DVD Camcorder Troubles

I’ve been researching how dvd camcorders compare to DV. To my surprise, I found that editing the footage from dvd cams is very frustrating. The optimal editing procedure is to do everything in camera! Otherwise, you must use Adobe Premiere Elements or Sony Vegas DVD specific editing software. Apparently, this is something most people do not know when they buy a dvd camcorder. If you were thinking that you would be able edit footage right out of the box with a dvd camcorder, this may prove to be very difficult. So any miniDV camcorder has an advantage over a Sony Handycam DCR-DVD201 Camcorder.

Jake Ludington, a media expert who answers tech questions, figured out how to manipulate the dvd camcorder footage. The biggest problem is uploading the dvd footage content and transferring it to a manageable editing format. All of his instructions sound extremely complicated and doesn’t make me want to run out and buy a dvd camcorder.

I agree with his assessment of the dvd dilemma.
“I like the idea of DVD camcorders. No hard drive, theoretically affordable media, considering full-sized DVDs cost less than fifty cents each in most cases. The reality is a series of frustrations for anyone who wants to edit movies after shooting. I have some experience with Sony’s Handycam DVD7, which is an entry level unit, but representative of the experience for all DVD camcorders. The dirty secret of DVD camcorders is they aren’t designed for editing on a PC. You are expected to record to disk, edit on the camera, finalize your project on the camera and at best make copies of the DVD for sharing with other people. If you are more familiar with the process of realtime video capture over FireWire available via a more traditional DV cam, this is especially frustrating. None of the Handycam DVD models include FireWire (or as Sony calls it, iLINK).”

This issue can be navigated, but I feel like I’d rather stick to buying dv tapes, even though DVD discs are less expensive. I’d rather have less hassle on the post-production end. Still, dvd camcorders are a great deal if you want to record family memories and don’t care to edit very much after the fact. They are remain a viable product on the market despite these technical issues.

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