Sony DCR-DVD201E

Ever since Super8 was superseded by video, home movies have been almost exclusively tape-based endeavours. But in the wake of the DVD revolution it makes perfect sense for digital video camcorders to adopt a disc-based recording system.

Sony's DVD210E uses mini-DVD-R/RW discs, which enjoy a wide compatibility. So now you can simply pop your discs into a set-top DVD player or DVD-ROM drive and view or transfer your footage, right? Well, not quite. Using the discs in any device other than the camcorder itself requires you to 'finalise' them, which can take up to 10 minutes and, if you're using write-once DVD-R, also means that you can't record to them again.

Even after all that you can't just rip the MPEG video straight from the DVD to your PC's hard disk. Instead, you have to install special software and then connect your camcorder to your computer using a USB cable.

On the bright side, the Sony-branded mini-DVD-Rs we used seemed to play back well and picture quality was fairly good, especially at the highest setting. However, this will only give about 20 minutes per disc.

Photos are also recorded to disc (there's no separate memory card) and are of reasonable quality at the top resolution (1152 x 864 pixels). On a DVD player, photos appear as a slideshow and it's easy to extract them to your PC straight from the disc.

Somehow, though, it all feels like a missed opportunity. We had dreams of a time when DVD recording would put an end to cable-based PC connections. The DVD201E is nearly an innovation, but in reality is little more than yet another slightly different video format and a fairly average camcorder.

Contact:Sony 0870 511 1999
www.sony.co.uk