Is there a dvd camcorder that uses regular dvd's?

Question

Is there a dvd camcorder that uses regular dvd's?

Answer 1

By regular, I assume you mean full-sized 12cm DVD-Rs rather than the usual 8cm "mini" DVDs. Nope... the camcorder industry has declared that consumer camcorders must be small, and a full-sized DVD would make the camcorder too large. And maybe they're not wrong... the DVD format replaced mini-DV digital tape as the #1 format for consumers in 2007.

Professionals don't use DVD camcorders, so this hasn't been an issue. Current DVD formats are lower quality than DV, and of course the small discs deliver only shot (19 minutes) recording times at full quality. And of course, pros and advanced amateurs do editing on computers, so they don't really care about the ease of playing raw footage from DVD.

There are a couple of "close call" solutions. Several companies offer Hard Disc Drive (HDD) or memory card camcorders that can directly burn a DVD over USB, using special DVD-R recorders. These include the Panasonic SD5, SD9, HS9, and SDR-H40, the JVC Everio G-series, and some others. It's also true that many home DVD recorders can record DVDs directly from any camcorder with a Firewire output, and more recently, any USB device. Another alternative is a unit like the Sony DVDirect MC5, which is a DVD recorder designed specially for recording from camcorders. All this assumes that, for whatever reason, you're not happy doing this on a PC.. PC authoring of DVDs will always be more flexible, but it will take more time and knowledge.