I, despite having such a lowsy run with the drop out issue with the HD 101, am considering the HM 700. Has anyone who has owned or operated a HM 700 seen any evidence of the split screen effect which has been in evidence in the HD series? Does anyone know whether JVC has actually engineered a solution for the split screen effect in the HM 700?

regards

Ian Skurrie

The design of the CCDs is exactly the same (2 x 480x720 chips,) but the split-screen was an issue that was taken care of back in 2006 by a revamped QC. Obviously some HD100 or 200 series cameras slipped through the cracks but we seldom hear of this problem on the GY-HD board now.

You asked if anyone has seen evidence of it. I have... under extreme circumstances (available light on my residential street at 2-3AM with +9dB gain and gamma cranked up.)
You can see for yourself if you download my night tests.
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/jvc-gy-hm-series-camera-systems/197198-downloadable-hm700-night-exterior-tests.html

If the slight appearance of the "split-screen" can only be invoked under these extreme conditions then I would say the issue has been resolved on JVC's end.

The design of the CCDs is exactly the same (2 x 480x720 chips,) but the split-screen was an issue that was taken care of back in 2006 by a revamped QC. Obviously some HD100 or 200 series cameras slipped through the cracks but we seldom hear of this problem on the GY-HD board now.

You asked if anyone has seen evidence of it. I have... under extreme circumstances (available light on my residential street at 2-3AM with +9dB gain and gamma cranked up.)
You can see for yourself if you download my night tests.
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/jvc-gy-hm-series-camera-systems/197198-downloadable-hm700-night-exterior-tests.html

If the slight appearance of the "split-screen" can only be invoked under these extreme conditions then I would say the issue has been resolved on JVC's end.

Thanks Tim, from your test footage, for all practical purposes, I would think that the problem is resolved, which is good news.

regards
Ian Skurrie

I have been using a 100(a) for over 3 years now and have not had a split occur in actual shooting conditions, including available light work documentary-style in offices, large not well lit meeting rooms etc. with window or just high up room lights which can be pretty dull.

I can produce it on demand by putting the camera under my desk with no or little light where the combination of low light + low contrast will bring it out due to not enough information for the cpus to calibrate and balance.

But under the conditions of real work it has never happened.

I have a HD110, and I CAN get it if I record before the unit warms up and have the gain +9 or higher. Once it's warmed up though even on max gain, it usually dissapears. But I rarely gain over +9 anyway.

In fact I've noticed that that (horrors!) the AGC (is that right or am I using the terminology from the HD10?) when I select it as my max gain, gives a suprisingly good image (usually better than my low light level tweaking) at super low light scenes where I have no control over lighting. Again, when it was warmed up the split screen dissapeared ALWAYS on the auto gain circuit.

So I'm sure you could force a new HM700 in the first 5 minutes to show split screen, otherwise I'm assuming (I don't have a HM700 yet) we wouldn't have any problems.