Camcorder Reviews

This is a good product but it could be better and more rat-spanky.

I NEED AN TEPE ADEPTOR FOR MY 8mm CAMCORDER SAMSUNG MODEL #:SCL600 SERIAL:67CR921927A

I buy this thing because it was with special discount, practically the same price with SONY ACVQ50 that haves SQ technology but only one slot for one battery. The other unique difference is that the ACSQ950D have the plug and cord to connect to the cigarette lighter for your car. I was surprised when i read in the manual "This unit cannot charge two battery packs simultaneously", so compare price between the two chargers before buying. That's my advice.

WHEN I MAKE CD USING THE USB CABLE I DO NOT GET AUDIO , CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN ME THIS , HOW TO RECORD CD WIHT AUDIO AND VIDEO

THNAKS
KAISER
kaiser@pacific.net.sg

This is not a stereo microphone like Sony and Amazon web sites claim it to be. I have noticed it right away after the box has arrived. You can see for yourself that the plug is mono. I don't know why Sony claims it to be a stereo microphone on their web site.

Nice quality lens, but doesn't add a huge amount of "wide angle" to your pics/videos. The best thing about it though is that it doesn't add the black edges around your footage/pics that some wide angle lens can.

This is a 2X lens that in some light conditions reflects the internal lens system in the picture...

This cable works fine: no directions needed, and it automatically alerts the computer (at least it does mine: I use Apple's iPhoto) that the camera is plugged in, which means the necessary software is launched without any effort on the part of the user. What's more, if you own any of the excellent Sony Cybershot cameras, this is the only choice available for downloading photos to your computer.

But if you do use this, be sure to unplug the cable from the camera as soon as the download is complete. If you don't, you may learn as I did that the product has one design flaw: even a moderate amount of pressure on the camera with the plug still in could tilt the camera bend the end of the cable, pulling the metal part from the plastic and rendering the whole thing useless. Which explains why I'm on this page ordering a replacement.

This product and the bundled Pinnacle 8 Studio software delivered spotty performance. It generally ptured the video from tape OK, but the interface (and especially the capture format options) was very non-intuitive. The DVD renedering was slow, and results were hit and miss: some were OK, some failed outright and some were rendered with annoying frequent color shifts (about every 3 seconds throughout the entire DVD). This all took place on a new, fast machine with plenty of RAM and disk space. I'm pretty comfortable with new apps, but the Studio 8 is very hard to figure out. Consider the PYRO A/V link from ADS instead.

I was OK with Studio 8 for the first few months I had it, I made simple VCDs and DVDs of my friends, it was amusing.

Then I tried to make some more complicated things, with multi-level menus, and a number of different file types, and fill up the whole DVD. I ended up with about 5 coasters. The pinnacle tech support was no help at all.

Then I found TMPG DVD Author, used to make DVD files which are then burned from within the program or burned with Nero. TMPG has not produced any coasters yet. Now I do all my editing/transitions with Studio 8, render it, and use TMPG to actually make the DVD.

So all in all, I had to spend an extra $90 for a REAL dvd authoring progam to go along with Studio 8.

I saw over 100 consumer reviews ... praising this product and an equal number saying that it is hopelessly buggy or simply does not work.

I am a moderately experienced PC user who bought and installed Studio Deluxe version 8.25.21 in June, 2003. This product is beautifully designed and rich in features, for a consumer video product. I found a number of blatant and frustrating bugs, but in the end was able to create a beautiful 30 minute video.

Here is what I recommend:

1. Go to the Pinnaclesys.com site and spend at least 20 minutes going through their forum postings. Notice that the forum is nicely designed and very active. Notice that there are hundreds of very frustrated users who have spent weeks or even months getting Pinnacle to work the way it's supposed to. Notice that many of the threads have almost no helpful info from Pinnacle staff and are sprinkled with comments like "Hello, Pinnacle... anybody home?" or sad accounts of trying to get phone support. Users list the things they've tried, and eventually somebody comes up with a solution or work-around. Do not buy this product unless you are willing to troubleshoot your problems with other users on the Pinnacle forum and try 7 things before finding the thing that solves your problem.

2. If you make the plunge, buy it from a local retailer with a 14 day return policy (or better) and get right to work.

3. Install this on a late model computer running XP. Follow all their install recommendations (and those on the forum) to the letter, including adding a 2nd hard drive. My PC was a ... Dell 2350, but it was very up-to-date, and it was adequate.

4. If you are working to a deadline, leave lots of time for problem solving and refining your work. No matter what software you use, you will spend a crazy amount of time polishing your video.

5. Complete a small project before starting a large project. You may lose your work and have to start over, or find that you are unable to output your work to DVD.

6. There are bugs in this software, but keep your cool, and don't blame everything on Pinnacle. In my case, 1/3 of the problems were operator error, and 1/3 of the problems were due to a bad DVD burner.

7. If you can, wait 6-18 months. The whole video editing/ DVD burner situation may be ready for prime time by then.

For all of you who want to benifit from the people who have suffered buying JVC NEVER EVER BUY JVC. The company officials are not cooperative. Please dont wat your money

This product came as nicely packaged and had all the bells and whistles and was way ahead of time in terms of progressive scan, miniaturization, etc. The progressive scan feature certainly tempted me to buy this product.

I bought this product 2 years ago and have probably used it about 10 total times when it really worked. Most of the time, the product just quits on you and the operative buttons are plain too too delicate. Here is the chronological list of events that I encountered and I certainly regret buying this camera. Worse, I don't think I'll have the heart to buy another JVC product again. Like they say, perception is reality. I learnt the hard way:

1. Bought the camera for ~$1400 2 years ago.
2. The camera failed to record in low light. I accepted it since it was digital and ahead of it's time.
3. The camera began a never ending sequence of attempting to FIND the focus. I have used this in wonderful full array of stage lighting but with highly pathetic results. The camcorder just would not stop finding the focus and you would see the entire recording blurred with the focus drifting in a never ending way from one section to another--very daunting when you cannot identify a leg from the hand and vice versa.
4. The camcorder's on/off/auto/manual switch became flaky to the point that I had to insert bits of paper to keep it on. The service people could not do anything about it.
5. The camera kept providing the cleaning message
6. The internal battery died and the camera would never respond to any button pushes.
7. The camera recorded beautifully (it appeared) but never wrote ANYTHING on the MiniDV tape--the tape was completely blank.
8. The camera is in such a pathetic state right now that I finally gave up.

Not to mention that the Snapshot mode is so granular and pixelated, I wondered who was in the picture a few times at least. If you are buying it for the snapshot mode, forget it. If you are relying on the software that comes with it, I have so much pity for you. The software is eions old (and a dinosaur) and seldom links with the camera or identifies it the first time through. With GRDVM90U, you have to TRY, TRY, and TRY again and then it does work (after so much agony).

I am buying Sony and staying away from JVC as far as I can be. As part of my new purchase, I reviewed the GRD-93US product of JVC. I hopped down to Circuit city to test drive it before venturing to buy it over the Internet. Guess what? I could not believe it that at 10x, the camera again went on the focus finding mission. I could easily decipher the camera limitation since I went through the ordeal with the GRDVM90U for so long. I tried the Sony DCR-HC65 and it worked just perfect. I was dumb-founded but I was able to make my decision of spending a few extra dollars now and buy a Sony than to buy the JVC and regret it for the rest of my life.

Hey, my life is simple...I just have to make sure that I don't buy any JVC products.

And I thought all these problems were related to my mother dropping the camera down the stairs.

Those that have this camera- be patient with "cleaning tape" errors. Cycle the power a few times. Take the battery on and off. It will usually work eventually.

Having half the screen blue has only happened when I used the aftermarket Hi-output battery. It works fine for pictures, but will usually screw up video.

For indoor video, I usually use the SLOW 2 video speed. Brighter video, but slower fps.

Slow picture downloads are due to the Serial port, Video download with firewire is no problem.