Component capture
 

Hi

I am figuring out whether to buy the HD100 or the new Panasonic HVX 200. If I can find an affordable way to capture component out on my windows based laptop or to a hard drive then I will probably go JVC. Any ideas?

Thanks

Trevor

HD or SD.

SD is pretty easy, something as cheap as Liquid Edition Pro can capture uncompressed analgue comonent as long as your HDD can keep up.

HD is more difficult, and I'm not in the best postition to give you advise.

There is no way for a current laptop to capture uncompressed HD at this point. Not only is there is device for a laptop to capture this way even on the market but you would need at the very least a fast 4 drive raid-0 to even start to think of capturing uncompressed HD.

Now if somebody would make a HD interface card for a Apple laptop you could always capture live as DVCPROHD the exact same format that the HVX200 uses. DVCPROHD may even work on your internal hard drive although that might be pushing it a little bit.

component capture
 

[QUOTE=Trevor Allin]Hi

"I am figuring out whether to buy the HD100 or the new Panasonic HVX 200. If I can find an affordable way to capture component out on my windows based laptop or to a hard drive then I will probably go JVC. Any ideas?"

Trevor:
The JVC HD100 does not output a live component signal, it just outputs a component (analog) signal played back via tape.

I think the only signal you can capture live is via firewire, either HDV or DV, but not HD. If you really want to capture an HD signal, you will have to wait for either the Pannie 200 or the Canon.

You can downconvert the HDV signal into DV or virtually any miniDV format, or capture the HDV video, via firewire. They are all 3.6mb/sec, using the DV25 codec.

I could be wrong about the live analog component output; I'm having a hard time reading the manual and figuring out what the various settings are for and do. :) but I've only been able to see a component signal via tape playback.

The JVC definitely outputs a live component signal. You can hook it up to a monitor and watch it live. If you had the $20,000 worth of computer hardware and RAID drives set up, you could capture that signal.

As a practical matter, it's not gonna happen. Capturing live uncompressed high-def footage is not something anyone's going to be doing to a laptop or to a hard drive -- you're talking about a data rate of nearly 200 megabytes per second! That's more than the PCI bus could even handle. It takes a dedicated RAID of hard disks, around 8 of them, to handle that task.

component capture
 

Hmmm. I have a JVC HD100. I have a component monitor. I have it connected. I do not get a picture, unless I switch it to VCR and playback a tape. I can see the composite picture just fine, when I switch the ouput to composite, but not the component.

Can you provide some more info on what settings I might not have correct?

btw, I do actually have the $20,000 (or more) hardware and RAID. But for now, I'd just like to see the component analog picture on my large Sony component monitor. Or my small Sony component monitor.

thanks,

Well, I don't know... I've got an HD100, and I connect the cables to my component TV, and the live picture shows up just fine... every HD100 I've seen at trade shows has also been connected via the component cables to monitors, for viewing the live output. It definitely works...

So there's either something in your menus, or in your cables, or in your monitor, that's not set right. But the capability is most definitely there.

Barry, is your camera set to DV? Or HDV?
I can see the component picture if the camera is set to record DV.
I want to have the camera set to record HDV-720P/30 and monitor the picture via the component output.
I can only see a component picture if either I am playing back an HDV tape, or the camera is set to record DV.

thanks

Check your menu's for 'output terminal' It is set to composite instead of component or auto.

Check page 54 of the manual for details...

component capture
 

As I said in previous posts...

Analog output works fine in HDV if set to composite output.
Analog output works fine in DV if set to component or composite output.
Analog output doesn't work in HDV when set to auto or component, which is the one combo I'm interested in.

thanks,

I tested this myself tonight on a component NTSC monitor and it looks like the HD100 doesn't downconvert 720P to NTSC for component out. They don't mention this in the manual - I just looked. It is too bad. It does downconvert to NTSC or PAL on the composite output though.

Tim

thanks Tim. That's what I was afraid of. I had hoped it was just operator error though.

I hope you add that to your wishlist.

Ah, perhaps that's the issue? I had it connected to an HDTV, not a standard-def component monitor...

And I assumed the same as Barry. I though you were connecting to HDTV. Sorry..

Well that's not quite true - as both Barry and Stephen pointed out it does work in HD - your monitor simply isn't capable of displaying it.

There is another thread around here on HD monitor options.

As someone else pointed out a HD component to DVCProHD over firewire would be real handy..and BTW you don't need a Mac to capture that; a PC will work just fine.

component capture
 

[QUOTE=John Mitchell]Well that's not quite true - as both Barry and Stephen pointed out it does work in HD - your monitor simply isn't capable of displaying it.

It would have been nice if the JVC manual described the outputs (on page 54) correctly.
They describe the composite/component connection. They do not mention that the component connection is HD when the camera is set to HDV playback and analog RGB when the camera is set to SD/DV playback, though once you know it, it makes perfect sense. It's very hard to figure out when it does downconvert and when it doesn't and how you can monitor that.

I'm certainly really glad to hear that the HD signal is available for recording!

Does anyone know what HD recording equipment uses 3 RCA connectors?
I've only seen that used for consumer HD televisions and DVD players.

And, it was another poster that commented on Apple laptops, I'm platform agnostic and own both :)

Thanks to all for clearing this up!

All you need is a BNC-RCA adaptors if you have a VTR with BNCs (like DVCPRO HD).

Hear in Jakarta Split screen can be fixed
 

I spoke to Alphateck, the company that represents JVC in Indonesia. They do have the computer program and they do know the adjustments that have to be done for the split screen. They fixed in less than an hour a dead pixel that I had. I am going to fix the split screen thing on the 15th of this month.
Then I will let you know about the results.. By the way, I have some footage from 2 short movies from Korea that used the camera. I could post some stills but I would like to know how I should do this. My personal opinion is that the camera is really a professional tool. Even though the color defect of the lense obliges you to be very carefull with highlights and light reflections, the camera delivers very nice and sharp footage, nice colors and really impressive contrast and blacks. The ergonomics are really a pleasure for a camera at that price.
I got my self a pair of Inik batteries (Made in China), 14,4V 6,6 Ah (95 wh) and i think that i solved my energy problem. The camera balances perfectly with the extra weight of the battery.
We will start a big project on the 17th of the month for an Indonesian/Japanese Aluminum smelter project and a power plant located in Sumatra over the lake Toba.
Great Junggle views, rivers, water falls, wild life etc.
We will use two HD101E and we will shoot at 720 30p in order to work in FCP. I hope that it will be a success for us and for the cameras.

Or an HD component to HDSDI converter for those decks that take SDI. AJA make one here:

http://www.ajavideo.com/hd10a.htm

and I'm pretty sure there's others out there from Miranda etc

Interestingly the HVX 200 will only record DV to tape. DVCPro, DVCPro50 and DVCProHD are reserved for the P2's although I believe Firestore will be marketing a hard disk recorder.