The JVC Everio GZ-MG77 offers the convenience of shooting as much as 37 hours of footage without having to swap a tape or DVD. By storing videos on its 30GB hard disk, JVC has created a camcorder that's extremely lightweight and compact, but unfortunately, the video quality simply doesn't stack up against that of most MiniDV or DVD camcorders. The GZ-MG77 is the high-end model of JVC's Everio line of hard-drive camcorders, with the largest CCD (2.2 megapixels) and hard drive (30GB) of its crew. Perplexingly, though, the GZ-MG77 lacks several features that the lower-end Everio camcorders have, such as a video light and a 32X optical zoom.
Design
At only 430 grams, the compact JVC Everio GZ-MG77 is much more compact than its MiniDV and DVD counterparts. Its comfortable shape and light weight make extended one-handed use a pleasure, and it's small enough to stow in nearly any bag. Its sleek silver-and-black case feels solid, and the hard drive is protected by a shutdown feature that stops the drive if it senses you've dropped the camera.
The GZ-MG77 sports relatively few buttons. The camcorder's exterior has just three switches: a power/mode control, the record button, and the zoom rocker. Beneath the LCD are four more buttons and the still/video switch. Most adjustments are made using the small joystick mounted on the left edge of the flip-out LCD panel. Though the joystick is easy to use, it's tiny and nearly impossible to operate while holding the camcorder steady.
The control layout is more logical than on previous Everio camcorders. Functions are easier to find than in the previous generation, though the multiple menu categories require a lot of back-and-forth navigation. Of course, after initial setup, you can just press the Auto button and let the camcorder make all the choices for you.
Because there's no tape or CD to remove and the battery snaps onto the back, the GZ-MG77 lends itself well to tripod shooting. You'll need to remove it only to access the Secure Digital card slot on the bottom of the camcorder, which it uses for still-image capture.
Features
The JVC Everio GZ-MG77 records its video on an internal 30GB hard disk. This allows you to save as much as 7 hours of video at the highest quality or a staggering 37 hours of footage at the lowest-quality setting. Video is transferred to a PC or a Mac for editing and burning via a USB 2.0 cable, using either bundled software or simple drag-and-drop copying. The camera records in standard MPEG-2 format, similar to DVD camcorders. It includes PowerDirector Express NE, a simple video-editing program. You can also use other MPEG-2-compatible software, though you'll probably have to rename the file extensions from .mod to .mpg for third-party programs to recognise the videos.
The GZ-MG77, like all other current Everio models, supports JVC's Everio Share Station DVD burner. This external device allows you burn DVDs straight from the camcorder without even touching a desktop computer. Unfortunately, editing with the Everio Share Station is limited to simple playlist editing and file deletion.
The GZ-MG77's lens features a modest 10X optical zoom, surprising given that the lower-end camcorders in the line, such as the JVC GZ-MG37, have a 32X optical-zoom range. The GZ-MG77 uses a tiny 1/3.9-inch, 2-megapixel CCD, offering somewhat better low-light performance and higher-resolution stills than do the low-end models.
For shooting in low light, the GZ-MG77 offers automatic gain control and a shutter-slowing NightAlive mode. The camcorder includes an onboard flash for still-image capture, but it lacks the video light found on lower-end models such as the GZ-MG37.
Along with a fully automatic mode, the GZ-MG77 allows you to manually adjust exposure, shutter speed, focus, and white balance. The manual control is welcome, because the camcorder has just four program autoexposure modes.
You can label individual video files as certain types of events, such as Vacation or Wedding. These tags can be handy for finding related clips while building playlists on the camera.
The JVC Everio GZ-MG77 lacks a shoe for external accessories, limiting expansion to 30.5mm filters and wide- and telephoto-conversion lenses. The camera can output through the standard S-Video and composite ports.
Performance
The JVC Everio GZ-MG77 takes forever to perform some operations. Though autofocus and exposure were generally accurate, both moved at a snail's pace. Automatic exposure was particularly slow, often taking several seconds to adjust when panning from a light subject to a darker one. Manual focus was usable, though the joystick is a poor control for fine adjustments.
The zoom rocker is very sensitive, but it was easy to perform both fast and fine zooms once we got used to it. Optical image stabilisation functioned well enough but didn't completely get rid of camera shake. At low zoom levels, it eliminated typical hand movements. At higher levels, camera shake was present, but the image stabilisation made the motions smoother.
The 2.7-inch, 16:9 wide-screen LCD monitor is reasonably sharp, and it displays fairly accurate colour. It's a bit small and video shot in 4:3 aspect ratio is shrunk further by the screen. Unfortunately, the GZ-MG77 has no viewfinder so the LCD is the only option for framing and reviewing shots.
Because the GZ-MG77 lacks a microphone jack, users are stuck with the camcorder's middling stereo microphone. It does a decent job of picking up sound, but offers little in the way of separating the channels. There's a wind cut feature, but no audio zoom function.
The GZ-MG77's battery lasts about 1.5 hours, a great improvement over the 40- to 50-minute battery life of its predecessor, the GZ-MG70. Still, you'll want to pack a couple of extended batteries if you plan to fill the entire 37 hours of recording space between charges. Even the 7 hours of high-quality video requires the camera to take a few breaks to recharge.
Image Quality
Much to our disappointment, the JVC Everio GZ-MG77's video quality is quite poor, and JVC hasn't addressed the many deficiencies that plagued last year's GZ-MG70. We can't even attribute its image problems to its use of MPEG-2 encoding; DVD camcorders such as the Sony Handycam DCR-DVD505 use MPEG-2 as well but produce much better images.
Even with the camera set to best quality, our test footage suffered from very noticeable problems, such as compression artefacts, colour fringing, and noise. The variety of artefacts included shimmering pixels near straight edges and stair-step jaggies on curves. The video also lacked detail compared to MiniDV footage.
The GZ-MG77's video quality is at least better than that of lower-end models such as the GZ-MG37, thanks to its larger CCD (1/3.9 inch vs. 1/6 inch). It's also a better performer in the dark, where graininess doesn't increase much until lighting gets very low. The colour balance and intensity are significantly more accurate.
Aspect-ratio distortion is a big problem on the GZ-MG77. If you're using software other than the bundled applications, you'll need to use your video-editing software to adjust the aspect ratio so that wide-screen footage appears correctly; Adobe Premiere Elements, Windows Media Player, and Nero Showtime didn't recognise the wide-screen aspect ratio of footage that we shot in 16:9 mode. Video playback was squashed and inaccurate until we manually adjusted the aspect ratio.
The JVC Everio GZ-MG77's stills are decent, suitable for small snapshot prints if you don't need to crop or zoom. Colour came out well, but our indoor shots were blurry, and the flash's red-eye reduction was completely ineffective.
