Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony DCRDVD300 MiniDVD Handycam Camcorder with 3.5" LCD and Digital Still Capability

This is my first camcorder ever. After a lot of researching and reading reviews of about every single camcorder on the Market I picked Sony. I have and own Sony products and they have never given me any problems whatsoever.

This camcorder is the best. Easy to use, I was filming about 10 minutes after I got it out of the box. The still photo capability is terrible, do not even use it. This is a camcorder, not a camera.

I made a one hour film on LP, after finalizing it I stuck it right on the DVD player (3 years old, mind you) and it played. The picture quality is great, even on LP mode.

The only one complaint I have is that my computer will not recognize the camera, I have tried everything. The only way for me to view or edit, you HAVE to use the "Image Mixer" software that comes with it, and by the way it is terrible. But once you get your images through the "POOR" software you can save them and edit them with a software of your choice. I have not done that yet, a later review will follow after I have owned the camera for a while.

Buy another battery. The battery that comes with it only lasts for 60 minutes"most",. First thing I did is bought another Lithium battery, you can get one that will run for three hours at $59.00 at the Sony Site.

Media, DVD-RW is almost impossible to find. If you happen to come across it, buy it right away or you may never have that chance again. DVD-R's is very easy to find, but you can only record on them once and "in-camera" editing is not possible. DVD-RW's can be recorded and edited up to 1000 times. Much more worth your money.

This is a great camcorder and I would recommend it to anyone. Plus, it's a SONY, and you can't go wrong with Sony.

I just wanted people to know that you can use a non brand name disc instead of the costly sony ones. I buy mine at shop4tech.com it only cost 3.60 each instead of the 8.00 ones at the stores and sony.com . just search for mini dvd for camcorders and they have three brands to choose from. Could someone email me at courtnhu@aol.com on how to print still images without buying a photo printer, for ex. bringing it to the photo store for printing since it does not come with a memory card.

Although I really enjoy my camcorder, I have learned that only Sony DVDs work well with this camcorder. You are able to record on other cheaper brands, however, if you use the Image Mixer sofware (which comes with the camcorder) to edit abd re-burn DVDs there are compatability problems between other brands. Furthermore, the Image Mixer software is limited, elementary and not user friendly. Their customer support is pretty worthless as well. I would still reccommend this camcorder - but beware that some editing and recording features will only work with the expensive Sony DVDs.

My father in law purchased this camera for us in preperation of our new son. We were able to power it up and begin using it within an hour. The controls are easy to use and fairly simple. I would have to say that I do not hear or notice the drive vibration or the sound of the dvd recorder while in use.

I have done some looking around on various sites and forums and have found NO mac support. I have both a PC and a Mac and plan to use it on my PC.

When I finalized a full DVD, so that I could use it in my DVD player I was happy to see that it too 3 min to do so and played wonderfuly. The still picture quality is ok for 1 megapixel but with no flash on the camera I cannot recomend that aspect. I do have a 4.2 megapixel camera that I plan to use for still shots.

The last area of review, the editing software that comes with the camera... VERY frustrating to use!!! I am not sure if I didn't spend enough time with it or if it's cheap, but I gave up on it.

The media that I use is DVD Rw's and I have 3 of them (8 bucks each). They work great. I also love the large view screen.

One con, poor battery life with included battery.

I think that if your BIG into editing video, research this video camera before buying. But if you want ease of recording and high quality to be able to drop into a standard format (DVD) then I give this camera 4.5 stars.

************
UPDATE: 12-22-03

After 2 weeks of recording I wanted to drop my video's onto my computer so I can edit them. I was unable to do so and called Sony's tech support. I went straight for the question "Do you have a driver update or some type of resoloution for the USB 2.0 issue with my sony handy cam"? The tech support guy was polite and said that they are working on it. I kept probing for more information about the problem, and the "Work Around" was to plug the sony camcorder into a USB 1 hub. This did fix my problem but I wanted to know when the USB 2.0 problem was going to be addressed. I was asked for my email address and they said I would be contacted when there was a fix or soloution. He did tell me that this has something to do with Chipsets on the mother board. He said that they KNOW that it works with SIS but were still working with testing others. (I have an Intel Chipset).

I also found out the following in regards to editing mpeg videos:
**********************************
(Taken from papajohn.org )
Playback/importing of MPEG2 content is completely dependant on the third party MPEG2 decoder installed on the user's machine. Most do not work well. Some decoders go so far as to block decoding when used for anything other than rendering to the display (to make it harder to convert DVD content to other forms). Having DVD burning or playing software on a computer doesn't necessarily mean that the MPEG2 decoder that comes with it will work with Movie Maker 2.

MPEG2 files are common. They are used to burn SVCDs and DVDs. Some cameras record directly to this format. But there is a license fee associated with using an MPEG2 codec, so the codec is not commonly distributed. If you try to import an MPEG2 file without 'THE appropriate' installed codec, Movie Maker will attempt to go through the process but, in the end, give you an error message like the one in the figure below. Another error message I've seen is "...the file is empty." Sometimes it'll import the clip, but then cause problems when trying to work with it in a project or render a movie from it.
*********************

I wanted to use Windows Moviemaker to edit my movies and I found that when I had Sony's software installed it will crash movie maker just after opening a movie to edit it. I also had to load Adobe Preimere to find a codec that would work correctly so I could edit the mpeg files from my camera in Movie maker.

I think that I am going to have to change my overall rating on this camera because of the difficulty of editing the video's in anything but the Pixela Cheesey software that comes with the camera. The camera that would better for editing on your pc: A camera that writes in DV format.

3.5 Stars

OK! I read all of the reader reviews I could get my hand on, and then took the plunge. SONY has done it again (my opinion). This camcorder replaces an old VHS-C off-brand which I thought was pretty good. I love the DCRDVD300, and am glad I opted for the "300" because I love the larger screen. I find all controls handy, and the system is very user-friendly. I only regret that I will never likely use all of the great features. I really just want a camera that will be ready to grab and easy to use when the grandkids do something memorable. This is it. With less than an hour of using the "300", I was comfortably using it.

I have found the Discs VERY difficult to come by, so I am happy that I bought 2 3-packs when I picked the camcorder up. That would be my ONLY complaint - that SONY was not prepared with having more discs available. The official SONY website is also out of stock.

I very happy owner!
George