For the benefit of those new customers contemplating on buying Sony DCR-DVD403 / DCR-DVD403E / DCR-DVD803 / DCR-DVD803E * camcorder, the links on some professional and user reviews are mentioned below:

User Reviews and Professional Reviews on Pricegrabber.com:

http://www.pricegrabber.com/rating_...7528/id_type=M/


User Reviews on cnet.com:

http://reviews.cnet.com/Sony_Handyc...ml?tag=uoreturn


Professional Review on cnet.com:

http://reviews.cnet.com/Sony_Handyc...-2.html?tag=tab


Professional Review on camcorderinfo.com:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/conten...rder-Review.htm


Professional Review on dvspot.com**:

http://dvspot.com/reviews/sony/dvd4...iew/index.shtml


Professional Review on pcworld.com:

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/arti...d,121563,00.asp


Professional Review on videomaker.com:

http://www.videomaker.com/scripts/article.cfm?id=11236


User Reviews at the bottom of the web page on georeviews.com:

http://www.georeviews.com/show/14320/


Professional Review on pcmag.com:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1836429,00.asp


Note:
All the above four models listed are same in specs except for the NTSC/PAL standard & the country/region of their availability.

**On few of the reviews (Eg. dvspot.com), it was mentioned that editing is a pain as it is MPEG2 format. But, actually there are several editing softwares available now (PC/windows platform) which can edit MPEG2's (with AC3 sound).

These latest versions of editing softwares can also read .VOB/.VRO structure of miniDVD directly before editing & authoring into a 12cm DVD keeping the possibility of adding video/audio effects, transitions, titles, background music etc. nearly equal to the editing possibility with MiniDV.

Which ones ?
thanks
Adrian0

Some of the video editing software, which can recognize DVD cams / .VOB files with AC3 (Dolby Digital surround sound) are:

1. Sony Vegas Movie studio 6.0
2. Pinnacle Studio Plus Ver 10
3. Cyberlink Power Director ver 5/4/3
4. Nero suite 7.0/Ultra 6.6 with 5.1 plugin (Nerovision 3.x and above)
5. Ulead VideoStudio 9
6. Ulead DVD Movie Factory 4/3.5
7. TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6
8. Sony Vegas latest version with patch for recognizing DVD cams.

Note:
a) .VOB or .VRO are container files for MPEG2 format
b) Some of the software above doesn't recognize .VRO files (miniDVD-RW recorded in VR mode)
c) Almost all software mentioned above can decode 5.1 ch surround sound but NOT able to generate 5.1 ch AC3 sound in output DVD (except for TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6 & Nero 7/6.6 amongst those listed above)

And don't forget about the reviews on the store where you plan to buy from, do a search on
http://www.reselerratings.com
before you buy.

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