Posted by Frank on 07/29/07 00:52

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 21:28:46 -0000, in 'rec.video.production',
in article <Purchasing A DV/HDV Camera, Need Advice...>,
jonathandowns@gmail.com wrote:

>i'm interested in buying a new camera for a variety of uses (weddings,
>short films, etc) in the $4000-$6000 price range (my current camera is
>a Sony PDX10).
>
>my first choice was the Sony DSR-250, but i'm tempted by the JVC GY-
>HD110U. for the time being, my machine cannot handle working with HD
>footage (PowerMac G4 w/ FCP 4.5), so i'd probably be using the JVC is
>SD mode (or downconverting, i guess?). is the JVC in SD mode on par
>with the DSR-250? how does the downconverting process work? a friend
>of mine once used a Sony HVR-Z1U, and i thought he said he was able to
>shoot in HDV mode and import into FCP as SD footage...which supposedly
>yielded a high quality picture. is that possible with the JVC?
>
>sorry about all the questions, and please excuse my ignorance about
>this stuff. i greatly appreciate any help.


I only have a second or two to spare right now, so I can't get
involved in your camcorder purchase decision making, but let me at
least address the HD to SD downconversion question.

As I'm sure you know, HDV comes in two flavors, 720p and 1080i. JVC
HDV products are 720p and Canon/Sony HDV products are 1080i. Virtually
all 1080i HDV products have the ability to downconvert from HDV to DV
over FireWire. The JVC GY-HD110U, being a 720p product (emphasis on
progressive), does not have this ability.

I believe that the thinking at JVC was that if you're going to shoot
in progressive mode then you're going to deliver in progressive mode,
so this 720p to 480i (NTSC) / 576i (PAL) via IEEE 1394a capability was
not implemented.

What you would have to do is to use the analog component output jacks,
which means that your NLE is equipped to accept such a signal. Various
AJA, Blackmagic Design, etc. products provide this capability. The
other choice is to use the composite video output of the camcorder as
input to your NLE, perhaps first passing the signal through a
converter box that encodes to DV over FireWire so that you can ingest
via FireWire.

You might want to review the GY-HD110U FAQ at the following URL.

http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/faq.jsp?model_id=MDL101642&feature_id=13

See the question, "Can the GY-HD110U provide a downconverted DV signal
via the 1394 connector?".

Good luck!

--
Frank, Independent Consultant, New York, NY
[Please remove 'nojunkmail.' from address to reply via e-mail.]
Read Frank's thoughts on HDV at http://www.humanvalues.net/hdv/

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