Hi all,

Looking to buy a low end camcorder, either Standard or High Def (not sure yet) but either way, I need to look into file storage and usage before I buy.

I won't be hooking up the camera to the plasma and viewing this way - I want to be storing the files on the house server and either double clicking and viewing on my PC, or using a media player to stream it to my Plasma.

I got some samples yestrday of the Panasonic S26 (standard Def) and SD20 (Hi Def) and I have the files on my PC. Yes, obviously the SD20 is a lot nicer.

If I understand correctly, the '.MOD' file from the standard def cam is just an MPEG2 file. I can rename the extension and store and use, yeah?

But the '.MTS' file from the Hi-def camera - I'm not sure how to deal with this on the PC. For starters, anything I play the file on shows the interlacing and it looks pretty raw wheh there's any movement.

Reading from the forum here, I understand that a media centre like popcorn hour will play MTS files. This is good.

But what post processing would I have to do to the MTS files to be able to view them on a PC?
What software could I use to view?
WMPClassic? VLC ?

Any help or links to info appreciated here.....

FM