Top 20 JVC Everio GZ-MC200 Camcorder Questions & Answers

I've seen quite a few posts in here about using 4GB microdrives in the S2 camera which many have had formatting problems with resulting in an initialization error. This happens because the microdrive is most likely pre-formatted as FAT32 vs FAT16 or just FAT. The S2 will not recognize FAT32.Here's a way to format it that I've found works every time when running Windows XP Pro service pack 2 as your operating system.A few things to mention first.As you know a microdrive tends to use a bit more battery power than flash type CF's. Therefore I highly recommend connecting the AC power supply to your camera before attempting any of this! Your batteries may not last long enough for the format process to complete as it does take a while for 4GB. If they should go dead while formatting I don't know what will happen. Suffice to say whatever does happen probably would not be good.Ok, here we go.Open "my computer" or whatever you have it called on your machine so that you can see all your drives. Install the 4GB CF Microdrive into your S2. Connect your firewire and the AC adaptor to your camera and then turn it on. The function screen on your S2 should say "I394 DOWNLOADING" .Now look a the drives you have on your computer, a new one should appear. Write this down as you will need it later. On my machine it shows up at "Removeable Disk (K:)"If you turn your camera off it will no longer show up so you can double check this if you wish simply by turnign your camera on and off. Write this drive letter down, you will need it later in these directions.Ok, once you're all hooked up, camera is turned on, and know what drive the camera is showing up as go to "start" on your toolbar. Select he following: start / programs / accessories / command promptWhen the command prompt window appears type cd\ and hit the enter key.You should be seeing the prompt C:\> at this point.Now type cd windows\system32 and press enter. The prompt should now be C:\WINDOWS\system32>Here's where you MUST be careful!!!!! I can not stess this enough!You're going to be using the dos format command. If you tell it to format the incorrect drive YOU WILL have a serious problem on your hands!!!Once a format process has started whatever drive you have selected will be trashed for all practial purposes. Needless to say if you format your boot drive your machine (typically drive C:\) it will be rendered completely usless and a total reinstall of the OS will be required. make no mistake, ALL DATA WILL BE LOST!!!ok, continuing on... Remember what drive your camera was?Mine was K: - substiture the drive letter that yours is in place of the K below.Type format K: and hit the enter key.You will be prompted with the folllwing message "Insert new disk for drive K: and press enter"press enter.The next prompt you will see is "The type of the file system is FAT verifying 3905M" and then followed by "??% complete"Once it has formatted 100% of the drive you will see this prompt. "WARNING! the cluster size for this volume, 64K bytes, may cause application compatibility problems particularly with setup applications. The volume must be lass than 2048MB in size to change this if the default cluster is used. Proceed with format using 64K cluster Y/N?"Type Y for yes and hit enter.The next prompt will get is "Initializing the file allocation table " "Volume label ?"Here you can give your drive a name, if you do not wish one press enter, if you want one, type it in and then press enter.I used MDR4GB so that when I hook my camera up I can easily tell what drive I have in it at that point.Anway, after you do or do not give it a label and press enter you you should be prompted with this;"Format complete. 4,094,885,888 bytes total disk space. 4,094,885,888 bytes total available on disk. 65,536 bytes in each allocation unit. 65,483 allocation units available on disk. 16 bytes in each FAT entry. Volume serial number is whatever your computer assigns to it c:\WINDOWS\system32> "Type the word exit and hit enter to close the command prompt window.****************Your microdrive is now formatted with a capacity of 4GB for use in your S2. The only issue you will have is that the counter will not function. Sequencial file numbering will not be effected. I do not know of any way around this but the added file capacity is well worth the inconvience of not knowing how many images remain before the card is full. If you have a typical setting that you're used to you can get a feel for how many images you have left in time. Some say, why bother? I say why not. I just picked up this Hitachi 4GB drive from circuit city for $70 after rebates. That's darn cheap memory folks!!!! I can live with no counter for now. If anyone knows how to get the counter back using a 4GB microdrive I would certainly be interested in how to do it. To bad Fuji does not offer firmware upgrades to solve this issue with the S2.Oh yea, one other thing. DO NOT attempt to format this drive in your camera. It will not work and you will get an error of some sort. Just delete the images after you have downloaded to your computer and then go back out and snap away. Have fun shooting, hope you have found this information helpful.

There are no 8GB SD cards. A card that size is actually an SDHC card. SD and SDHC cards fit the same slots, but they are slightly different. Many cameras won't work with the SDHC (high capacity) cards. SDHC is not backwards compatible.

Unless your manual specifically says that your camera can use an SDHC card, then it won't be able to. The maximum size of an SD card is 2GB. If you need more space, just carry a couple of cards and swap them, like people used to do when they filled up a film.

I think there's another factor that shuts down your system not the date. Check your micro HDD if properly inserted maybe something is wrong with it and the socket also the door that covers the Micro HDD and Battery has a switch, failure of such can lead you to this symptoms. Otherwise there's a problem with it that you need an expert to check. Good Luck

Hi,

The short answer is that this camcorder cannot be used as a webcam. To see the answer directly from JVC staff themselves see this link - second question down.
http://answers.jvc.com/answers/8611/product/73/questions.htm?sort=recentq&dir=asc

In regard to your other question - HD stands for High Definition and is a standard for picture quality. HD does not effect the ability of a camcorder to be used as a webcam.

Generally - for webcam use a camcorder needs to have a firewire port and your computer will need to be equipped with a firewire card/port. This camera only has a USB port.

Whether a USB connection will work as a webcam depends entirely on the specification of the particular camcorder. It can be done with some camcorders through the use of additional software but even at that the image quality will be poor using this method and I cannot recommend it.

To be honest there are drawbacks involved in using any camcorder as a webcam. This includes the fact that it is a bulky setup and the camcorder will need its own AC power supply and tripod and hardware.

You are better off using a dedicated USB webcam.

Hope this answers your question. If so please do take a moment to accept and rate the solution.

the stills use the USB and usually video needs firewire, do you have a port marked ieee1394, i-link or firewire?

Try formating the card on your computer and see if the card works, if it does try it again on the camera, if it still doesn't work properly on the camera, try formating it on a diffrent file system with the computer.

If the card still doesn't work It might be too big for the camera? unlikely?

Insert your memory card into your computer's reader if you have one. If not, you can purchase a multi-format USB Memory Card reader from Amazon.com or Buy.com

2 Open up 'My Computer'. You should see it under the list of available drives.

3 Check its contents first to make sure that you have the right drive.

4 In 'My Computer', right-click on the drive and choose 'Format'.

5 Leave all the options as they are and click on 'Start'. This is a non-reversible process so make sure this is what you truly wanted to do in the first place.

6 Once the process is completed, take the memory card out and insert it into your Digital Camera or any other device. Try to browse to it to make sure it works fine now.

I took camera to shop where I bought it and asked them direct, so they could show me what I needed to do.

I actually decided against using FixYa - not because I didn't think you would give me right information, but because of the cost - I'm on a pension only.

But thank you for contacting me.

Jane skeels

Video streaming is possible with DV camcorders thanks to the Firewire port (IEEE1394), which works very much like a digital video in/out connection. Basically, the camera just sends video, and if there's a computer attached, it receives the video and decides what to do with it on a computer.

USB doesn't work that way, normally. Most tapeless camcorders automatically set up the webcam as a storage device, which is a very distinct thing from a video streaming device.  A storage device is just a disc of some kind... it will show up under some letter (eg, K:) in Windows, when you attach the camcorder.  

Some USB camcorders allow for a "webcam" or "streaming" mode... I didn't find any specifics on your JVC, but I know some of the Panasonics support this. There are two ways. One is that, if you have the camera in record/standby mode, it may just go automatically into webcam mode when you attach USB.

The other way is that the camera will have something in the menus, like "Live mode" or "Webcam mode" that instructs it to configure USB for video streaming rather than storage-class attachement.

And of course, some of the tapeless camcorders have a Firewire port, just like a DV camcorder, which is there specifically to allow for streaming video, etc. You could use your camcorder as a web camera over Firewire, given the proper software... though you might find that's just as expensive as buying
a webcam.

And given the price of actual webcams, I would consider buying one
rather than adding wear and tear to my camcorders, just based on 
price. This is the same  reason I have a DV tape rewind device.. $20 device, $2000
camcorder... easy math.  

you can't, if your warranty still lasts send it in, other then that there is no way. buy a new camera.

Mike, proud owner of a JVC everio 30 gig

I had the same problem and after troubleshooting found out that the project was not opening because I had changed the location of some pictures I used on a slideshow.

It sucks that the project doesn't have it's own version of the slides and requires the photo files to be in the same physical location as they were when you originally created the slide or used the video file.

Not sure if this will help others, but if you moved any files that you used to create your project, try to restore them to their original location and see that fixes it for you...that fixed my problem.

good luck.

Look for a button marked MENU on the camera, push it, and see what the options are. One of them should be to switch to manual. Otherwise, consult the manual (or manufacturers website) for more info.

repair it or send out for repair

Use different software.

Hi, first of all my advice is: if you keep any electronics devices without usage for a long period, you must detach the battery/power supply. in this case I think the hard disk may be faulty, if you can open the camera and takeout the HDD connect with an HDD dock connect the dock to your system, in normal condition your computer will detect the hard disk, if so you can save the contents to your computer or you can format it, if it is not detecting your computer it means the HDD is physically damage. please change it.

Hi, I think your battery is 100% OK, if the power supply is perfect there may be problem with the switch, clean it with contact cleaner spray often press the switch several times. if the switch contacts are not connecting, this will help it to clear it. open the cam, check the power supply on the main board, there is a small fuse on the circuit board test it with. eventually we have to suspect the mother board. if so should change it.

available with JVC website.

sir, you may please re-set your cam to factory default, it will help to override the problem.

Hi, please write the question in English.