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Sony DCRTRV250 Digital8 Camcorder with 2.5" LCD, USB Streaming and Remote

Sony DCRTRV250 Digital8 Camcorder with 2.5" LCD, USB Streaming and Remote

List Price: $499.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sony Digital 8 for an amazing price!
Review: Our family has really enjoyed this camcorder. We just wish that we had had it for past vacations. It's so easy to use and gives you so much quality for such a small price! We have digital movies for the future at such a reasonable price. We can't wait to burn our movies to DVD once we get our DVD burner. This cam makes the future possible. It has all of the features of a great camcorder and leaves the digital camera options out; that's for our digital camera :)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: DON'T BUY THIS CAMERA OR ANY OTHER SONY!
Review: Similar to one of the other reviews I just read, my camera quit working after 1 year. The image through the view finder became distorted and that's what it recorded when I tried to use it.
I had only used the camera a hnadful of times, and I kept it in it's case. Sony has a 90 day warranty for labor, and a 1 year warranty for parts. I was told it would be $290 for parts and labor, but since I was still under warranty for parts, it would only be $233! What a deal!
I've had problems with other Sony products as well (stereo receiver) so I'm done with them!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Poor reliability
Review: The camcorder is nice, with accpetable picture quality. However mine started giving error c:31:42 just after 7 months, though I haven't used much. I checked the mannual and it states that the error codes starting with the letter 'c' can be fixed by users.
I followed the possible solutions but wasn't able too fix the problem. I called sony they told me that it needs service and they will charge US $216 for labor.
This is totally unacceptable for a camcorder which is worth around $330.
I just can't believe that a company like sony is charging 2/3 of the original price to fix an error which according to their own mannual can be fixed by users. I would now think twice before buying any sony product.
My advice is to buy an extended warranty when you buy a sony camcorder or look for a differnt brand like samsung etc.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Transfers to CP are jittery and jumpy
Review: The camera takes excellent video. The picture and sound are crisp and clear-- even when played on my big screen Hitachi Hi Def TV (the picture is not hi def, of course, but still looks marvelous). 5 stars on picture and sound.

The problem is transfering video to my PC. I've tried both USB 1.1 (using both a USB 1.1 and 2.0 cable into a 2.0 connection) and Firewire cable. It is jittery and jumpy. It looks like old 8mm film and not clear and crisp like it does direct to the television. 2 stars on video capture.

Which brings me to Sony's video software. It is, well, hideous. No clue how to use it. It comes with no real instructions, only on what all the buttons are but not how to use them. Worse, I can't designate where I want the captured video to go (I can't select the drive. Rather than capturing the video to my 120 G external hard drive, it will only capture to my 10 G internal. This is obviously a problem. 0 stars for video software, which also acts to capture. Perhaps I should go 0 stars on video capture also?

Sony, you must do better than this. The camera itself is great. Everything else stinks.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This camera is not compatible with analog-recorded tapes
Review: The main reason I bought this camera is so that I could (finally) digitize the 8mm tapes we had recorded of our first son. We were given a Sony anolog camcorder as a gift about 4 years ago. We could not trade it in for a digital and so we decided that one day we would either get a video bridge or update to DV. Our hand was forced when our old camera died. Although I really wanted a miniDV camcorder I thought that it would be more practical to stay with a camera that used 8mm tapes. Well, this camera can use those tapes...but it can't play them back if they were recorded with an analog camcorder. Looks like I will have to return this unit in favor of the Sony 350 which DOES appear to be backwards compatible.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good, but for digital I prefer MiniDV
Review: The picture and sound are crisp and good. The color was washed out and could be more accurate. The manual and camera lacked what I needed to compensate for washed out color. The motor noise didn't appear in the video, but was annoying for indoor recording and operation. The zoom button wasn't the easiest to reach.

If you've used Sony camcorders in the past, I imagine that you will be satisfied. But, ultimately, I wanted something smaller, quieter, and uses MiniDV.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Its Brilliant if you have a firewire cable
Review: The sony dcr250 is a great price for a great camcorder. It has very high quality video and 5.1 suround sound (If you have a extra speakers atached to your tv). Its only when it comes to putting it onto your pc where theres a problem if you dont have a firewire cable and port then its crap but hay it only costs 20 pounds from Amozon and it really easy to install. When or if you have got the firewire it is 100% perfect. So overall a great camara rubbish usb streaming but perfect when you use a I link 1394 (firewire). Thanks Amazon its alot cheaper here.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great camera for a low Price
Review: This camcorder offers great features for a low price. It's video quality is excelent, zoom works very well, the software that sony offers is great to create home videos. It's necesary a good computer for better quality. I suggest you a Pentium 4. You can download the videos in a Pentium III, but it result a little slow.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Bang for your Bucks
Review: This camera is great. It does the job and fits into my budget. I was debating between this and the Canon ZR65 but found that this Sony has better quality. I checked at Best Buy to see the image quality and it helped a lot. The only benefit I saw in getting the canon was to take still pictures and it has a slot for memory card. But the still pictures are poor quality and meant for a digi-cam which I recently purchased too. =) This Sony trv250 camcorder gave me everything I wanted: best picture quality for lowest price, digital and capability to transfer to pc. When you watch the videos, the picture looks perfect. But once you record it onto vhs, you lose picture quality but that's due to the VHS technology. One of the main reasons I got this is to transfer the videos to my pc. The software it came with sucks. It saves it as .mpg which is great, but I couldn't even save a 20 mins video. It crashed several times. So I ended up using windows movie maker and it made my video fine but as an .avi format. I need to find a program that converts the .avi to .mpg so I can burn into vcd. One big flaw though is when you transfer the video using usb (it's 1.0, not 2.0), it becomes choppy, unbelievably choppy. I was scared I couldn't transfer videos anymore as it can get very annoying watching my home videos choppy. So I went out and got a firewire card and tried again and it worked smoothly. I was getting nervous about my purchase but it worked out. The night version is awesome. In a pitch dark room, I can see everything, in green. Its infrared vision makes me feel like a G.I. Joe. I took this camcorder out to the dessert and videotaped my trip and it came out well. My friends thought the quality was pretty good too. The accessories that I bought were a stand, NPFM70 battery that lasts 4+ hrs, camera protective lens for the dusty times (avoid scratches on the actual lens), digital8 tapes (it should've at least came with one, cheap-a*s Sony), and a camcorder backpack to keep everything. All in all, for the price of the camera, I think it was a great purchase.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: First Sony bought and the Last Sony bought!
Review: This camera is just over a year old when I went to record with it and the image was black with a white circle. That's exactly how everything recorded! Their tech determined that it had to be repaired at a cost of $280. Of course, even though it was only a few weeks over warranty nothing would be covered. This camera was never abused and essentially I paid $400 to record about two or three tapes over the period of one year. What a rip off! This was the first time I bought a Sony in 40+ years and it will be the last. I had an RCA that lasted over 14 years, used extensively and never required service. I had expected a Sony product to at least last 1/2 as long. WRONG!!


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