Camcorders forum: Im so confused with my Sony DCR-DVD610

1) It is a DVD storage camcorder... not a "hard drive deal".

2) Since it stores video to DVDs, it needs DVDs to store video - sorry, I can't figure out a way to put this... Hence, no DVD, no video capture. It was never advertised to be a "hybrid" to capture video to DVD or memory card. If the salesman told you that, then you should return it for a full refund as it was misrepresented.

3) The memory stick is for stills - that is how that camcorder was designed. See "#2 - returning the camcorder", above...

4) DVD based camcorders provide the worst available quality. Next best are hard drive and some flash memory camcorders - and best video quality comes from miniDV tape based camcorders.

All Consumer camcorders are "simple" and make short videos. Whether they can stand your hiking trips is up to you - they are pretty sophisticate pieces of electronics, and rough handling is not normally advised.

I would suggest something like a Canon ZR800. It is miniDV tape based, and if you break the camcorder, it is cheap to replace.

I felt complied to respond because you gave such bad information to someone just asking a simple question. The Sony dcr-dvd610 is advertised as offering hybrid movie recording. The manual explains on page 28 that you can use the internal memory, a disc or a
Memory Stick PRO Duo. I don't want to be rude but if you don't know what you are talking about you might not want to respond so rudely to someone asking an innocent question. Not all of us are techies!

Hi Josh,
I know this is from 2008 and you have probably bought another camcorder by now but I just wanted to say that you can/or could have recorded movies to the memory stick. I, like you, was also pissed off for a bit because Sonys customer support sucked. Thanks to a friend of mine though I figured out how to switch the storage format from DVD to memory stick. All you have to do was click the home button, go to manage media, click on movie media set, click on memory stick, and follow the directions that are being displayed on the screen. Since the camera is now 5 years old and if you are still looking for a camera that isn't very expensive for hiking, the handycam is pretty durable. Again sorry for posting on an old thread but I had the same problems that you had.