My friend Olen reminded me that I didn't post the follow-up to the video camera problem, so here goes.

The retailer from which I bought it is R.C. Willey. I know they are based out of Salt Lake City, but I don't know how "national" they are. They are mostly a furniture store, but oddly they have a pretty good electronics department. When I took the camera back, I immediately asked for a manager. The nice woman at the front (they have a "greeter", sort of like at Walmart, but without the ridiculous blue vest). Anyway, she said that I just needed to go back to Customer Service and they could help me. All the way back, I was rehearsing in my head all of the arguments I needed to make to avoid the 15% fee. In the end, I wasted a lot of mental energy rehearsing it. As soon as I mentioned to the woman in customer service that I didn't feel that I should be required to pay the fee, she simply said, "OK. We'll waive it." That was it. So plus one point to them for that.

As a store - as a company - I think that Willey is really good. However, like any sales organization, they can occasionally hire really bad salesmen, which is unfortunately what I encountered almost immediately after leaving the customer service counter. I went back over the cameras and found another salesman. I explained the issue, and he had the gall to actually argue with me about whether or not JVC used a proprietary format. I tried to explain that I had spent several hours Saturday night dealing with it and Googling it, but he wouldn't believe it, because after all the little tag on the camera says that it records in MPEG2. That's right: he wasn't insisting that I was wrong because he knew better, but rather because of what the stupid tag on the camera said. Knowing by this point that I was dealing with a salesman who wasn't burdened by an overabundance of education, I simply pressed on, asking if it was alright if I tested a few cameras on my laptop. He said yes, but then commented that I was going to have a problem returning the camera I already bought. I explained that no, I didn't - I had explained the situation to customer service and they waived the fee. His response, and I only wish I was kidding: "Well, I guess if you sold that to them ..." Yup. He basically accused me of lying. A**hole. Needless to say, I promptly left after that remark.

I did head over to Fry's to see what they had, and actually found a helpful salesman there. (Finding a helpful salesman at Fry's is a rare occurrence indeed.) In the end, I decided to get ... nothing. I'm going to spend some time researching this further. I have some emails out to some video people I know whom I hope will be able to help recommend a good camera that will actually do what I need it to do.