Stephen, your post seems consistent with what I've read on the various websites, as regards JVC's customer response. I would certainly encourage anyone with problems to avail themselves of JVC's customer reps to resolve their problems.

I gotta weigh in too. I was unhappy with my JVC, and the situation was completely taken care of. And for customers who have expressed dissatisfaction on other forums, no less than Bob Mueller (Chief Operating Officer of JVC Broadcast) has stepped in personally to offer assistance on a one-on-one basis.

JVC does seem to be doing its best to take care of its customers.

Do I have to be in JVC's back pocket and tout the hd100 despite it's numerous defects?

Well, even though I ran into some communication mixup and got kind of screwed on Friday I am still a fan of the camera. I think JVC might consider hiring a couple of guys to kind of look out for their prosumer users and make sure the channels of communication are open, but that doesn't really have anything to do with the products themselves. That's more of an issue with middle management in their service division not having a very useful grasp on quality assurance.

I am in Oklahoma today and just spent about 10 hours shooting a music video in 30P and found the camera to be an amazing tool. It's light enough that my old bones aren't killin' me, but it handles like a "real" camera, which is something I haven't found in any of the other HDV offerings. The quality of the video is amazing, too. I'm carrying around a 20" iMac these days. It's not really *that* much bigger than a laptop, but it's much more useful and the screen is great. Anyway, I'd shoot a take, capture and review and shoot another take. I didn't use any gain and shot most of the day at between f2.8 and f4. The video was stunning, IMO. I have no regrets whatsoever about the purchase. I just wish I was able to shoot in 24P.

Now, when the drives become available I hope to shoot in 24P and just move the files across to the iMac for review and backup. Then when I get home I'll edit in Vegas on my PC.

Well, it's official now - at least for U.S. Customers.

Go here for the details:
http://pro.jvc.com/pro/special/HD100_upgrade/hd100upgrade.html

- Improved NLE compatibility (scene breaks)
- Improved Reliability (I assume this means the "Mode changing" and "blue screen" issues in some firmware)
- Run-Time information with Anton Bauer Battery systems (IDX not affected)
- Compatibility with the DR-HD100U Hard drive

If you read the fine print on the form you will see that you only send the body, but you have to pay for shipping/insurance to JVC yourself. JVC pays to send it back to you.

Turnaround time is 72 Hours.

If you are local in California JVC recommends you bring your camera in person and wait while it is upgraded. Call 1-800-582-5825 in advance.

Since this update has been made official, we now have a new thread for discussing it... located at this link:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=63294

So in order to make sure that all the conversation about this topic stays together and under one roof, I'm closing this thread (which started before the upgrade became official) and encourage any new posts about this topic to go to the new thread, which once again, is found here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=63294