How do I get HD videos off of my camera?

Trouble with .TOD videos and JVC HD Video Camera

• I have a JVC GZ-HD7 Everio HD Camera and I’m having some trouble using the video. I download the video from the camera and it looks great however to use it anywhere requires me to convert it. I’ve tried Camtasia, Sony Vegas 7, Quicktime Pro, several converters like Kingdia and Cucusoft. The end result is always a video that looks like it was shot with a $10 video camera. Is there someway to get the .TOD videos in a usable format that maintains its quality, so I can edit them and create final videos. A tool that would also allow me to letterbox or crop the 16:9 to 4:3. Thanks so much for your time. Have a great one.

• Answer:

  I don't have a particularly discerning eye for these things, but ffmpeg (or ffmpegx if you're on a mac) was able to convert TOD to all sorts of things for me. I was able to set the aspect ratio I wanted (I don't know about cropping, though), do all sorts of things to audio that I didn't understand, and the de-interlacing filter works really well. I have a JVC standard def camcorder, though, so I don't know how well it works for HD. I know I'm not posting a link; I don't really understand the way this sort of open-source software is hosted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ffmpeg's the wikipedia page.