I have three Sony MiniDVD camcorders which I use to film my work with clients. More than the odd disc is not allowing me to finalise it at the end of the session, and of course it doesn't give any indication of impending doom when I first put it in. I don't believe the problem is with the cameras as the finalising issue seems to occur even with the newest camera, with less than two hours use on it. Anthony Etherton
MiniDVD camcorders use small format DVD discs to record the video, and are not to be confused with MiniDV models, which use a small tape. The MiniDVD normally requires you to finalise it in the camera before it can be used in a PC.
Do you use a MiniDVD camera, have you run into this problem, and how do you solve it?
I tend to think Anthony would be better off using a different format, and MiniDV is still the standard. However, a camcorder that uses either chp storage (such as SD cards) or a built-in hard drive would be another option. If you use one of these, the file transfer is easy, but have you found it easy to read and edit the video files on a PC? Which format do you use, and does the compressed image quality provide an acceptable result?
Comments welcome! ;-)
Otherwise, the best I can suggest is trying to recover the video using a program such as the CD Roller Raw ISO Data Identifier. Alternatively, firms like Apex Technology will attempt to recover data from DVDs, with prices that start at £95 plua VAT per disc.
