Newcomers to the HG10 may be curious as to what the best program to convert the .m2ts file to a compressed file type is. Handily, dodycats over at the HV20 forum has asked that very question. She’s just got a new HG10, is “very early on the learning curve” and wants to be able to convert the footage to a format that can be easily emailed to friends and viewed in Windows Media Player. She adds “I don’t care how much the program costs (within reason) — I need it to be pretty straightforward and easy to use”, a feeling many of us can empathise with.

Eugenia Loli-Queru informs dodycats that there are no freeware conversion applications that are easy to use as “AVCHD is new, and so open source support (that usually freeware apps use), is very new.” She says ffdshow beta build and avisnyth might work, but they’re not easy to use so Vegas Platinum would probably be more suitable. Vegas Platinum can export to WMV, or can be used to export the .m2ts files to an intermediate lossless file and then converted using another program.

For the more experienced HG10 user, Eugenia writes on how to use freeware utilities to get the same effect, so if you know what you’re doing, or don’t want to splash out on software, it’s well worth a read. If you’ve anything to add, head on over to HV20 forums and add your expertise.