Great little camera at a good price

Author's Rating:

Pros: great video quality, good price, small package

Cons: included accessories aren't so hot

The Bottom Line: 
I recommend it if you want high quality video and you don't mind the hidden costs of extra accessories later.

Author's Review
I toyed with buying the high-end "prosumer" VX2000. I wanted to make movies that could pass for professional. But at 2000-3000 dollars, it was a lot of money and I saw many concerns about an audio hiss. Since this was my first video camera, I couldn't even be sure that filmmaking was my calling until I got started. So I went with the TRV-20. At half the price, I'd be able to get that one paid for in half the time and have a good first camera to decide whether I'd actually be the next John Huston (or John Waters as the case may be). I think I made the right decision. Except for the fact that this camera has only one CCD (the VX2000 has 3), this camera has all the features that I wanted. High quality audio lets you record sound at uncompressed CD quality. Analog to digital passthrough lets you convert a composite video signal to digital video on your PC on the fly without recording it to tape first. With a megapixel CCD, it takes pretty good still pictures, too.
It has many fun effects, most of which I'll probably never use: I plan on creating any effects I need in "post-production" on the computer. But one thing that can't be done in post-production but is definitely cool is the NightShot and Super NightShot modes allowing you to shoot in total darkness. While the jury is still out on how much use this will get in the filmmaking, it sure is a lot of fun to play around with.
There are a couple minor complaints that I have, though. One is that the supplied accessories are a little on the cheap side. The supplied battery contains enough juice to tape a full 60 minute tape's worth of footage, but not much more with the 3.5 inch LCD screen....and the battery has to be attached to the camera to charge without a charger which will run you either 60 dollars for the standard one or 150 dollars for the high-speed one. The memory stick included to store still pictures on is only 4 megs, enough to store 6 of the highest quality pictures. It doesn't even come with a single DV tape to get you started filming right out of the box.
Which brings me to my other complaint. The documentation is pretty good and gives a lot of information, but there are things that I can't figure out from it including whether it's possible to move pictures from the memory stick to your computer via the i.link cable (not included), which is tons faster than the included serial port connector (and hot-swappable). Is it bad to leave the battery charging longer than the full charge time? Answers to these and several other questions are nowhere to be found.
Overall it's a good camera, and I'm not disappointed at all, but I'm glad I bought the cheaper one, because I've already bought hundreds of dollars in optional accessories, and I'm not finished yet.