logged serial protocol commands and it seems that Paulo and JVC software use slightly diffrent commands. JVC software also has some interesting features like monitoring live CCD sensor exposure matrix (6x6), focussing matrix and other useless stuff...

I have a feeling that there is no single switch that would enable NTSC/PAL or 24 operation. There could be literally hundreds of memory locations to adjust with time/pixels/frequency parameters. I can comment on the possibility after I will have compared PD1 and HD1 or HD10 EEPROM memory dumps (I have PD1.)

Service manuals show the only difference between the three models are in controller chip index (like 12345-A or 12345-B) however this could be simply due to a fact that naturally chip revisions move forward (service manuals are from different dates.) Again, it could be simply a reference to a preprogrammed chip contents. If chips can be re-flashed, one can simply be turned into the other.

For GR-PD1 camera:

main controller: NEC uPD70F3038F1A34 (flash version)
DV processor: JCY0172 (304pin BGA)
main bridge: JCY0173
DSP: YQ44920A
super encoder: NLC0459APB
lots of smaller ASICs (firewire, usb, DACs, ADCs, LCD controllers, etc)

NEC 703038 is a good start as it should be a generic controller and seems to be an overall managing controller but I can't find any info on it. When I was hacking Nikon F90X I got all the hardware and user manuals for their NEC chip directly from NEC.

correction: I did find NEC info but I think I did not find details of their FLASH programming (we actually want to read the flash memory.)

Just an FYI, what you guys are doing may void your warranty, and we at DV Info Net strongly suggest against doing that.

Thanks,

Heath

Thanks, Heath. A dose of reality is needed every once in a while. ;)

Everything expressed in this semi-public forum is merely for the adventurous and is not endorsed by JVC or dvinfo.net. Use your best judgement as no one is responsible for it other than yourself. Remember, modifications made to any hardware or software is at your own risk. Again, owners and members of this forum or other forums similar to this will not be responsible for your actions. If your warranty hasn't expired yet or you got one of those extended warranties, don't try mods at home. Mods are not guaranteed in any form or fashion by either the modder, information provider or the original manufacturer.

Anybody want some "hot coffee" with their PD1, HD1 or HD10U?

hehehe... we're just trying to enable the good stuff... hehehe...

;)

Lawyers and mothers. Ya just can't get away from them ;>)

Xander said it best. I will say one thing, someone tried to make his XL-1 24p, and after "slaughtering it," we didn't hear much. This is well before the XL-2.

heath

Yah, but we are JVC users. Much smarter. :>)

It seems to be unique to HD1/HD10/PD1. The problem is in the connector itself. It is a very fine-pitched and hard to find part. I had to cannibalise one from a broken digital camera. Tried to get the cable from JVC but nobody sells them!

I think most of this stuff (except for gain) would require programming, pity that the component out was not live uncompressed, that would make the camera descent. For you guys in the US, 30fps is not so much of a problem for TV, so gain would be the more important one.

The PD1 should have uncompressed component out. The SD mode of the HD1/10 are.
My feeling is that the gain ability of the cam is quite limited. Upping the gain will probably incure massive video noise. The auto setting was probably tweaked to be as good as it gets.

HD component out would be good.

I understand there is particular problems with noise in the reds, and that the gain was lopped off to 0db (why the 35lux). But I would prefer (and with the newer sensor revision, if it exists) gain and some noise than a black image in some situations.

But I didn't buy a HD1 (I live in a 25p/50i market) has anybody heard of the HD1 replacement that is supposed to be due out soon, does it use the new 1/3rd inch Altasens? Wouldn't it be good if it turned out better than the Sony HC1. You know in the sensor industry there has been some good recent movements. Cirrus Semiconductor has bought both Fill factory and smalsensor, both use two versions of high latitude sampling, Fillfactory with high fill-factor and some other advancements. Altasens has the cheap 1/3inch mentioned, probably using their high efficiency low noise designs. Foveon is rumoured to becoming out with a cinema version for their x3 chip. So, they all have some thing to offer for interesting cameras (particularly if they include some of the features of their competitors).