[banjo21]

Hi all. I bought the JVC MG77 a couple of months ago, it was my first camcorder.
........ the JVC has now been taken through a holiday in Greece and I am frankly appalled at the quality of the video for £550. My brother's 2 year old, £350 Sony ?14? is far better with both movement and in low light.
........
Generic fault or specific fault my av colleagues?
........

Anyway I may owe JVC an apology. I couldn't believe it was so bad. I had a thought to grab the AV lead that came with the JVC for the first time and play direct from CC to TV via AV sockets. Wow! OK so its not component DVD quality but its far better than the MOD files copied to my PC and then renamed to MPG and then played in jerkivision via LAN to XBMC to screen. So I either have a very poor MPEG decoder or the ethernet connection from PC to Xbox/XBMC to back of plasma via componenet aint up to it.
Either way I owe JVC a bit of an apology - so I'm sorry. All I need to know now is how I get the MODs of the CC onto the PC for editing and on to the plasma with the same quality the CC via AV lead direct to TV produces........

[redsox_mark]

I’m not surprised that the quality isn’t as good as that of a less expensive DV camcorder, but it shouldn’t be as bad as you describe! Was it all in “auto” mode? If the shutter speed was manually selected at a low speed, for example, that would explain the issues with movement… or if the “night alive” mode was left on (this mode drops shutter speed to 1/2 of a a second, so any movement will be blurred.

Here is a link to an objective review of the MG70, which is similar in spec (these guys haven’t reviewed the 77)
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...der-Review.htm

They conclude that JVC still have a long way to go to get the quality to miniDV standards… but it isn’t as awful as you have described.

My guess is either it is faulty or there was some issue with the settings.

Hopefully some JVC HDD cam owners can reply with their experiences.

[banjo21]

Thanks for that. Reading the review and your comments it appears night-mode is a complete no-no.

On holiday I used everything on automatic - it is the first time I've picked up a camcorder . Funny thing is that my £160 Fuji Z1 digi camera is better when its taking video.

I'll try again in the garden this pm (bunking off for the sun). I'll try the sports setting it may give a better performance on movement but surely this affects the light gathering ability of the camera?

Anyway thanks again. If I cant get it sorted I'll definitely stick with a DV for a couple more years.

[hillster]

Banjo, any improvements with the PQ on the MG77? I'm thinking of buying one but a little uncertain at the moment....

I had a JVC MG21....Same as 77 I believe but with a smaller HDD.

I didn't like it at all, was very disappointed in the quality and returned it a couple of days later.

I played with the settings a lot....

[hillster]

OK back to the drawing board or perhaps the Sony HC96...