Hi,

There are no requirements to change the default settings, but if you take some time and decide what settings you want to use by default, it makes life easier later on.  The system defaults to PAL as the recording format so if you are in the US or Japan or any other country that uses NTSC, you may want to change that.  There are actually 6 tabs under program settings which really are your preferences.  So for example, if you do not have a fast CPU with a lot of RAM, you may want to change your "Movie Display" settings in the Video/Audio tab, under the "System" tab you may want to change the number of "undo" steps you have or how requently automatic back ups occur, under the "folder" tab you can choose your default folders.  It is really just fine tuning to your preferences.

George