Part of the problem is the high bit rate that the 50p mode records at (28Mbps). But even a quad-core Windows 7 PC with 8GB of memory and a powerful graphics card struggled to play back our test files smoothly. Transferring the footage to a PlayStation 3 console with its famous Cell processor and Full HD support gave us even worse results. Pans, zooms and practically any on-screen movement were rendered as a spluttering, stuttering mess.
Interestingly, certain PC-based media-player applications seemed to handle the files better than others. Nero Showtime, for instance, played our progressive footage with virtually no problems, while Windows Media Player and VLC both chugged through it like they were suffering from the video equivalent of a coughing fit. Presumably, the problem lies in the AVCHD codec and, specifically, the way it's decoded in a particular media player. As such, this is a situation that could well improve as new media-player software is released. In the unlikely event that you're happy just playing back your footage on the camcorder itself, you should never encounter the problem.
We should also point out that we had no problem playing back the footage we shot at any of the HDC-TM700's 1080i settings, either on our test PC or PS3. In fact, at the highest 1080i bit-rate setting (17Mbps), footage was nigh-on exceptional, with rich, balanced colours and a phenomenal level of detail.
Conclusion
There's no denying that £850 is a sizeable wad of cash to pony up for a camcorder, but the Panasonic HDC-TM700 certainly delivers on the feature front. It's a shame, then, that the fun is spoiled by a couple of potentially crippling problems. Technically speaking, the progressive-playback issue isn't a fault of the camcorder itself, so we haven't marked it down for that. But prospective buyers interested in the HDC-TM700's 1080/50p video will need to ensure that their playback and editing hardware and software is up to the task of handling the camcorder's raw footage.
Edited by Charles Kloet
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cobo04 15 January 2011
Good: Light, easy to use and sand proof.
Bad: Camera Function button is 'hidden' behind viewscreen hinge when open.
Comment: Can't see what the fuss is about for edting raw 1080/50p footage. I use Corel Videostudio X3, cost under £100 and does the job of capture and editing really well, along with the DVD Factory built in, outputs to most formats as well as DVD/Bluray disks.
View finder is a good addition, no point using a view screen in bright sunlight, also witha viewfinder, the camera is more stable as itis held to the eye with arms in a tripod postioon and with a max zoom of x700. This is needed !!
Not had any of the issues others have indicated of over colour and having working in video for just too many years I do know a thing or two about the subject..
capellma 16 August 2010
Good: Image quaility and ability to operate it manually
Bad: The position of the button to manually make the adjustments
Comment: I now used the camera (TM700) for one month and I'm impressed by the picture quality; although there is some lens flare when making pictures from the sun at dawn.
I do make a lot of use of the ablity to manually operate the camera. It provides me a little bit better picture quality since the IA in some case causes a little bit over exposure.
I made a lot of film in the 108050p mode and I do not recognize comments made on other forums abouth to bright colours.
Another thing about the 1080p50 is that it does not make a lot of sense if you want to play it back in BD format; since BD is either 1080i or 25p but no possibility to export it to double PAL. And..... it is difficult to find software that edit your pictures in native format.
If you want to play your movies in raw format without any menu's or things like that, than it make sense to record in 50p mode. In that case you have to use to HD writer software that came along with the camera.
My verdict is ;) It is a camera that without any limits apeals to your creativety and you will for sure enjoy the quality of the recordings.
Last-but-not-least: I do not see any neccesity to buy aditional memory card. When I go for holiday, I always bring my laptop with me, so in any case of running out of memory I will copy the movies to my hard-disk.....
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