100%
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Sony DCR-DVD201 DVD Handycam Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom

List price:	~~$899.99~~
Our price:	that is 100% off!
Manufacturer:	Sony

Average user rating: Average user rating: 3

good buy

i think it is a good buy, because I bought it ;-:
i read a lot of reviews before i bought. some were accurate, some were not, at least in my experience. for example, i was not able to edit the movies using MS movie maker, as 'gadgester' suggests below. after a careful read, i realized he never tried it, why mention it then? i think that may be misleading.
the camera is very small, but very user friendly. I used dvd-rw from office depot, they worked well so far. No problems finalizing, unfinalizing or playing. Does not take much time to do any of those operations.
i noticed that i was able to backup existing movies by recording on regular cd-r media, which is very very cheap these days. Of course you need to use a computer to do this.
i am not giving it 5 stars because i haven't been able (and i expected it) to edit movies yet. may be someone has suggestions as to how to do it.

Don't buy it!

Sony is currently the only manufacturer making DVD-RW camcorders and apparently they haven't perfected it. I bought mine for almost $1,000 and have had to send it to repair twice, sending it AGAIN as the finalized DVD's all SKIP!!! The DVD's are also very expensive, only hold 25 minutes of video and although RW's allow you to re-record you cannot edit out certain clips and record over those. I am truly disappointed to have bought such an expensive defective camera, and what's worse is the terrible service I have received from Sony. They will not return my money, and will not give me a new camera. Recently I learned from an employee at another store that MANY customers return this model for the same skipping problem. Sony must be aware of this yet continues to con people out of their money. The most they can do for me is issue an "exchange" someone else's defective camera...and that's not guaranteed...so here we are 4 months later...with a defective camera having missed out on precious family memories...going through hassle, time & expense of continuing to have to contact Sony, ship back, test, retest etc. Save yourself the aggravation...do NOT buy this product.

A First-time Camcorder Owner is DELIGHTED!

Even though I craved the convenience of a camcorder that could record directly onto a DVD disk, I almost didn't buy the Sony DCR-DVD201 Handycam Camcorder because of the many, well-written reviews on this website that faulted the color quality of the recorded footage.

I went ahead and bought the unit despite expecting to be displeased with the video quality. However, after shooting my first DVD and playing it back in our average-quality DVD player, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the picture quality was excellent. On this disk I had shot in daylight, and incandescant light, some outdoor scenes as well, both wide angle and close-up, and the image crispness and color quality was outstanding at all times.

I never owned any camcorder before (either digital or VCR/VHS), and I'm not really a technical/computer person. Yet I found the camcorder easy to learn and use. In fact, I'm teaching my 5 year old daughter how to use it and she's almost competent with it after just a couple of sessions.

Basically, all you do is charge the battery, insert a DVD, record your footage, 'finalize' the DVD, and pop it out of the camcorder into your DVD player or computer to play it back. I would say it's almost idiot-proof, but I still tried to record while the lens cap was on, and my 5-year old had to tell me to take the lens cap off!

I don't know if the other reviews mention it, but there's also a remote control. I already bought a tripod for the camcorder (with a 20% discount on accessories that you get as soon as you register the camcorder at the Sony website), and I plan to work the camcorder with the remote control from a tripod so I can get into the picture with the rest of the family.

The unit fits into your hand really well. And, the sound quality was excellent too - I didn't hear any of the DVD spinning noise that the other reviewers unfortunately experienced.

I am using the unit for family footage at present and don't have any immediate plans to do any editing of my recordings. That would be beyond my time and abilities, so I can't comment on the editing software that comes with the unit. I do some teaching might record some lectures on it but I can do so without need of the editing function.

Before I saw this 'all-in-one' unit, I almost bought a camcorder plus a separate device for the sole purpose of burning DVD's of your recordings ($300 at best buy); I am delighted with the convenience of having it all in one unit, without experiencing any of the quality problems mentioned in the other reviews.