[Suprfly2k]

Man, I hope someone can help me out here...


Back in the summer of 2004, JVC offered a free HD10U camcorder with the purchase of a D-ILA projector. I shot a lot of 720p miniDV's of my young son, who has since passed away. I no longer have the camera, and it appears, that newer mini DV HD cameras won't play the 720p tapes. For obvious reasons, I really want to download this material.


So, does anyone have one of these 720p miniDV cameras laying around? I'd love to arrange to rent it long enough to download the material. Or, any other suggestions?


Thanks,

James

 

[dustindu4]

Sorry to hear about your son.


I don't know much about camera rental options, but I think your best choices are going to be either getting someone to do it for you (pay service) or buy another camera on ebay. The ebay route will probably be the cheapest option (and safest = they can't get lost), unless you get lucky and find one to rent/borrow. Good luck

 

[dustindu4]

overstock has a used one for $350

http://www.google.com/products/catal...wBA#ps-sellers

 

[ericjut]

I think the original poster is referring to the venerable JY-HD10U model using 720p HDV, not the GZ-HD10U which is AVCHD based and doesn't use tapes.


Suprfly2k -> Sorry for your loss. I would probably opt for the rental option. Contact a local pro photo equipment and ask them about a JY-HD10U. Here are a few examples I googled:
http://dmc.caltech.edu/services/equipment
http://www.hollywoodstudiorentals.co..._RATE_CARD.pdf
http://www.studiogear.net/products.asp


Look like the cost would be around $100-$150 a day.

 

[Shadow_7]

Are you in any hurry to archive them to usable digital formats? Put a WTB (want to buy) ad on craigslist and scour eBay for a few months and you'll likely find that cam or something like it to achieve the task. Check local pro-ish studios to see if they have that cam in inventory. Or just knows someone who knows someone. 720p shouldn't make it that old of a cam, so you should be able to find something. There might be some sort of tape reader capable of accessing the data as well. Not that I'm familiar with any, not having worked with tapes outside of computer backups.

 

[ericjut]

That JVC was the very first HDV model available on the market, which makes it almost 7 years old ( http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...r-06-02-03.htm ) and was the only cam that was doing 720p30 in HDV. This last fact will make it very hard to find non-JVC HDV devices that will support that format.


Also, it's already getting more difficult to find 2-3 year old HDV models on eBay/Craigslist, so I would be surprised to see 7 year old prosumer models available there.


As I said, I think his best bet is to find a local pro place that would have it on rental.

 

[Shadow_7]

Living in the country as it were doesn't have many pro shops in proximity of me. But there's a number of us tech packrats out there. We just don't know if we have something that you need if you never ask. There should be a few of them out there if they were giving them away.


A few hits on craigslist. One in Jersey for $600. With a few extras. I couldn't find one by name in TN though. Being a PRO-ish cam, it might be a little harder to locate. Definitely hit up the pro shops around town.

 

[BenjaminKing]

I sent you a PM.

 

[Suprfly2k]

First off, thanks to everyone for their help. These are great ideas.


I spent some time on the phone with a JVC tech rep today. Here's what was learned:


The HD10 writes HDV-1 files. Most cameras today read only HDV-2 files. That's the problem. As some of you recommended, I need to get my hands on (or hire a video editor with access to) an HD10, HD100, HD110, HD200 or CUVS1. As I have about ten 60-minute tapes, it seems the most cost effective thing would be to find/buy/rent an HD10, rather than pay the hourly reate to an editor to copy the material to a hard drive.


I am also going to scour my externals to find any M2T2 files that I may have already downloaded...surely I was smart enough to back-up! It's just been too long for me to remember.


Again, thanks for the help and I'll post updates.


James