It's New 2 Me: the JVC GZ-HD5

My search for a high-definition camcorder came to an end recently with the purchase of a JVC Everio GZ-HD5.

Granted, I started out looking for a pocket camcorder, but the HD pocket camcorders just don't cut it for me yet. The image quality from the Kodak Zi6 and Flip Mino HD leave much to be desired, although for the price I'm impressed with both. That being said, so far I've been very impressed with the crisp, color rich, true HD video from my new JVC Everio.

GZ-HD5 Specs @ a Glance: Storage: HDD & Micro SD HDD: 60GB Video: MPEG-2 (w/proprietary file ext) 3ea. 1/5" Progressive CCD Image Sensors FUJINON HD Lens w/10x Optical Zoom Optical Image Stabilization Various Recording Modes: 1920x1080i (CBR & VBR), 1440x1080i (VBR & CBR)
Image Quality The still image quality seems to leave much to be desired, but I should point out that I've only snapped a few pics with it using full auto. I have no intention or interest in using the GZ-HD5 for still images other than for reference shots, so it's all good.

Media Management & Editing

The GZ-HD5 records to the camera HDD using a MPEG-2 HD transport stream and two proprietary container formats that JVC, Panasonic, and Canon developed; .MOD and .TOD. Since most folks won't have a means to play back or edit these files the JVC Everio's come with a suite of CyberLinksoftware; PowerCinema, PowerDirector, and PowerProducer. This suite of software is more than sufficient for most general management, editing and producing tasks. With that said, if you want to use your favorite non-linear editor to work with the TOD files (the HD files), the process may be a bit cumbersome depending on a number of variables.

As mentioned previously .TOD files are MPEG-2 Transport Stream files, not the more common program stream (e.g. .MPG, .MPEG). Most non-linear editors that accommodate MPEG TS files will be looking for the .M2T or M2TS file extensions, as is the case for my Avid Liquid Pro system. Long story short, I simply need to change the file extension in order to avoid re-transcoding when bringing these files into my system. For me it's a minor inconvenience; but lets not forget, it's a minor inconvenience that produces phenomenal HD video.