We recently bought a JVC GRD72 which is a US model~ we live in England but have an NTSC compatible TV ( toshiba 36ZP38 ) tosh sd220 dvd and tosh video.

1.Im having real problems getting the footage off my camcorder onto my pc as the bundled software ( pixela image mixer)only writes at VCD quality :-( I have a dvd writer and want to write dvd's ! recently read a review about this camera and it said something about writing to dvd via a firewire and i havent a clue what it is!! I have nero but it says i have to buy a plug in at $25 to write dvd's and i dont want to buy the plugin unless i know it will work ~ knowing my luck it wont !

2. The camcorder playback via the supplied leads (white red and yellow 3 plug thing)is grainy on my tv. i called JVC and they were very unhelpful stating it was a US camera on a UK tv - i would always have problems ! (thanks thats about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike :-)
I called the seller who sells 150+ every month in the uk and has never had a problem with compatibility yet ( i know he would say that ! )but seems a genuinely nice guy.
I have tried it on a PAL tv and playback is clear but black and white ( as im told it would be as its PAL not NTSC)
Im using sony tapes as they were recommended above JVC mini DV tapes for clarity on amazon.co.uk.

3. we are looking at getting the tosh RDXS32 as the rating is excellent and i havent seen a bad review. we want it for the HD and also it says you can recored onto dvd straight from a DV camera overcoming my problem number 1.

basically, im not a technically minded girl. Id really appreceiate some help and guidance with this one ! thanks loads in advance, Tina

I have an older Sony Hi8 and I use a Dazzleport to get the video onto my computer, and the software allows you to pick VCD, DVD, and other qualities or make your own custom settings. I'm not sure if that helps, but it works for me - of course, you have to purchase the port, but it's small and simple to use I find.

xoxo Robin

Tina,

I have exactly the same camera, (am also in the UK) buy a firewire lead for the camera, it's a 6 to 4 pin firewire lead also known as a dv lead. You need a firewire socket on your PC, it may have one already, or, if you have a soundblaster audigy soundcard, they have one built in, otherwise just buy a firewire add on card, they aint expensive. The pixella software is totally crap, you're a lot better off with Pinnacle Studio. As for the connection to TV, to be quite honest, when you connect to PC with firewire and use software such as pinnacle, you wont have any need to connect the camera to the TV.

If you need more, I can be contacted through my website at http://www.thetophouse.com

sorry for the delayed response ~ ive been to america and just got back yesterday. firstly thanks to you all for all your replies ~ NC10, you are quite right i dont have a firewire card but i have oodles of space on my hard drive (120gb with 84 free !) i have nero 6 version 6.6.0.1 OEM but havent managed to capture the footage to write it to dvd.
i have had cyberlink and easy creator in the past but removed them as my NEC 1300 dvd writer had appartently well know issues with them ( which i found too ! )

i guess the best thing to do is buy the firewire card and if you could send me the information you offered i would really appreciate it.


to tophouse ~ hooray !! i have finally found someone who has the same camera as me in the uk - i was beginning to think id been sold this as a practical joke !
i wouldnt know if i had a firewire but im pretty sure i dont. i have an ATI radeon 9800SE card ( i think ;-) whatever that means )

i will invest in pinnacle and also a dv lead and firewire card. if anyone has any suggestion where to go to get them etc fire away..... im armed with my plastic and ready to go !

thanks again guys for all your help, i really appreciate it :-)

Happy new year
Tina x

Pinnacle Studio DV 9.0
i have just found this on amazon.co.uk for £40 delivered and it contains a firewire card and dv lead !

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001EQN38/qid=1104613067/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_11_3/202-2408512-7279043

sound a bit too good to be true.. what do you think?

Thanks in advance
Tina

thanks for your fast response. currently there are 1.92 us dollars to a uk £ so seems quite reasonable.
thanks again for your great advice,
tina

i ordered the pinnacle and it was despatched today so i look forward to receiving it. also just for the hell of it i went and ordered the dvd recorder too so i should have double the chance of getting my DV footage to DVD! thanks to everyone for the replies. you have all been great.
Tina xox

Hi all,

i recieved the pinnacle software, firewire card and DV lead which i mentioned buying. I've also got the RDXS32 DVD Recorder i was toying with the idea of getting.

now we have a different set of problems i'd like some help on.... :-)

firstly, when connecting the camera to the DVD recorder via the audio leads i have a terrible picture. you can make out the picture but it is very bright coloured and choppy, a bit like a tv which needs fine tuning. the sound is perfect. Useless number one !

when connected via the DV cable the recorder doesnt recognise the camera and an error message flag appears telling me to reconnect by unplugging the camera and reconnecting. this makes no difference. useless number two !

it sems this camera will not play through the dvd recorder !

i have managed to get the camera connected to my pc and using the pinnacle software i have created DVD's which play so all is not lost. The only problem being when playing recordings which have been shot inside the quality appears a little spotty. Outside footage is crystal clear.
any help on this would be great.

my query is do you think that all the problems i have been having with this camera is related to the fact that it is NTSC and not a PAL camera? what makes PAL and NTSC so different and why wont thay work together????

I feel maybe that it just is not compatible. am i right?

any thoughts would be grately appreciated. :-) Im at my wits end with this, im beginning to wish id just bought a PAL camera ????????

thanks loads in advance.

Tina

Hello I also have a GRD72u camcorder (bought via a power seller on EBay). It wont transfer video to my PC via the Imagemaker 1.7 software which will not recognise that my camcorder is connected. I begin to suspect that this Camcorder is not compatable with windows XP. Has anyond managed to solve this problem ?. I have a firewire port but no firewire cable, would this be my best bet ?

This is a common problem with this camera, and finding information from JVC is horrible. There is an attitude within their CS department that it is not their problem, that you must have done something wrong. They also say they support only up to the momnent the computer says your camera is recognized.

This said, there are some hundres of cases like this on the internet, and about three solutions that might work that I have uncovered. One specific thing to look for seems to be a particular brand of firewire card (hence the word "standard" is rendered useless, I guess, but we won't think about that). Belkin cards have been tested and shown compatible, according to the JVC web site in a buried bit of information that you canot find by searching for your camera, with this caveat (and this is a quote)
===
You will need third party hardware and software in order to transfer moving video from your camera to your PC. Depending on what camera you have, a few different options are available to you. For more information on IEEE 1394 connectors locate the websites of manufacturers of this hardware. The following manufacturers firewire products were tested with JVC camcorders: Pinnacle Systems, Belkin, Orange Micro, Digital Origin, Ratoc . Please be advised that compatibility of JVC camera with firewire card may also depends on your particular computer specifications/hardware settings. Even though we tested the above hardware and bundled software there will be always exceptions and JVC doesn’t guarantee that computer, firewire card and JVC camcorder will interface flawlessly in everybody case.
====

So basically, it's once they get your money, you are on your own.

To the plus, the manual features of this camera work _very_ well,. it's jsut getting it to do what they advertise on the PC end that has been tricky for me.

I have a JVC GRD72U digital recorder and have recently tried to transfer my video footage from the DV tapes to my PC with no luck. I'm running Windows XP, my computer came with firewire ports(however I do not know the brand of firewire card) and I'm using a Belkin firewire cable to connect my dig record to my computer. I'm using Windows "Movie Maker, v. 5.1" that came installed on my PC as my editing software. When I open Movie Maker(the recorder being connected to the PC) the two available devices listed are "AVC Compliant DV Device" and "Hauppauge WinTV 88x Video Capture". My JVC recorder specifically is not listed, is this correct?
I select the "AVC Compliant" device continue through the setup process and I arrive at the final step "DV capture in progress" at which point Movie Maker proceeds to rewind and then play my DV tape yet does not capture any of the video. Do you have any clue why this is happening? Is there a setting that needs to be adjusted on the recorder which will allow the video to be captured? If you are familiar with Microsoft's "Movie Maker", is there a setting in the program which needs to be on/off that will allow the video to be captured.

Much appreciated.

Hi. I would like to know if anyone also encounter this problem that we have we our JVC mini dv (GR-D72). We cannot see anything on the LCD. Even if we opt to use the viewfinder instead, we cannot see anything. And we only used it a month ago. Now the real problem came in when we borrowed the JVC mini dv from our friend (GR-D33). He discovered the same problem with his mini dv. We got to own ours last may 2005 only. He had his last Jan 2005. We got the same problem that we only encountered on the same month (dec 2005).

Can somebody help us to fix this problem? We cannot count on the warranty since this was bought from another country.

I'm just wondrin' same problem, same time.. can you please check your JVC mini dv if it is still working fine.. Thanks!

hi! we were able to view and save files from our mini dv to the PC. I'll ask my husban how he was able to do this and post another reply to help you. By the way, check my posted problem as well and maybe you can help us.

Thanks!

I am not having any problems with the lcd screen on my recorder, nor have I heard of this being a problem with the JVC GRD72U. I did do a bit of research before I bought the JVC GRD72U and the recorder received an overall good rating for performance and quality, again in my research I did not read of problems with the lcd screen.
I would call the JVC 1-800 number and explain your problem as they might have a fix.
Sorry I could not be of more help.

I got same problem with my JVC GR-D33 mini digital camcord.
Whenever I turn it on, it gives me black screen on LCD,
and viewfinder. When I try to record it, black screen too.

By searching the web site, found there are quite a lot of people encountered the same problem.

This is quite obvious a JVM digi camcorder quality problem.


Anyone has a quick solution for this.