- Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 28 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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42 out of 47 people found this review helpful
1.0 stars
"Don't Make This Mistake!!!"
Pros: Good Idea Bad Product
Cons: Stuck With What You Record
Summary: This is a great idea that will probably follow in the footsteps of the Edsel. You cannot get your footage onto a computer,and not all DVD players will understand the format. What happens is that you have a DVD that you have to be happy with as it is recorded, 'cuz once done it's in concrete. Even if you're Cecil B. DeMille you are probably going to want to do some basic editing. "Sorry" Sony says to that hope. Even their own software people groan when you mention you have a question about this camera. Sony Vegas Movie Studio software told me flat out that they don't support this thing. Look deep before you make this plunge. It's sad too, 'cuz this could be a great camera and format with a little more forethought.
Ski
- 16 replies to this review
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Think back to VHS. Think back to MiniDV - seemingly impossibly to edit unless you know what you are doing. Same here. 4You can easily Rip the dvd and encode it into AVI format, making a perfectly editable file on your computer. Amateurs should not whine about products they don't know how to use.
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I like the camera and it's functionality, but now I would rather have HD camcorder. Mine didn't come with software for editing. What software can I download to edit my movies? There is also no way of hooking it up to my PC. Mine came with a cord to hook it up using RCA jacks. Am I missing something?
Any help is much appreciated.
Thanks
Duess -
I needed something to take to the jobsite, went to circut city - bought, recorded, went to play on computer - can't do it. What a joke - do not buy sony - they are crooks. To bad it was after my 30 days or I would have gotten my money back for sure.
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Excactly what Phast said. The worse setup I ever seen.It's a misrable task to get a copy on a normal dvd. DO NOT BUY THIS CAMERA!!!!
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OK the battery life sucks and you can only record up to 20 mins of video when the qulity setting is on high
But you can use dvd-rw alowing you to re-record on the same media, you can watch the disc just like its a dvd on your pc,and you can get the video to a pc using the right software thats free for download, but thats not what its ment for they want you to pop it in your player pc or dvd-player and watch it. Any newer dvd player will play the disc after its been finalized in the handy cam, yours must be old lol
bottem line if you want to record super high quilty video and sound (for a cheap $400) for only about 20 mins befor you have to switch to another disc ...get it
if you need more battery life from one battery (you could buy the longer lasting one) and want to record longer but dont mind lower quilty...dont get it -
We purchased this camcorder 11 months ago. 3 vacations later, we have been lucky enough to off-load our videos about 45% of the time, the other 55% having corrupt data and not being able to view it either on the camera or off. Sony wants $150 just to evaluate why the camcorder has never written the data onto the disks correctly. The disks themselves were evaluated to see if the data can be recovered. The answer, nope. If you are lucky enough to get one that works, buy a rabbit's foot. Ours is going back and we are looking into the HDD option.
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Most DVD players (at least the 3 I have) and computers will play the DVD. If you are concerned with being able to erase and reuse a DVD, purchase the DVD-RW or the DVD+RW media. It wworks very well and is not expensive.
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I got this camera as gift for christmas. I love the touch screen. It is very intuitive and easy to use. This is my first digital camcorder and I was somewhat confused over the pros and cons of DVD vs digital tape. Although recording on the DVD format is somewhat less flexible than tape (i.e. can't delete bad shots), the ease of viewing directly on a DVD player is nice. Also, I had absolutely NO problem importing into Vegas Movie editor. Once in Vegas, you can cut out all the bad shots to your hearts content.
For an entry level DVD camcorder for doing basic video, this is a great little camera. -
No where in Sony's literature or any review does it mispresent this cameras interface ability with any computer; this guy screwed up and is blaming his inability to properly research before buying, on Sony. Too bad; this is a great buy for the money!
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I wish I had read your comments before spending the money. I know you can copy on the computer and play from the hard drive but that too is an ordeal in itself. Not to mention the same thing about Vegas software, I had bought this camera to make copies of the movies for the grandparents, have not made one yet.
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I wish I had read your comments before spending the money. I know you can copy on the computer and play from the hard drive but that too is an ordeal in itself. Not to mention the same thing about Vegas software, I had bought this camera to make copies of the movies for the grandparents, have not made one yet.
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Why would a consumer pay the extra expense of having a DVD burning Camcorder if they are just going to edit and re-burn another copy on their pc? Couldn't I purchase a camcorder that would allow me to record to a memory stick in another format and then just upload to my PC and edit and burn onto a DVD in a better format? Just curious. Just seems odd to pay for this feature if you are just going to re-do it on ur pc. Unless, of course, it is impossible to convert a poorer quality format into a higher quality format. Which is why I am typing this. Any help would be great. Thanks!
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I downloaded the free programs MPlayer, MEncoder, and Getdvd.bat. These programs converted my Sony camcorder's DVD to MPEG format for both video and sound. I can edit these files with Studio 8, and when satisfied with the edit, burn it to a DVD disc. Makes this camera really versatile.
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Just a heads up about this. I recently purchased a DVD-92 but had not used it yet. I was a little concerned when I read this review. So I tried mine out. Recorded it, finalized the disc and then recorded it to my computer. (Yes, it did load to my computer without any problems) I have not had the time to edit it yet, but it seemed like it was going to work. I will update when I have time to check editing out.
Now, if you do not have a DVD Player on your computer you may not be able to load. It does not have a plug-in for firewire or USB, so a DVD player is a must. But I have a DVD burner, put the disc in it and copied it to my computer. Just to be sure it all worked right I also copied it to another blank DVD, put it in my DVD player and all worked fine.
I also talked to a Sony online rep and he said that Sony does not make software specific to this camcorder, but any 3rd party editing software would work.
Concerning another reply about this, they said they received software with the camcorder. I am unaware of any software, mine did not come with any discs.
Hope this helps. -
I just got done talking to Sony and they said that you can edit the videos with no problem. YOu can do it on both the camcorder as well as on the computer. You have to make sure that you finalize your session on the camcorder before taking the disk out. Once that is done they take on the MPEG-2 format, which is editable with the enclossed software that Sony has included with the camcorder.
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Thanks for posting that Ski, sorry you had to go through it. I had specific concerns about format compatabilty and the ability to edit video's. Best Buy said "oh no problem just upload it to computer and you can use any editing software" Glad I have'nt bought yet because this was a front running model until I read Ski's comments, previously, the only other downfall was that I kind of wanted a wide screen 16.9 capabilty like some of the other models
