JVC GZ-HM550 I've had this camcorder for about a week now and so far I am pretty happy with it. The 1 matter that genuinely strikes me as unusual is marketing a HD camcorder, but not including a HDMI cable in the bundle…? Playback on the footage recorded on a entire HD tv by using RCA and even component cables isn't likely to lead to great picture good quality. My mini-HDMI cable really should be delivered inside the following morning or so after which I'll be in a position to really evaluate the picture. So far the player looks significantly superior on my computer system monitor than it does on my 52″ 1080P LCD Tv.

Also, the camcorder ships using the movie quality arranged to XP, instead of the largest top quality UXP. When setting quality to UXP it offers a warning that UXP picture information can only be written to Blu-Ray, which certainly makes sense. On the other hand, the bundled software will instantly downgrade the UXP video clip documents to XP good quality if you want to create to DVD, and then you will nevertheless have the increased good quality UXP for future use. Appears unusual to not report from the highest quality as you'll be able to constantly downgrade the footage, but you will by no means upconvert to true full HD high quality if recording at lower excellent.

So far, I'm not impressed using the photo quality of still images, but I haven't played all-around while using the settings significantly yet. The handful of stills that I've taken have turned out grainy and dark. In dedicated image mode, you are able to bring 9MP stills, whilst when getting snapshots in movie mode you're constrained to 5MP. So far I consider all of my stills were used in video mode.

The camera has some excellent capabilities that I've not yet played with nor am I positive I ever will. The time lapse is often a wonderful characteristic, but unless there's a spectacular sunset or one thing I'm not certain I'll have a lot use for it. Very same for the auto record feature, interesting to possess, but what are the practical applications? I suppose I could set it up and see how generally my dog moves close to throughout the day time when we're not property. Just one point with the two of these modes is how the LCD need to continue to be open, when you close the LCD, the camera shuts off absolutely.

The battery that comes while using the unit doesn't previous extremely lengthy – roughly 45 minutes. the constructed in memory can hold about 2.five hours worth of picture at UXP excellent so the battery is by considerably the limiting element with your usage. When the player by way of HDMI turns out to become as beneficial as I hope, I'll be investing in the increased potential battery plus a stand alone charger. Out with the box, the battery only charges when the power cord is plugged into the camcorder itself.

The computer software integrated is incredibly effortless to utilize and has some neat organization approaches of displaying picture information inside a calendar layout by month, evening and hour which it tends to make it simple to locate your records.

The software program has alternatives for converting the player to a quantity of various media and file sorts. You possibly can write the files to Blu-Ray, DVD and AVCHD disc (DVD media).
It also has the capacity to convert video for upload for you Tube, iTunes and can also convert to .wmv for use on computers and upload to other web-sites, just like Facebook. The conversion course of action lets you select the video size you would like and at least on my PC was very rapid to course of action.

I'll try to update this evaluate immediately after I am capable to test the video clip by means of HDMI and use more from the functions.

UPDATE 3/24/2010: Recorded a school concert last night plus the battery lasted for 1.5 several hours of almost constant recording. This was very much far better than the capacity I noticed earlier when recording 5 or 10 minute segments spread out above a few days.

UPDATE 3/28/2010: Picture top quality by way of a Category 2, mini-HDMI cable is much far better than via the cables enclosed with all the camcorder. My Tv indicates a entire 1920×1080 picture resolution even though it doesn't indicate if it is 1080i or 1080p. The box indicates that the camcorder has full 1080p output, but I can't verify that for guaranteed.

I've had a possibility to consider some more however images equally in picture and inside the committed photo mode. Given the right lighting illustrations or photos in both modes are usable. Photos used in committed photo mode are of larger excellent, which can be to become expected because they may be 9MP photos as an alternative to the ~5MP pictures you get in picture mode.

All in all, I'm a lot more satisfied with camcorder now then I was when I initially posted this examine. I'd rate it at 4 1/2 stars if feasible.