[...]Panasonic camcorders that use the HA/HG/HX/HE mode actually offer at least five recording modes. The standard mode, which doesn't have a code, records in progressive scan mode. This captures data for every pixel in each frame, giving the best possible quality. The special HA/HG/HX/HE modes all use interlaced images. This means that for each frame, the camera only captures data for every second line of the image. Which lines are captured alternates from frame to frame. With each frame the camera combines the lines that are "newly" captured with the lines captured in the last frame, creating an artificial image. The result is that the camera needs to record less data (extending recording capacity) but that the image is not quite as clear in capturing movement.[...]
[...]Panasonic does not explain exactly how the different modes operate, something that causes confusion among some users. Panasonic does explain that the recording capacity varies among the modes.[...]