JVC Everio GZ-HD320 First Impressions Camcorder Review

by David Kender
Published on Jan 11, 2009 1:00 PM

 
Intro Audio
Compression & Media
 Manual Controls
Still Features Handling & Use
Playback & Connectivity Other Features
Conclusion Photo Gallery
Specs and Ratings



Compression
The GZ-HD320 may signal the end of JVC's use of the MPEG-2 TS format, which we're happy to welcome. True, our testing of the JVC GZ-HD40, which shot in both MPEG-2 TS and AVCHD, showed some improvements in image quality, the interoperability with existing software was poor, as it is with many proprietary formats. The entire industry has clearly moved to MPEG-4 as a whole, either implemented as AVCHD or as AVC/H.64. The fact that the GZ-HD320 records only in AVCHD means that you're more likely to find it a happy home with some piece of video software you already own.

The GZ-HD320 records at four quality settings: 24Mbps (a new high speed for JVC, tying with Canon for the fastest possible speed in AVCHD), then 17Mbps, 12Mbps, and 5Mbps.

All recording is done at full 1920 x 1080 interlaced fps, but the camcorder offers the ability to up-res that to 1080P in-camera for supporting TVs.

Media
The GZ-HD320 is a hard drive camcorder, with the option to increase the already generous capacity by way of microSD cards.

Recording Media
Primary Media 120GB Hard Drive
Secondary Media microSD card slot

Editing
The GZ-HD320 ships with Everio MediaBrowser software. This PC-only bundle includes basic importing and editing tools, as well as the new upload to YouTube software and transfer to iTunes feature.



A sample of the calendar view in the new Everio MediaBrowser software





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