JVC release major firmware update for net connected handheld camera

JVC has released a FREE firmware update for their GY-HM650 handheld camcorder taking it to a whole other level of connectivity

With all the talk of such things as 4K over the internet that don’t seem to take into account the practicalities of the real world, it's great to see a company like JVC taking a very different approach to things. As you may know JVC developed an amazing camcorder that can capture footage in the field and transfer it directly from the camera right back to base, using Wi-Fi or GSM. They went to a lot of trouble to produce a very high quality 1080p image, (so good in fact that the BBC ordered a load of them) only to discover that a lot of their customers were still stuck in Standard Definition land anyway, and even worse that the net connections they had access to weren’t always exactly stellar either! 

As a result they have gone to a lot of effort to update the camera so that not only is it a great camera on paper but that it has the kind of functionality that people might require in the real world. Some key new additions are:

Background FTP transmission

A really practical function that allows you to start your FTP transfer of your footage, and carry on shooting while the transfer continues in the background! I’m sure anyone shooting fast moving news on this camera will be especially happy for this! It even supports a number of secure FTP formats too.

Improved Standard Definition Quality

JVC have made improvements to the codec with Standard Definition in mind to try and maximise the quality while in those modes.

Clip Trimming

Basically it allows you to do some very basic editing in camera. You can define start and end points for the footage and crop the file down so that you only transfer the part of the footage that is needed and thus save on the time and bandwidth needed for transfer.

Live Streaming

The camera can use its dual encoders to stream video live, at the same time as recording it to the memory card. It can now also stream at a wide range of bitrates, so for people with fancy satellite video links they can now stream at 8Mbps even in Standard Definition but people in the back of beyond somewhere with a sat phone or something can stream at less than 300Kbps.

4G

Support for the new 4G modems and network connections. 

It’s great to see a large company like JVC taking account of the wide diversity of users needs. After all it makes no sense telling someone in a war zone or the desert somewhere that they need to upgrade their net connection! The GY-HM650 is now a very versatile camera able to cope with a wide variety of situations and it does so by scaling to the users needs rather than asking the customer to adapt to the hardware requirements of the manufacturer.