I bought this camera and it works well, however there is no way to transfer the high defintion .M2ts video files it creates and then edit them using any professional non-linear video editing system. The commercial editing program I've tried, claim to be able to do that, but they fall short and lock up and crash almost immediately.

Owners of Panasonic AVCHD camcorders, such as this one, are now stuck with waiting for Sony to update it's NLE program "Vegas" that will offer universal support. Sony Vegas 7 software now supports editing files from Sony AVCHD camcorders, but not panasonic. The panasonic and sony HD camcorder AVCHD formats differ slightly.

If I had to do all over again I just buy the sony HD camera.

To clarify the below persons review.

I spoke with Sony recently about several issues with there products in general, then with Panasonic, and then with DvD manufactures like Memorex. It would appear that Sony in an attempt to monopolize the market is choosing to not support certain competitors products, and it is Sony not panasonic who is breaking away from standardization. My personal feelings aside most people are blaming Memorex (or in this case Panasonic) when the actual blame appears to be from Sony for trying to blackball certain companies products.

My cousin has this exact Panasonic camera and is extremely happy with his. I recently borrowed his camera and was very pleased with the video it shot. So much that it is on my list of possible camcorders because of my previous experience.

I purchased this camera at the very end of July, and briefly turned it on, but due to moving and wedding preparations, we never had much chance to really try it out.

I tried to turn it back on about a month later, and found that it didn't work. It would start but then immediately shut off.

I contacted Panasonic, and sent it via next day air (The person who helped me initially told me Panasonic would not pay for shipping to the repair center). It was received Spet 7. Today, October 23, I called yet again to find out that the part they're waiting for is STILL on backorder.

My honeymoon has come and gone, without my video camera, and nothing was done to offer either a loaner or replacement, as their policy apparently states that it needs to be repaired before it would be replaced.

Alhough the people in the call center have been very nice on a personal level, Panasonic's overall customer service has been miserable. I have no idea what else this camera does because in three months of owning it, I have yet to have a fully functioning, working camera.

The camera, when working may or may not be good, but this review is to point people to this camera's potential to be a complete lemon, and to let people know to beware of Panasonic's customer service. Unfortunately, it's more of a customer disservice.

I bought this camera to compliment my 46 in. Samsung Full HD LCD TV. The picture was very nice although the 30 mins. limitation of the DVD writeable media and the need to finalize the disk was a setback. I donot have the Blue Ray player yet so I connected my LCD TV using DVI to HDMI cable to my HTPC Windows Vista running on Dual core AMD 64 and an HD video card to view the HD picture taken from this camera and I am really pleased.

convert avchd to mpeg-2 using nero 7 reloaded or nero8
if u want to edit with original format AVCHD ,then use Ulead 11 Plus with AVCHD patch download

I'm very happy with this product. Its a fantastic price/performance deal. I would be great if it came with some software to edit video in my computer.

I bought this from Amazon over two weeks ago and used it to shoot about 2 hours of video in different places and conditions. I would rate this an excellent camera for the Price. Sure, there is stuff out there but considering the price that this is the cheapest Hi-Def. camera at nearly half the price. 3CCD really make a big difference in dynamic lighting conditions and this camera took on the challenge. Playback on Sony Grand WEGA 50" at 1080i was excellent. Be mindful that Cameras' used in Discovery/National Geographic are in the range of $30k - $45k. The marginal gains are un-economical for my purposes. Again, extremely pleased and would Highly recommend it. Thanks Panasonic. A+.

This camcorder is really good if you have a couple of extras. You need a program called ISO BUSTER which you can download online. This program allows your computer to read the disks, otherwise you can't get your files onto your computer! I also recommend Sony Vegas as a fantastically stable and versitile editing program. It's a lot like Windows Movie Maker except it doesn't crash and has a lot more features and effects. The video quality is excellent. Make sure you have a fairly fast computer for video editing but I guess that goes without saying. Stills look much better taken directly from the HD video rather than the camera function
!

You really have to be in the Blue-Ray camp to enjoy this camera fully. If you have a Sony Play Station 3 you're set for playback and the future with Blue-Ray for High Definition movies. Otherwise you will need a Blue-Ray player for playback of the miniDVDs and any other regular DVDs you record to. Also, so far it's one of the last camcorders from Panasonic with 5.1 sound and High Definition recording, which is a big plus for sound. It's seems the newer camcorders are actually going backwards with 2 channel sound instead of 5.1. With Nero 8, which you'll have to buy separately, you can copy movies to your computer for editing and burning back on to a larger size regular recordable DVD, i.e., DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+-RW or DL disks (they don't have to be Blue-Ray recordable DVDs). The camcorder records Blue-Ray format to regular DVDs. You just have to remember that they still won't play back on a regular DVD player, you'll need a Blue-Ray player or a Play Station 3. There have been complaints about this, but you're recording High Definition video now, so why would you except to play it back on a lower quality DVD system? This camera is for the future. If you want a DVD recordable camcorder, there are cheaper, less capable models that that do that. But if you want High Definition recording, with 5.1 sound, then this is the camera to get. One other thing to remember, the recording process to a miniDVD whether it's with this camera or any other miniDVD camera is different than with tapes. The miniDVD will have to be finalized if you want to use it outside the camera on a DVD player (Blue-Ray or not). There is an extra step involved from tape recording. Some people just don't understand this and complain. The one thing about this camera is that you can only finalize using the A/C charger and not with the battery in the camera. This means you'll probably shoot video and finalize the disks at home, not outside where you are shooting. Other miniDVD camcorders may allow finalizing with battery power which may be more convenent to do, but I don't find not having this a drawback for this camera.

I purchase the HDC-DX1 about a month ago and have been very happy with the picture quality, the picture enhancement features, etc. I was disappointed to find out after my purchase that I needed special software to download the content to, and edit it on, my computer and probably need a Blue Ray DVD burner to be able to create edited disks. I haven't worked with the software yet, so be sure you understand the implications of buying a camera with a format that is not the standard format used by most digital cameras.

Love the camera, but with only 17 mins of high definition available on a dvdram disk, I wish it came with a hard drive, but excellent camera for the price.