You can try Nero 8 (www.nero.com) which has a cool player (Nero Showtime) and a user friendly transcoding/DVD authoring tool (Nero Vision) to offer. You may also consider Videolan VLC (www.videolan.org) which is free, open source, less user-friendly but it supports batch file conversion -- a realloy cool features when you have a dozen+ video files to convert.
I have no problem playing the Xacti HD2 files. I guess this is because I have the codecs installed in my computer.
I recommend the Combined Community Codec Pack which I don't really understand but if you download and install it in your computer it allows you to play most video file types.
http://cccp-project.net/
See also
http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=580797&forum_id=27
The HD2 mp4 files are pretty bog-standard MPEG-4 files, and very different from the newer Xacti HD1000/1010 files. The HD1000/1010 uses the new "h.264" super-duper compresion format (all the rage in many cameras now) that requires a lot of processor power to decode.
You often seem to need a fast dual/quad pentium to play the files, without the sound lagging for instance.
While the quality is considerably better, the old Xacti HD1/HD2 is often sufficient for things like Youtube or even Vimeo (strangely, unless you upload in HD to Youtube the quality is not good).
I hear that the (HD1000/1010's) h.264 format is the future, but until all your computers are very fast, and afaik most laptops currently on sale in 2009 do not have the power, it is a risky way to go.
I enjoy my Xacti HD2 and I hear that the Xacti HD1 is only a little worse, in lower light. For the next three years, till 2012, I think that they are great for Youtube vlogging in daylight situations. Added to that, the the Xacti HD1 and 2 (like the HD1000) have a microphone input which is a must for anywhere outside of your room.
Nero 8 (www.nero.com) has a good AVC/MP4 commercial player (Nero Showtime) and a user-friendly transcoder/DVD authoring tool (Nero Vision) to offer, but the latest does not support batch transcoding.
Videolan VLC (www.videolan.org/vlc/) does it all. It is free, open source, and also support batch file conversion. However, it is less user friendly.
Hope it helped.
--
Christian Aubry
VideoPresse
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