If you are looking for a camera that records to DVDs and doesnt cost an arm and a leg, buy this one. It is a decent camera if you take into account the price. The quality isnt the best however its good enough for the average customer just wanting to shoot video of family events. If you are looking for top quality, pay more. It is true you get what you pay for. For me the camera is good enough for what I use it for... a once in a while camera moment.
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br /I've read over a couple of other reviews stating they are having a hard time getting their camera to read discs. I use the Sony mini DV-R discs and have never had a problem. They are a little more expensive however they are top quality and work great with this piece of equipment.
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br /Also I have transfered the mini-discs to larger ones using a panasonic dvd recorder using Sony (Large) DVD-R disc and havent had a problem either.
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I've owned the Samsung SCDC173U mini-DVD camcorder for a week and I will be taking it back to the store today. As another reviewer has stated - the camcorder has frequent "read" problems, frequent errors, loss of data, and 5 of the 6 mini-DVDs I've used are now "coasters". And those mini-DVDs are not cheap! I even tried two different disc brands and disc formats. It has problems finalizing the disc for viewing, if you can get it to finalize. It was a real disappointment when I realized that the footage of my daughter's 1st birthday was never going to be viewable. I can feel and hear the DVD moving inside the camera while I'm recording and the little sounds it makes are actually audible on the finished DVD during playback. The video quality is quite sub par. The main feature I wanted was the ability to make 16:9 widescreen movies. This feature works, but most of the camera's other features cannot be used in widescreen mode. Overall, it is the reliability that I have the biggest problem with. It is not a stretch to say that 75% of everything I record will not be viewable in any way. So what is the point? The owners manual is also very poor. The software it comes with can best be described as "You get what you pay for". After reading several other reviews at various websites I think this is either a defective camera or just a bad attempt at a camcorder. Save your money, do some research, and buy something else. This one isn't worth the cost savings.

I purchased this 6/15/07 with little time to shop, a day prior to departing for a Caribbean vacation. Just like previous reviewer, it has 'read' problems with the DVD's, every one I tried. Frequent errors, loss of data; 1 DVD rendered useless; problems "finalizing" the disc for viewing, etc. You can feel the DVD shaking and shimmying inside the camera as it tries to read it; sometimes it runs continuously trying to read, even when shut to OFF it keeps trying, running the battery down. Controls are poorly placed and hard to use. I plan on returning it to the store tomorrow. Don't waste your time and money!!

i purchased this camcorder at sears on sale for 199 minus 100 in gift cards, so i ended up paying 100 bucks for it. Even for 199, the camcorder is worth the money. so here are some positive and negatives i've witnessed so far (keep in mind this is the only dvd camcorder that i have ever used)
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br /positives
br /1. it is very small and fits in my hand comfortably
br /2. discs are loaded easily
br /3. case use dvdrw cd's so that you can re record if you don't like what you have done.
br /4. it supports dolby digital surround sound
br /5. 16 x 9 for my dlp tv
br /6. 34x digital zoom (not available in 16x9)
br /7. sd card slot to save my pics or videos to
br /8. samsung reliability
br /9. picture isn't bad
br /10. camera does have light (no functional with 16x9)
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br /negatives
br /1. pic quality isn't very good (cannot substitute for a camera)
br /2. cannot snap pics while recording (i used to love to do that with my old jvc mini dv camera), but i have not figured out how to do it on this camera. you have to switch the camera to "card" to make it work.
br /3. battery life is bad, but i expected that and purchased a bigger, more power battery on ebay for $16. hint: don't leave the battery in the camera, it will drain, quickly.
br /4. when turning the camera on, it take 5-10 seconds until you can record, so don't expect to record something that may occur immediately if the camera isn't already ready to record.
br /5. using 16x9 ratio REDUCES MANY features of the camcorder. you cannot use the light, the digital zoom, most effects, and the DIS function is unavailable. I have been switching back and forth depending on my what, where and when i am recording.
br /6. recording in low light is very bad, unless you have the camera on 4:3 ratio and the shutter speed adjusted. Unfortunately you cannot use the light unless the shutter speed is adjusted, which then makes diminishes picture quality. shooting in 16x9 in low light areas is pointless.
br /7. you only get about 25 minutes of record time on sp, and about 1hr with lp (not camera'a fault). so carry extra discs with you.
br /8. position of the joystick button sux. it should be behind the camera.
br /9. you have to kina of force the turning knob to off, it doesn't move freely to off and it almost feels like i'm breaking it.
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br /all in all, for 200 bucks, you can't go wrong. just don't buy this camera for the 16x9 feature and you'll be happy. so far so good for me. the easy mode is good for beginnings and the quick menu can also me useful to quickly change important settings. I just hate that samsung has greatly reduced the camera's features when 16x9 is being used. oh well.

Video quality is awesome. Thats about it. Every disc I have tried in it, I says error half way through and restarts. I loose everything. This has happened every time I have used it. Battery life, what battery life. I charged it for 12 hours, and I got 30 minutes of use.

I bought this camera a little less than a month ago and thought I was satisfied. That is, until I charged the battery for the first time and realized that you only get about 20-25 minutes of battery life. What is the point of that? Then I thought, okay, well I will just buy a replacement battery, and cannot find one anywhere (I don't think they make one for this model). In any case, I shouldn't already have to look for a replacement battery. If I had it to do over, I would not buy this camera and do not recommend it at all.

The camcorder is very nice. It is inexpensive compared to others. It is nice and small. It fits in a small purse. It takes nice still pic's and video. It takes the small disks and they are not rewrites so if you video something thats it. They are also expensive. around 15- 20.00 for 3. I bought a card that holds alot and used just that since it can be dowloaded and reused. Dont loose the power cord if you do it is impossible to get just a new one.

I got this product last week and i am able to write it to DVD and SD CARD. But the video quality of the AVI file which writes to the SD card is not good its quality is very poor. I didn't checked the vidoe quality on DVD Player but when i played it through the CAM LCD SCREEN it appears fine but when connected to TV through AV Cables the video is not good and it doesn't look like a DVD quality movie.

We got this Digital Cam to capture our growing baby and for what we need it's been great the only problem we have had was we could not save one DVD to our computer, so we'll just have to keep the mini disc until we can figure something else out.

I recently purchased this camcorder with a great "black friday" discount.
br /I compared it to the Canon and Sony equivalent. The Canon was very similar with similar reviews (more expensive). The Sony had better reviews but was over $100.00 more. Since my husband and I film about two or three times a year, we decided that the Samsung was just fine for the money we wanted to spend. We have used the camcorder twice and both times had no trouble filming, using the controls, formatting, finalizing and viewing the finished product. While the camera is not perfect, it is fine for our use. We like the convenience of being able to replay the film right away. We used the fujifilm dvd's and the battery adapter to film. We have not fired up the battery but will do so at an upcoming party. The voice is excellent, picture average to good and the camcorder is easy to use. We have not yet used the memory card to take still pictures and really don't intend to. We have a digital camera and we intend to use that for our still pictures. If you want something that is a lot more sophisticated and that MAY make better videos, opt for the Sony 108 or 408 products that I have reviewed. But again, for the average user - this one serves the purpose well.
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The camcorder is great for the price I paid. It does use DVD-RW disk, which someone said it didn't but does. The disk isn't really even noticable as far as someone saying about disk noise. I wish the battery lasted longer than an hour but like I said, it's great for the price I paid. I bought some Ridata DVDs and they work perfect as far as compatibility issues some have reported. Make sure if you buy DVDs for the camcorder that it says it IS compatible with Samsung and there should be no problem. I love how the view screen can flip around and it's nice to be able to take pictures and load them to the SD card. I think this camcorder is nice, you be the judge!

I've had nothing but problems from this camera. It sucks the battery down lightening fast, it won't shut off sometimes and this weekend, it would skip on the recordings so it didn't record all of the event I was trying to capture. Returning this immediately!

My wife bought this for me last year for Christmas - not sure why I didn't really want another video cam. But anyway, after having the camera for about 12 months now, I've shot about 12 minutes of video. Why only 12 minutes? Because every time I've used it, it's locked up on me to the point that I have to take the battery out to get it to shut off. The last time I looked at this camera I was showing somebody how it would lock up and needed the battery taken out. I took the battery out, it went off I turned the knob to the off position and reinserted the battery. I put the camera down assuming it was off and it should have been. 15 minutes or so went by and I accidentally touched it and it was smoking hot IN THE OFF POSITION. It could have easily started a fire where it was sitting on the bed. But other than the fact that it could burn your family in their sleep, the camera's actually really awful. Poor poor picture quality, just read some of the "professional" reviews on that. I have yet to find one redeeming feature about it. I'm probably going to ship it back to Samsung and let it burn down their house. Do not, I repeat, do not buy this. I have always been a strong supporter of Samsung products, but this may have changed all that.

I don't usually write reviews but, I feel the need to let everyone know what a poor camcorder this is. I unfortuantely didn't do any research prior to buying on black friday 1 week before my new baby was to be born. The whole 8 mos that I have owned this I was only able to record and finalize 1 disk with no problems (the 1st disk) since then it stops recording mid disk says "write error" it won't finalize. I thought maybe it was the disk so I bought some more/different brand of dvd-r it worked fine then mid disk same thing when I press record it says "write error" doesn't record or finalize this time it erased the month worth of taping my new baby. I tried to take it back to the store were I purchased but, since I didn't buy a protection plan and it was over 30 days I am stuck with it. Called Samsung and I have to send it in for the repair. My son is about to crawl anyday and it will be missed. I am not the only one with this problem. Now that I have done some research a lot of people are having the same problem. For something as important as taping precious memories I wish I would have paid more for a better camera. Memories are priceless.

While I bought this as a christmas present for my wife, She has yet to be able to use it. She tried to record a small video and it would not play back. Then the camera started telling her weird things like, the disk is not formated and do you want the camera to format it. When we answered yes, the same message just continued to come up. I called Samsung and was told that there was a patch I could download onto a dvd which could be put in the camera to correct the problem. When I told them I did not have a DVD burner, they offered to send me a disk. After waiting 2 weeks, the disk arrived but was on a full sized CD rather than the mini DVD so I could not put it in the camera to download. I borrowed a computer with a DVD burner and copied the file onto a mini DVD. Then when I put it in the camera, the camera told me the disc was bad. I did this three times with three different discs and the results were the same each time.
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br /I have now sent the camera back to the on-line store which sent the camera. They indicated that they will send me a new one. I am just hoping the software patch has been installed on the new camera when I get it and my problems are resolved. I was hoping to just get my money back and try a different brand but at this point, the distributor just wants to send me the same camera.
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br /Based on my experience to date with Samsung, I don't think I would buy anything else from that company.

I was given this camcorder as a Christmas present when I gave birth to twin girls. I recorded on it and found it would not finalize and repeatedly received a disk error message. I tried again and got the same message. Now I have two unviewable disks with precious family memories on them. When I called customer support I got a woman who barely spoke English who went through several steps with me and then told me to only purchase Memorex RW disks. There should be a warning with the camera. Nowhere in the owners manual is a specific brand name disk mentioned. I did use a Sony disk once and it did finalize but am at a loss as to what to do with others. I am very unhappy with this product.

Camcorder is Ok but it seems like the batteries go down to easy. Tried
br /several batteries, but have the same results.

I bought this camera but was unable to write the mini dvd to a regular size dvd on my dvd recorder. When I called customer service, I was redirected to a camcorder support person (whom I do not believe exists) but was then told by a recording that my call did not go through and to please call again. This happened 5 times!!! Beware Customer Support on this product. I am returning it as fast as I can!

I have used the camcorder a couple of times and I'm very happy with it! Thank-you for your speedy delivery.