Some time ago I bought a JVC camcorder that writes in an HDD or an SD card. The camcorder is great and has a magnificent image and sound quality, even if compared with some 5Mb digital cameras.

However when we try to see the movies that it produces face a problem. The camcorder record movies in a MOD file that is, in fact, a MPEG2 encoding. This way we can rename the MOD file to MPG and get the movie playing. The rename action couldn’t be the solution. The problem is that MPEG2 is a format that is not supported by default by some operating systems. For example, i have a Windows XP with the software that the camcorder bring, the Cyberling Power Director, and i can manage free my movies but when I’ve only my laptop with Windows Vista with me i couldn’t see the recorded movies. The solution is to install a package with the correct codec in Vista. I installed a Vista Codec Package and it starts working ok.

When you have the software (Cyberlink) that read MOD files you only have to used it and convert the movies to a more supported format. This software allows the user to make a complete movie with the recorded scenes. This can be done by getting all MOD files, select those that we want and produce a movie in a AVI or MPEG1 formats.

When you don’t have this software you can rename the MOD file to MPG and see it. Don’t forget to install the correct codec to play it. In some cases, the file doesn’t play at all or it can only be without sound.

This is not proved and it’s my own experience trying to play and produce my videos.