JVC Camcorder Follow-up
I work for JVC and would like to try to help.
Actually, JVC is one of the easiest camcorders to use with any recent Apple computer. Please note that .mod files are not unique to JVC are used by several other camcorder manufacturers. The .mod file is really a pretty common method to store standard definition video on the new generation of hard drive and flash memory camcorders.
I have a few tips that may help you, and the good news is that there is probably nothing you have to buy.
Both Apple iMovie '08 and iMovie '09 support JVC (and other manufacturers) .mod files. I can't speak for other brands, but with JVC it is completely automatic. In fact, it is basically a "plug & play" process.
As someone else posted, it is important to use the right method to bring your videos into the computer, which generally means you do that through your editing program, not by simply copying the files from your camcorder to your hard drive.
Here's how to do it:
First, you need to connect your camcorder to your computer via USB. Then, you open your iMovie software. From there, iMovie will recognize the JVC camcorder, and you will get a capture windows which will show you a thumbnail picture representing each clip of video which is recorded on your camcorder.
You can select any individual scene, or everything on the hard drive, and it will be imported to iMovie. From there, editing is easy, and it is very simple to chose how you want to share your video, including uploading to sites like You Tube or Facebook.
It really is this simple. If you have an older version of iMovie, it is worthwhile to upgrade. If your computer is old enough that it is not possible to upgrade to iMovie '08 or iMovie '09, then you either need to look at a new computer, or you can look at one of the file conversion programs that will take a .mod file and turn it into a different format. Using Pixela Capty software to creat a DV format file would be my recommendation, but that is a lot more time consuming.
If you would like any additional info, please post the specific camcorder model # that you have.
I hope this helps.