Sorry for the simple quesiton, but I can't find straight answer in searching.
Is using these JVC cameras in Adobe CS3 as easy as renaming the .tod files to .m2ts or .m2t?

Sorry no one seems to be posting. I have questions too. The best answer I can give you is no it's not that simple. I don't use Adobe but I do know that for premiere elements you have to shoot in 1440CBR and convert to MPEG through mpegstreamsclip as I dont think Adobe can handle 1920X1080. That is what I have read at least for adobe. So I know that doesn't give you a definitive answer, but I'm almost positive that's right. You will have to do some kind of conversion to strip those extra 4 bytes on the file so it will be recognized as MPEG through your editor. Sorry dude, I hope that helps.

Hello Eric

I am not an Adobe user so I am not that familiar with their product. I have read of people simply renaming the .TOD files to .MPG and that they work for some programs, but I think it may introduce more problems down the line. I believe for most of the Adobe programs, you will need to convert the files to another codec in order to keep the timecode and other info that is saved to the M2T files.

M2T files are MPEG transport stream files and are the native format for HDV. M2TS files raw AVCHD videos and is used on Blu-Ray discs. Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Version 12 supports both of these files.

Maybe someone else can chime in with some additional info.

I have also figured out answer to this question, to use this camera with Premiere get MPEG Streamclip, select 'batch list', 'add files', convert to mpg with mp2 audio. The program quickly rewraps the video into '.mpg' files which are useable in Adobe Premiere Pro.

A side note, when you run StreamClip it tells you to install the mpeg2 extra codec, but this is not necessary and works fine without it. So no reason to install QT alternative, just plain QT is fine without the extra mpeg2 thing.