My Nikon D5000 Develop defaults

Question

Greetings. I recently had some time to address my growing dissatisfaction with how Lightroom was rendering files shot with my D5000. Some similar Google results offered a variety of opinions on how Adobe camera profiles tend to be hit or miss. After a brief look at the DNG Profile Creator I decided it was far too technical an approach for my needs, and I have no good reason to alter the Camera Calibration profile. So I took the advice to alter my Develop module defaults. (Develop menu -> Set Default Settings...)
In my opinion the following settings create NEF/DNG renders that are equal or frequently better to the JPGs produced in-camera, which is what I need as a baseline to begin my editing. With this camera I tend to shoot people under studio lights at ISO 200-800, so this is tweaked for that environment.
Your mileage may vary of course, but I hope it is of some use to someone that finds their defaults to be unpleasanty high in contrast.
(Edit: Also here are official version 3 Beta profiles for D3, D300, D700 from Eric Chan. The D5000 is based off the D300 sensor but I don't know how to apply these profiles cross-camera.)
Rather than linking anything, here is the entire text contents of the .LRtemplate file. You can save it to .../Adobe/Lightroom/Develop Presets/ yourself or simply dial in the very few modified settings in the interface.
Cheers
D5000 Default (Portraits).lrtemplate
     id = "0943F183-EE6D-493A-8279-82CE011A7329",
     internalName = "D5000 Default (Portraits)",
     title = "D5000 Default (Portraits)",
     type = "Develop",
     value = {
          settings = {
               AutoBrightness = false,
               AutoContrast = false,
               AutoExposure = false,
               AutoShadows = false,
               BlueHue = 0,
               BlueSaturation = 0,
               Brightness = 30,
               CameraProfile = "Adobe Standard",
               Clarity = 0,
               ColorNoiseReduction = 40,
               ColorNoiseReductionDetail = 50,
               Contrast = 15,
               ConvertToGrayscale = false,
               EnableCalibration = true,
               EnableColorAdjustments = true,
               EnableDetail = true,
               Exposure = 0,
               FillLight = 0,
               GreenHue = 0,
               GreenSaturation = 0,
               HighlightRecovery = 25,
               HueAdjustmentAqua = 0,
               HueAdjustmentBlue = 0,
               HueAdjustmentGreen = 0,
               HueAdjustmentMagenta = 0,
               HueAdjustmentOrange = 14,
               HueAdjustmentPurple = 0,
               HueAdjustmentRed = 0,
               HueAdjustmentYellow = 0,
               LuminanceAdjustmentAqua = 0,
               LuminanceAdjustmentBlue = 0,
               LuminanceAdjustmentGreen = 0,
               LuminanceAdjustmentMagenta = 0,
               LuminanceAdjustmentOrange = 0,
               LuminanceAdjustmentPurple = 0,
               LuminanceAdjustmentRed = 0,
               LuminanceAdjustmentYellow = 0,
               LuminanceNoiseReductionContrast = 0,
               LuminanceNoiseReductionDetail = 50,
               LuminanceSmoothing = 10,
               ParametricDarks = 0,
               ParametricHighlightSplit = 75,
               ParametricHighlights = -5,
               ParametricLights = -15,
               ParametricMidtoneSplit = 50,
               ParametricShadowSplit = 25,
               ParametricShadows = 0,
               ProcessVersion = "5.7",
               RedHue = 0,
               RedSaturation = 0,
               Saturation = 0,
               SaturationAdjustmentAqua = 0,
               SaturationAdjustmentBlue = 0,
               SaturationAdjustmentGreen = 0,
               SaturationAdjustmentMagenta = 0,
               SaturationAdjustmentOrange = -5,
               SaturationAdjustmentPurple = 0,
               SaturationAdjustmentRed = 0,
               SaturationAdjustmentYellow = 0,
               ShadowTint = 0,
               Shadows = 5,
               SharpenDetail = 30,
               SharpenEdgeMasking = 1,
               SharpenRadius = 1,
               Sharpness = 55,
               ToneCurve = {
                    0,
                    0,
                    32,
                    22,
                    64,
                    56,
                    128,
                    128,
                    192,
                    196,
                    255,
                    255,
               ToneCurveName = "Medium Contrast",
               Vibrance = 0,
               WhiteBalance = "As Shot",
          uuid = "A74BC1FB-D23C-405D-AAD1-F89CC8A8E41D",
     version = 0,

Answer 1

The NEF module is for the Nikon Camera RAW Still Images. However, if you use Photoshop, you will probably want to download and install the latest version of Adobe Camera RAW module.
As for the CODEC, Video files are seen first as formats, which are "wrappers," and those contain various CODEC's, which are the compress/decompress specs. inside the files. This ARTICLE goes into more detail on them. Those CODEC's might be general, such as MPEG-2, or they might be heavily tweaked, by the camera mfgr..That is why we most often recommend using the camera mfgr's specific version of each CODEC, like the MJPEG CODEC. However, there are other MJPEG CODEC's, and those work for many. There are links in that article for Lead and MainConcept.
When you look at the Nikon utility disc, in Windows Explorer, what all do you see. As mentioned, some camera mfgrs. will issue their CODEC as a separate install (CODEC's install at the system level), or they might install along with the camera's driver, or they might install with some other software on that disc.
Good luck,
Hunt