Hacking a prgoressive cam for 24p?

[John C. Butler]

I have a JVC camcorder I plan to modify (way past its warranty) to fit my needs and I was wondering if there was some kind of firmware hack I could make work on it to give me 24p? It's significantly old, but I have zilch money for anything new (I was conned into buying this ancient yet kind of adequate cam). The model is a gr-dvl9000. I've already learned how to create a lens mount for slr lenses on a small camcorder by experimenting with another one I have that's broken (I may post pictures) and I would like to mod the firmware of the camera too. Also, is there any way to hack a camera so it won't refuse to operate when it detects condensation? I hat that feature.

[Tony Tibbetts]

Doubtful. It still has to get on to tape at the specified codec parameters.

[Boyd Ostroff]

Hi John and welcome to DVinfo. I've moved this to our Alternative Imaging forum. If anyone knows how to do such a thing, you'll find them here!

[Ben Winter]

Originally Posted by John C. Butler

I have a JVC camcorder I plan to modify (way past its warranty) to fit my needs and I was wondering if there was some kind of firmware hack I could make work on it to give me 24p? It's significantly old, but I have zilch money for anything new (I was conned into buying this ancient yet kind of adequate cam). The model is a gr-dvl9000. I've already learned how to create a lens mount for slr lenses on a small camcorder by experimenting with another one I have that's broken (I may post pictures) and I would like to mod the firmware of the camera too. Also, is there any way to hack a camera so it won't refuse to operate when it detects condensation? I hat that feature.

There are a few issues here.

One, you'd need a leaked version of the firmware directly from the company. Usually these are gotten from disgruntled Service Center employees. Yet, it's only happened once or twice in the history of digital camcorders (I think PD-150 was leaked a while back)

Second, you'd need to find suitable hardware to interface with the service port on the camera, if it's even accessible from the outside. And software to go with that hardware. Again, your anarchist Service Center worker is your source here.

Third, the appropriate hardware to sequence 24p has to be available on the camera, and this is an integral part of the design. You can't just "add it on."

You're better off just buying a 24p camera if you want it that badly. But honestly, 24p is overrated. Film look is about lighting, set design, lighting, costumes, makeup, lighting, a steady camera movement-- oh and lighting. Look on my website: the film that gets the most compliments re: cinematography is the "One Headlight" video and guess what? It's 30p.

[John C. Butler]

Hmm. Well, simply being progressive really helps with the motion characteristics film look. I always hated the weird motion blurring that deinterlacing interlaced footage caused. I have been working on the other aspects of the film look as you mentioned (especially lighting), and I think that's satisfactory by itself.