JVC Everio GZ-MC200: An Hour of DVD with No Cassette!

DVD Transfer

The Everio is a recorder and not designed for editing. It lacks the FireWire output that MiniDV camcorders have, and its MPEG-2 PS format is not very compatible with standard editing software like Premiere, Studio, Video Studio, iMovie, or Liquid Edition. Importing clips into these programs requires that you change the filename extension from .MOD to .MPEG and convert the AC3 sound to PCM. However the provided PowerDirector software does allow you to convert your film into AVI, DivX, or Windows Media format for editing with Premiere Pro, for example. So all is not lost!

The Everio's strength is that it was designed for transferring videos to DVD. JVC is targeting people who want to share their video quickly and easily via DVD without prior editing. Consider this design focus before you make your purchase.

For transferring video to a computer, the Everio uses a USB 2.0 link, now standard on all PCs. Once the drivers are installed, Windows recognizes the Everio as a removable hard disk in My Computer. Then you have to use the bundled Cyberlink applications, PowerDirector and PowerProducer, to transfer your videos and stills. Note that there is no Mac driver.

PowerDirector lets you import all your video segments and arrange them on a timeline, where you can organize them and add a few titles and transitions. Then all you need to do is burn your DVD, creating an interactive menu if you like. The immense advantage of the Everio is that the video is already recorded in MPEG-2 format, letting you skip the compression stage, which normally takes a very long time.

The PowerDirector software lets you edit your video in the Everio's MPEG-2 PS format. It makes editing and authoring a DVD extremely simple.

PowerProducer is designed to capture your video sequences and burn them to DVD on the fly.

Naturally, if you just want to view your video on the TV set, the Everio has an AV/S-Video multi-connector output and a Peritel (SCART) adaptor.