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.

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.

The camcorder is fairly easy to operate and the picture quality is OK. The small size is great and the ease of popping the DVD out of the camcorder and into a DVD player is the best feature of all.

The biggest problem is the Pixela software. It is probably the worst video editor I've tried to use and I've tried a lot. Most of the video editors are set up to work with a mini-DV format camera. Pinnacle, Adobe Premiere, Premiere elements, Ulead, Avid all have trouble with this camera. I have to capture the video using Pixela, then import the mpeg's into another program to edit and the sound doesn't work. Does anyone know of a video editor that works with a Sony DVD camcorder???

Its great if you never want to edit a video, but after you get bored watching the same raw footage and want to experiment with some movie making, you're out of luck with a Sony DVD.

I purchased a new DVD201 with high hopes on how it would work. I already own a Sony DVD recorder for my home ent. center and a Sony Mavica CD camera, which I love (and uses the same batteries as this camcorder), so I thought this camera would be ideal for us, as I would have no problems using Sony products with Sony products.

But even at the highest quality setting (HQ setting) the picture quality is lousy - the colors are all faded and washed out. I thought at first this might be because I was using SP mode and VR recording setting, so I switched to HQ and Video mode. Very little difference. I filmed well-lit indoor scenes of items with bright colors and went outside and filmed flowers in bloom and other items with vivid color. Only the outside shots came even close to being acceptable - the inside shots were not good, and for $900 with all the accessories, this is too much to pay for a poor quality picture. I am very disappointed. I would have kept this camera if it were not for this problem. Also, it is just as someone else posted here, this is not a bug in the camera I bought - this is how it works. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE IMAGE IN THE VIEWFINDER when you try this camera in the store. Burn a DVD-R disc, then play it back on a DVD player on any TV - you will see the problem.

Also, the shots taken outside are noisy, with little wind today, the shots sound like I am in a wind tunnel. The mike picked up lots of wind noise. This is not acceptable either.

Finally, the sound on the inside shots have a high amount of background noise (whirring sound) due to the DVD motor. This is also unacceptable.

SONY ENGINEERS: YOU NEED TO REWORK THIS DESIGN!

As Pee Wee Herman once said " Everybody's got a big BUT". This is truly an outstanding camcorder. The convenience of recording directly onto a DVD is great. Sound quality, picture quality and ease of use are all five stars. BUT, the software SONY provides is absolutely, positively the WORST piece of garbage ever invented for video editing. If you are looking for a camcorder now, and can afford a few hundred extra bucks, SONY DVD is the way to go.

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.

This camera does not work with Adobe Premiere Elements 1.0. I repeat... this camera does not work with Adobe Premiere Elements 1.0. After days of troubleshooting and a potentially $39 phone call to Adobe, their tech help put it simply. He said, "That camera records in MPEG-2. Adobe Premiere Elements doesn't like MPEG-2. You need to try converting your MPEG-2's to AVI files before bringing them into Adobe Premiere Elements."

Well, I'm working on that, but so far, no luck. Despite the fact that my computer has enough hard drive space, plenty of RAM, has been defragged, etc. etc., the picture is still jumpy and there's no sound. Instead of editing videos, I'm now hunting all over the web for file conversion programs that work with the DVD201 and Adobe Premiere Elements. Not fun and it'll probably cost me.

I will say that this camera's touch screen is very intuitive and fun to use. Overall, the camera is easy and fun to use, but if you have any delusions of video editing, stick with the older Mini-DV cameras. Also, the software that came with this camera is AWFUL.

I have been using the DCR-DVD201 for quite a while now, racking up a mini DVD stack of very high quality images and close-ups of flowers and other subjects. I am very picky, as an artist of ministure etchings and engravings, and find the image quality excellent. Sure, one can spend $4000-$5000 and upgrade for a professional unit and probably be happy having that...but this camera is great, and I use it just about everyday.

In fact the images are so good that I use a screen capture to make flower prints from the movie images (using the high resolution mode on the camera).

The Carl Zeiss lens is definite plus as well. I have been around these lens systems all my life and own other Zeiss lenses in microscopes, etc. My father as an MD used them.

The convenience of finializing a DVD in a few minutes (I noticed somewhere that the finalization process can take hours...it doesn't) and them being able to play in in your TV set or computer immediatley thereafer is great. The controls and compactness of the camera is wonderful...I often carry it in my pocket, with no problem. My main concern is forgetting that I am carrying it and losing it...that is how nice and compact this unit is.

I would say that one should know how to use the camera by reading the manual and experimenting with it and think before you record the image if you plan to edit anything later. I edit the finished product on my computer from the original DVD. A nice camera, with great image quality for the price. No problem. - John Anthony Miller, artist. www.johnanthonymiller.com

Do not buy. This camera has very little real value.It privides USELESS EDITING support.The bundled software ( Pixela Image Mixer) SUCKS big time. There is no way to get your movies off the camera except using this software. If you happen to lose or scratch the software cd, you have to BUY IT AGAIN @ $40.
I'm wasting a little bit of my life by writing this review because i happen to be one frustrated owner of this product - Sony DCR DVD-201.
Here are two conversations I had with Sony customer support after I lost my software CD:
[...]

The technology is coming, but it is one of those items that you might want to wait a year to see what updates they can do. The current Camera/DVD or Video war reminds me a lot of the Beta VS VHS war. It is just a matter of time before the Cameras are all DVD and have almost movie quality. I think at this point just for the simple reason that SONY has discontinued many other versions that were new 6 or 9 months ago, that should be reason enough to wait. But again.. it's up to you

If you want to lose the precious moments of your life time use this camera. I have recorded 7 dvds and 3 of them lost the data due to disc access errors. Worst of all Sony service denies there are any problems with this pile of junk. And refered me to a data recovery service that could possibley recover it for $400 per disc. But being a Sony referal I was eligable for a 10% discount. If there are no problems why the service discount. I'm considering class action lawsuit because I know the are plenty of people in the same boat. I have never written a review before, but I don't want anyone to suffer the loss of their precious memories.

I own this camera. Nowhere does Sony tell you that this camera will only function reliably with sony discs. The manual only tells you it has to be an 8cm disc. When you turn the camera on (after you buy it) it will show "sony disc reccomended" on the screen, not required. After losing discs to access error messages (this included my daughters sweet 16 party,an overseas trip and finally a vacation in the mountains) I sent it in to sony. Sony sent it back stating nothing was wrong, but that sony discs had to be used to guarantee it will work (stated nowhere on the box or manual). The sony discs are hard to find and more expensive than any other brand. Sony forces you to buy their discs after you've bought the camera otherwise why not clearly state Sony Discs Mandatory on the box or handbook prior to purchase. They are ripping their customers off!

As a camcorder, I've found the DCR-201 works pretty well... both the picture and sound quality of recordings have been just fine, by and large.

HOWEVER, I am frustrated beyond words at the fact that this piece of Sony equipment is not Mac compatible! My primary rationale in purchasing a Mini-DVD camcorder (as opposed to one using another format) was the idea that I could edit and make copies of film on my computer. What Sony & Amazon failed to mention ANYWHERE - in product descriptions, in Amazon reviews, etc. - is the fact that the Sony/Pixela editing software (which many other reviewers have complained about) is NOT Mac compatible. And, from what I can tell, neither Sony nor Pixela have any intent of releasing a Mac version of the software.

All of which means... well, it means that I wasted a lot of time, effort and money. If you own a Mac, DO NOT buy a Sony mini-DVD camcorder.

Believe me when I tell you....this camera is a joke. You have to capture into sony's worthless software which allows little or no editing. I would consider this one of the worst purchases I have ever made. Absolutely no help from Sony techs and the geeks at best buy tell me I'm up a creek. Thanks sony.

I'm calling it quits with this hunk of crap. I am sick of losing data due to "disc access errors". I just lost THREE STRAIGHT DVDs including the filming of my daughter's first Christmas. And what is Sony's solution to this problem? They refer me to a data recovery service that wants to charge me $400+ PER DISC to get my data back. I don't usually take the time to write reviews, but people must be warned. Thanks for nothing, Sony.

The main problem is that you will loose your precious movies and pictures. I already lost 3 dvds. And it happens with both Sony and third party disks. I also had 2 dvd-rw Sony that I couldn't copy on my computer but the copy worked flawless at the store on a VAIO(so I couldn't make any complaint, even with all my extended warranty). I did a little search on the internet and saw that data recovery companies(Apex Technology Limited UK being one of them) now specify ALL dvd-based Sony camcorders in their advertising. So I probably won't buy any similar camera made by Sony. And their only support is like "We regret the difficulties you are experiencing. However it is not possible to recover the data on a corrupted disc. You may contact any third party solution providers to recover the data from the corrupted discs." To tell the truth, I am really shocked that a company like Sony can market something like this.

I got this camera because I was being deployed to Iraq with the Army, and wanted a removable media that I can mail home and be played back without the device being there to plug in. That is the only good thing I have to say about it. The record time is poor, but accessing the disc on the device is like a digital camera without having to fast-forward and rewind. I guess there are two good things about it. The only software that works with it is the program it comes with, and that isn't all that great. I have taken care of this thing like you wouldn't believe. I built a padded airtight case for it out of a .50 cal ammo can. One week after the one year warranty was up it just stopped working. It won't read discs and makes a strange sound. I have never dropped it or handled roughly. The DVD is more of a novelty and isn't worth the money I paid for it. I can only imagine what it will cost to fix the thing. My digital 8mm has never failed me. If I were to do it all over again, I would have gone with a mini DV.

We bought this camcorder in 2004 when it first came out. Seemed like a decent deal at the time. First problem, have lens adapter to put additional lenses on it but can't screw them on b/c of the way the cd portion is shaped. Second and BIGGEST problem: CCD DIED. 2 years old. Used maybe 5 or 6 times. Worst use of $800 I've ever had. Now it is off warranty and Sony wants $211 to fix it. And no, it is NOT COVERED UNDER THE RECALL AS THE 200 MODEL IS. Same problem according to the website pictures of the 200 model recall information. My camera says it was manufactured in April 04. The recall only covers until MARCH 04. After reading the other reviews on data loss, we will have to seriously consider whether we choose Sony or not. I've had issues with Sony in the past (over Trinitron parts and cost of repair), and apparently some things have not changed with that company. If I could give it ZERO stars I would.

I too have suffered the same unexplained frustrations with the mini-DVD format errors, disc errors, etc that randomly and unpredictably come with this camera. I have a DCR DVD-300 which is essentially the same as the 100 and 200 series with a few more options. I would recommend a mini-DV or solid state format until this technology is perfected. Early on during my ownership of the camera which has been for over three years, I had a disc get stuck in the camera. It would not eject due to a format problem. Sony's only answer was to charge over $200 just to open the camera. Instead, I purchased a technical repair manual, and removed the disc myself. Since that time, I've had no fewer than six discs result in format errors or disc errors. This will happen when you least expect it. My most recent one happened two weeks ago when my nephew was filming my wedding! Therefore, no wedding video! I'm sure I can spend an exorbitant amount to a data recovery service.

Sony should provide a solid data recovery software program with this camera.

The editing software is not user friendly either. In hindsight, as much as I love the camera when it is working properly, the risk isn't worth the format. Wait for technology to catch up.

A program called CD Roller will offer help in many cases.

Users beware of this product. It is a waste of your time, data, and money. It has been to the Sony Repair Center twice and they are still unable to solve the disc error access problems when I use generic dvd discs. Their only answer is that I must use Genuine Sony Brand and the camcorder would not recognise other generic discs. They said this inspite of the fact that I already have recorded and finalized several dozen generic dvd's, that will work fine on my television dvd player, but will not play again on my Sony dvd201. The Repair Center also said that my dozens of other non-finalized discs, that are no longer recognized by my camera, will no longer work because they are not Sony Brand. I suspect that there is probably a Sony Trojan on the headers of their Sony Brand DVD's so that you have to purchase Sony Brand to make your camcorder function. I have spent hours of my time in frustraction trying to make these discs work again. There are also numerson other functional problems with this Sony dvd201 camcorder. Disc ejection is very difficut if you put a non-recognized disc in the camera. When the camera gets hot, with normal use, then disc ejection is very difficutlt.

Works wonderfully except the scrolling button is rather small and hard to use with larger hands. Recording on the DVD is great. Seeing the DVD almost instantaneously is great. Light weight enough to carry everywhere.

While I purchased my DVD201 almost 2 1/2 years ago, I have yet to put over 30 hours of recording on it. The problem is that the camera has a horrible time with disc access errors. I have used brand new SONY DVD-R discs (both the 1.4GB single sided and the 2.8 GB double sided), and every time it is a crap shoot as to whether it will work or not.

About 1/3 of the disks never get recognized by the camera at all - and basically have to be returned as bad, even though they seem to work ok in my personal computer. Of the ones that originally work, almost HALF of them end up with disc access errors at some point - many when I am finalizing the disc! That means I lose the entire contants of the recording! I've lost recordings of family vacations, holidays and birthdays, and finally (the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back) I LOST THE VIDEO OF MY ONLY DAUGHTER'S WEDDING! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!

I went to SONY's online "help", and found it was a joke! Not only were they incredibly slow, they asked me the same questions over and over again. DId you format the diswc? (no - the DVD-R's do not require formatting). Have you finalized the disc? (no - the camera does not even recognize it has a disc in it - I can't even record, let alone finalize anything) Have you tried a new disc? (yes, about 6 of them, right out of the package)

If the discs would fail initially, then I could at least get new ones - BUT TO HAVE IT FAIL AFTER THE PICTURES ARE RECORDED does not leave me ANY options. SONY recommended going to a data recovery house to recover the data, but they want $400 bucks to get whatever you get - I am not even sure the data is recoverable!

I've been on several boards and have seen the same problem reported over and over (unfortunately, not before I had purchased the camera). Has ANYONE had ANY luck getting this camera to work reliably? SONY wants $211 (flat rate) for me to send the camera to them for repair, and a couple of other places have quoted about $140-$160. Before I throw any more money down the drain with this camera - I'd like some assurance that it will actually work. ANY suggestions greatly appreciated!

JUST LIKE SEVERAL OTHERS I BOUGHT THIS CAMCORDER WHEN IT FIRST CAME ON THE MARKET. MINE WAS PURCHASED IN DEC. 2004. IT WORKED FINE UNTIL JUNE OF THIS YEAR. AFTER SPENDING CLOSE TO AN HOUR ON THE PHONE WITH SONY'S REPAIR DEPT. I FOUND OUT IT WILL COST $211 TO REPAIR, AND I ONLY GET A 90 DAY GUARANTEE ON THAT. MY CAMCORDER JUST STOPPED WORKING, PERIOD! FOR NO REASON AT ALL, THE LCD SCREEN WAS THE FIRST THING THAT WENT, THEN IT WOULD NOT CHARGE, THEN IT WOULD NOT EVEN POWER ON!! THIS CAMERA HAS NEVER BEEN DROPPED, HIT, NEVER WET, NEVER USED OUTSIDE IN RAIN OR SNOW ETC; THIS IS THE BIGGEST WASTE OF $800 I HAVE EVER SEEN, AND IT'S OBVIOUS FROM THE OTHER OPINIONS I HAVE READ, I'M NOT THE ONLY PERSON TO HAVE GOTTEN THE ROYAL SHAFT FROM SONY. MY NEXT LETTER WILL BE TO SONY. SO ANYBODY AND EVERYBODY, PLEASE, PLEASE, DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING MADE BY SONY!!!!

I've had this camera for over a year. It's a gamble to use however. You'll either be able to finalize your discs with no problems and have a great little DVD of your favorite moments, or it will have an error and erase everything! It's really up to how it feels at the moment, too. You have to record without moving as well, remember, there's a tiny laser etching data inside there and any sudden turns will erase the disk.

If you can get it to work, the picture will look FANTASTIC! But it's really too much a gamble to take. Don't buy.

I bought this camera back in December 2004 just before going on a trip to Europe, at the time it was the "bee's knees" in camcorders. It was the most amazing little gadget I had owned at the time, and I was thrilled with the results. I'm still very happy with the results, but there are quite a few issues with it.

Firstly, you can't do anything with the video you've shot - even getting clips onto your PC is a chore. Sometimes the computer finds the camera, more often it doesn't. I've now given up getting anything onto the PC, and I just watch the video on the TV unedited. The software that comes with it is completely useless. All you can do is stitch together different clips in their entirety. I managed to do this ONCE in 2 years, but never got the software to burn a DVD of what I had stitched together - the software crashed the computer every time I tried to do it, so I gave up trying.

Secondly, like so many other people, disc errors pop up every once in a while. I admit I have been lucky with it, and have only had a couple, but then again, I haven't used this camera much in all that time, and you just don't know when its going to happen. (I had a disc error when I put a new SONY DVD into the camera in St Petersburg, Russia. I didn't have another DVD with me, so I have no video of St Petersburg at all.)

Lastly, finalising a disc is a nightmare. You spend 10 or 15 mins chewing your nails to the quick waiting for the camera to start beeping and flashing 'DISC ERROR' at you, thus loosing everything you've shot. Again, this has only happened to me a handful of times, but it happens right at the moment when you don't want it to happen. I lost the whole of the west of Ireland because of a disc error during finalising - once again, a SONY disc. Its not as if you can just put another disc in and go back to Ireland to reshoot it all. The 3 or 4 other times its happened was close to home, when I just did go back and reshoot it another day. But what if it had been something important, like the birth of a child or a wedding, like other reviewers have had?

After reading so many horror stories about this camera, I can say I'm one of the lucky few. My camera has only done the dirty on me a couple of times, but then again, every time I use it, I think to myself, 'Is this the time its gonna stuff up???' Which is a real pity, because on the whole its been a nice little camera, and has traveled with me to a lot of places, and has generally been great. But ... you just never know when the moment will come.

Using Sony discs wont solve the disc error problem. I've only ever used Sony brand discs, and they also give errors when the camera feels like it. And the camera hates DVD+R discs - I wasted money on a whole packet of these, only to have every one of them get a DISC ERROR from the camera when I first put them in. Obviously it only likes DVD-R discs.

I would say, save your nerves and don't buy any DVD camcorder, no matter what the brand. They're far too temperamental and the technology too dodgy.