It’s been a long time we heard about JVC updating their Everio brand of camcorders (back in July to be more exact). But the company today announced a total of three new models for the Japanese market. Expect all of these to go on sale outside this country sooner or later.

It seems VHS will never die, and this is generally welcome, as a lot of good movies aren’t still available on optical discs. In summer 2008, Panasonic released a VHS/Blu-ray combo, followed by Sharp’s Aquos BD-HDV22 that was pretty much the same thing. And today, over one year later, JVC anounced the DR-BH250 [JP], which is a VHS recorder, Blu-Ray Recorder and 250GB HDD rolled into one.

Last year I made a habit of calling out manufacturers that released Blu-ray players that didn’t have the latest Profile 2.0 spec. That was last year. But for some odd reason, JVC has introduced a brand new Blu-ray player that confirms to the old Profile 1.1 spec and therefore doesn’t have an Ethernet port or can playback any of the BD-Live features. Oh and this player has an MSRP of $200.

Victor JVC has announced [JP] a new home theater sound system for the Japanese market today, consisting of a set of two speakers (SP-FT1/FT2) and the corresponding amplifier (AX-FT1/FT2). And the system is very pretty, mainly because the speakers are just 30.8mm thin and weigh 0.85kg each.

JVC knows what’s up. It’s good to see that not every set of headphones outed by A/V companies lately are in-ear models. Over-the-ear cans are not only so much more comfy, but they generally sound better than in-ear ones too. These two new models come to us under the Black Series label – whatever the hell that means.

Victor JVC Japan announced [JP] a new full HD camcorder from their Everio series today, the Everio GZ-HM400. The device features a 10.3MP CMOS sensor, 10x optical zoom, 32GB of built-in storage, a 2.8-inch flip-out LCD screen, a YouTube and iTunes upload function, a USB port and an HDMI interface.

JVC Japan announced the XV-BP1 today [JP], a new Blu-ray player that comes with two interesting features and a fair price. The player supports DivX/MPEG-4/MKV/AVCHD files and sports a USB port at the front so you can plug in a USB stick with your DivX-movies (you know, the ones you downloaded legally earlier) into the device and directly start watching.

JVC today announced a new brand for LCD TVs in Japan [JP]. The first model of the badly named XIVIEW series is the LT-42WX7, a full HD display sized at 42 inches. JVC said they first want to target business customers with the new model, possibly followed by XIVIEWs for home use.

JVC presented a prototype of a super-thin and super-light 32-inch LCD TV back in January (during the CES) and today announced [JP] that sales of the device will begin this August (in Japan, at least). The company claims the model is the world’s thinnest LCD display of that size.

Announced back in January at CES, JVC announced today that the LT-42WX70 LCD “monitor” is now shipping for $2400. JVC is marketing the 42-inch LCD 1080p/120Hz HDTV in the hopes that it will snag photographers using a DSLR who might be shopping around for a high-end “monitor”. Sure, it displays 96 percent of the Adobe RGB spectrum and includes 52 image quality tweaks, but do photographers really need a 42-inch “monitor”?

Because of the growing number of consumer-level cameras with 100-megapixel sensors and camcorders shooting at 4240p, JVC has come out with a new 8K (that’s 8000 horizontal pixels) projector with 10,000 lumens of brightness and a 5500:1 contrast ratio. Finally, an ultra-high-def projector the whole family can enjoy!

Look at this clever little thing: it’s the Everio X, a 9-megapixel camera that shoots full 1920×1080 video as well as 10x slow motion. Here’s the meat:

* The camera is small enough to slip into a shirt pocket and at just 0.66 pounds is one of the lightest cameras that can shoot 1920 x 1080 Full HD AVCHD video;
* Shoots nine-megapixel (no interpolation) digital stills and Full HD video with 1000 TV lines of horizontal resolution – close to the theoretical maximum horizontal resolution for 1920 x 1080 high definition video for no-compromise images;
* 10x slow motion shooting plays back four seconds of recorded video over 24 seconds;
* Up to six nine-megapixel stills can be shot at 15 images per second – faster than what digital SLRs can achieve;
* Simultaneous five-megapixel digital still shooting while recording Full HD video – photos can be shot at shutter speeds as fast as 1/4000 second without interrupting video recording;
* Records video and stills to SDHC memory cards.

It will cost $999.95 and will be available in June.

JVC Japan announced three new Everio camcorders today, the GZ-MS120/130 [JP] and the high-end GZ-HM200 [JP]. All of the devices, which were shown during the CES, will go on sale in Japan and the US from next month.

Pros: Impressive picture quality, 1080p Full HD resolution, 120GB HDD,small form factor, good color in low light
Cons: Noise in low light. Pricey.

The JVC GZ-HD40U is small enough to go anywhere and can produce some very high-quality recordings. It’s about as long as a soda can and somewhat fatter.It weighs a bit over a pound and is comfortable to hold for hand held shooting.While the entire body is plastic, it feels well made and solid. There are very few controls on the camera, making its operation quite simple and straightforward. The image quality in well lit environments is stunning. Overall, I’ve really enjoyed using this camcorder.

Pros: Small size. Sturdy. Zoom. Records to 30 GB hard drive. Affordable.
Cons: Light balance in low light a bit yellow in automatic. Not HD.

The JVC Everio GZ-MG330 is all about simple and easy. It’s not much bigger than my fist and packs in a 30 gigabytye hard drive for up to 37 hours of recording in the most compressed mode. This camcorder is so small, that on my way out the door, I’d see it on the table and just toss it in my jacket pocket. I didn’t worry about it getting banged around. It’s sturdy enough to handle it. I might stay out of the mosh pit with it, but otherwise, you’ll probably be fine. The body is entirely plastic, but the innards give it a bit of reassuring heft.

All the controls are simple and intuitive and right where your fingers expect them to be. The record button is by your thumb, and the zoom is on top along with a snapshot button for taking pictures. When you open the screen, which rotates 270 degrees, you’ll notice that there are no buttons, just indentations. You press your finger into these hollows where buttons should be and the camera responds. Works great as long as you’re not wearing gloves. There are five of these buttons along the bottom, including dedicated OK and MENU buttons as well as 3 contextual buttons whose operation changes based on the mode you are in. When they are active, their function appears on the screen above them. There is also a touch slider along the left side of the screen. As expected, it allows you to quickly scroll through options. It even has a cool blue LED underneath that shadows your finger movement. If you move your finger back and forth slowly, you can kinda get a cool Knight Rider effect, but you’ll get really strange looks if you try and demonstrate this to anyone. Trust me.

Victor JVC Japan today announced the HP-DX700 [JP], headphones with wooden housing for better sound quality. The device, which goes in sale in Nippon in the middle of next month, weighs 380 grams. It operates in a 5Hz to 30kHz frequency.

The theme of this years CES seems to have been connectivity. Between Netflix being in everything, and the Palm Pre, it seems like the major focus is connecting your gadgets together, and doing it well. Along that vein, JVC has announced several new products with integrated connectivity options.

Victor JVC has today unveiled a next-generation 32-inch LCD display [PDF] that is the company’s thinnest (7mm) and the world’s lightest (5kg). A first prototype will be showcased during the CES at the Victor / JVC booth this week.