This is my first camcorder ever. I am satisfied except for the HD part. The high definition recording when transferred to computer was a read only file. It runs only on the Sony utility (given along with the purchase). But still the video and audio do not go together, and some frames in the video are dropped. Actually Sony itself has mention this problem with high definition recording in one of the leaflets.The simple definition recording is fine and works with windows media player too. Photos also seemed to be good. I was looking forward for a high definition recording, but disappointed that it didn't work out. So giving 4 stars.