Let’s get one thing out of the way right up front: JVC’s CU-VH1 is a niche product aimed at professionals and hard-core video enthusiasts who live and breathe state-of-the-art technology — in this case, high-definition video recording. It also happens to be the world’s first portable video player/recorder to support the new high-definition video (HDV) camcorder format developed by Canon, JVC, Sharp, and Sony. And what’s more, it’s a MiniDV deck that uses regular DV tape for both standard- and high-def recording and playback.
As you’ve probably guessed by now, the $2,000 recorder is intended for use with a high-def camcorder. While HD cams from Sony and other manufacturers are reportedly on the way, JVC is still leading the pack with two models: the $3,500 GR-HD1 (click to read the July/August 2003 review) and the newer, pro-oriented JY-HD10, which costs $500 more.
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At first glance, you might mistake the CU-VH1 for a portable DVD player. It’s very compact and runs on AC or battery power, so you can take it just about anywhere. For example, you could use it as an extra monitor at a family event you’re recording or for playing back your home movies on a big-screen HDTV, or to transfer footage to a computer without tying up the camcorder. The deck has a fold-down 4:3 LCD screen measuring only 3 3/8 inches diagonally — similar to the viewscreen on the GR-HD1 camcorder itself. The display contains 240,000 pixels, which is a far cry from high-definition, so you’ll need to connect the player to an HDTV to watch your tape in high-def.
The CU-VH1 doesn’t include a hard drive to offload video from tape, nor does it enable you to do any editing. For that you’ll need to transfer your footage to a computer using the i.Link port (a.k.a. FireWire or IEEE 1394). You can save stills to a flash-memory card, though — the CU-VH1 accepts the SD and MultiMediaCard (MMC) formats — and transfer them to a computer via the USB port.
Supplied accessories include an AC power adapter/charger and a lithium-ion battery pack that’s compatible with the GR-HD1, composite- and S-video cables, stereo audio cables, a set of component-video cables (along with RCA-to-BNC adapters for connecting them to the deck’s pro-style BNC jacks), a USB cable, and a mini remote control. A supple 1 1/2 -inch-wide black nylon strap lets you hang the CU-VH1 comfortably from your shoulder. Though you’re more likely to run the deck from a power strip, I found that its battery charged fully in 1 3/4 hours and then provided continuous playback for about the same time (exceeding JVC’s claim of 1 1/2 hours).
For my video test, I left the CU-VH1 at home but borrowed a GR-HD1 high-def cam (with a tripod) and headed for the old fairgrounds in Flushing Meadows, Queens, site of both the 1939 and 1964 New York World’s Fairs. I spent a gloriously sunny spring morning shooting an impromptu nature documentary, Waterfowl of Flushing. Four hours later, I returned with 40 minutes of pristine, widescreen footage. I removed the tape from the camera and plopped it into the CU-VH1, which was connected to my HDTV through its component-video inputs, then sat down to watch.
It was the most incredibly detailed and realistic amateur video I’d ever seen. I could count the tailfeathers on the brown geese my zoom lens caught sunning themselves as I panned a muddy field, see sweat on the arms and faces of rowing crews in the middle of a sparkling lake, and read the insignia on aircraft descending into LaGuardia Airport. I was entranced by closeups of dandelions dancing in the breeze to the tune of a passing ice cream truck, and I marveled anew at the topographical details on the Unisphere looming behind the arc of a pedestrian bridge as lone bicyclists meandered over the rise. Since I’d also used the camera to save snapshots to an SD card, I was able to switch from video to a digital slideshow controlled by the midget remote.
You can set the JVC camcorder to store a 160 x 120-pixel thumbnail image on an SD or MMC card every time you start shooting a new scene. When you slip the card into the CU-VH1, the thumbnails act as chapters, pointing to the scenes on the tape. (The onus is on you to keep a particular tape and card together, though.) The CU-VH1 also has a Navi Store button that lets you bookmark additional images for thumbnails as you play back a tape so that you can return to scenes quickly. Six thumbnails fit on the player’s LCD at a time, and text appearing above a highlighted thumbnail shows the associated frame’s date and time.
Pressing the Menu/Set button while a thumbnail is selected is supposed to move the tape to that frame. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a hit-or-miss proposition during my tests. Half the time the player didn’t find the scene because the thumbnail pointed to an earlier or later tape position!
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Even though it took less than 2 minutes for the player to rewind the entire 40 minutes recorded on my tape, tape will always be a poor substitute for random access on an optical disc or a hard disk. And as good as high-definition looks, you do give up certain features by playing your high-def MiniDV tapes on the GR-HD1 or the CU-VH1: JVC provides no frame-by-frame playback, slow motion, playback zoom, or audio dubbing for the progressive-scan HD and SD modes — features you do get for standard-resolution (interlaced) MiniDV tapes.
The CU-VH1’s remote includes zoom and pan controls. Though you can’t zoom into a high-def video, you can use the snapshot button on the player or the remote to save high-resolution stills (at up to 1,280 x 720 pixels) to the MMC or SD card, and you can zoom and pan images all you want.
Besides playing standard MiniDV tapes, the CU-VH1 can dub a tape from the GR-HD1 or any MiniDV cam connected by an optional FireWire (i.Link) cable. It can also make standard MiniDV recordings from other A/V devices using the composite/S-video and stereo audio inputs (which double as outputs). In this mode, you can set the video recording for SP or LP. The latter ekes 90 minutes out of a 1-hour tape or 120 minutes out of an 80-minute tape.
If you’re thinking of recording a high-def program on the CU-VH1 from a terrestrial tuner, a cable box, a satellite receiver, or a high-def hard-drive recorder, forget it. Since the deck’s component-video connectors are used only for output, I wasn’t able to record HDTV programs from my high-def cable box. JVC says that even if a tuner has a FireWire output, the HDTV signal is not compatible with the HDV format.
At the moment, there’s little reason to buy the CU-VH1 unless you already have one of the JVC high-definition camcorders. But once other companies introduce high-def HDV cams, competition is bound to lower prices even as capabilities expand. Then the CU-VH1 could blossom as an indispensable sidekick for budding videographers. Meanwhile, let me just say how exciting it is to accept the Academy’s Best Documentary Award for Waterfowl of Flushing. I couldn’t have finished it in time without JVC’s helpful CU-VH1. Fly Away Home, move over!