HF100 not happy need help

[FuryofFive]

i just got my HF100 from B&Hphoto.com, ive been playing with it, i noticed some things, and maybe its just me...
the video looks somewhat grainy at times. video seems blurry or shakey.(with and without motion)the audio. even though i was at best 2 feet from someone, they sounded like they were across the room.
ive only really used the imagemixer software to view the files.
ive actually put it to default settings such as

60i,instant auto focus,auto exposure,automic, and program AE mode,image stab. on

ive tried with image stab on and off, same result.it looks like the video is in slow motion at times.

i wish i could upload some video to show what im talking about. i suppose i could try vimeo.
im not home at the moment. at the moment im not to happy. and ive seen the good quality video that comes from the HF100.
any help to help this noob make his quality better would be much appreciated

just to note,im transfering the video to my laptop via the SDHC card, and just watching the .mts file. my laptop i believe is a 1.9ghz X2 turion,with 3 gbs of ram, i als watch it on my main rig, which is also a 2gb, opty 165 @ 2.2ghz(dual-core)

im considering returning this to pick-up a different SDHC based video cam. i was looking into the HDC-SD9 mainly because i had a pv-gs9 once. and it was very nice. for what it was.

my main reasons were to replace my pv-gs9...
i record lots of video with motion in it.sports videos...such as afootball and wrestling, but i also like to walk around and tape people at family parties and what not

 

[FuryofFive]

some sample vids

http://www.vimeo.com/user638632/videos

 

[FuryofFive]

i worked with the cam, someone explained to me on camcorderinfo.com, that video was not interlaced

 

[Kaido]

Yeah looks like you need to de-interlace. The graininess is (1) from lack of light, (2) lack of proper settings, and (3) the AVCHD codec. If you switch to a tape-based MiniDV format like the HV20, it will get rid of that "grain" that isn't noise-related.

Like in this video, definitely needs to be de-interlaced - you can see the blurry horizontal lines easily:

http://www.vimeo.com/1459482

If you want to make your videos look really great, you need (1) proper settings, (2) stabilization, and (3) color correction. Even by doing a simple White Balance on the camera before shooting would help the picture a lot. As far as stabilization, you can get a cheap Steadycam like the Poor Man's Steadycam and also use software like the SmoothCam filter in Final Cut Pro. Also invest in a tripod, even if it's just a cheap $15 tripod. Fluid-head tripods will give you a smooth pan/tilt. Having a steady picture goes a long way to making the video look professional. Color correction can also help a LOT, it can take an average shot and really make it POP.

 

[Kaido]

Here's a sample shot from your camera (HF100) with De-interlacing and Color Correction:

http://www.vimeo.com/1321518

Your camera has great potential, don't forget that