written by 4Reall on 31/01/2006
Good Points
A/V out, DV, USB, S-Video, remote control, can take still pictures, night-shot mode, back-light, light, focus, self focus, good menu - (control panel) burn to DVD/VCD and it got USB streaming. 990 zoom, Optical 20x. Very easy to use. Battery life reasonable. Come with Scart adaptor, USB cable, 1 battery, carry-case, neck strap, hand strap, lens cap, AV cable. Nice and light - easy to handle and operate - all necessary button for recording an event is within easy reach.
Bad Points
Digital8 media rather than DVD
Stereo sound is weak
USB drivers on the accompanying disk are NOT supported by windows XP. XP reports that the driver is UNSIGNED and is not logo tested for compatibility with Windows. This means if you go ahead and install the driver for this camcorder it renders your computer unstable - software freezes up in the middle of streaming to PC/laptop and it freezes when burning onto a DVD or CD if it manages to get this far.
System noticeably become very slow when software and driver is installed. Many crashes if driver/software is installed.
General Comments
In a nutshell the Sony DCR-TRV265E camcorder is easy to use and has the relevant features to do just about anything. This unfortunately is all let down by the fact that you cannot then transfer your recording onto DVD or CD via a laptop or PC. If you decide not to install the driver(s) for this camcorder then windows XP won't recognise it. Using Roxio or some other software to transfer your recording to PC/laptop won't be detected either, leaving the camcorder useless after capturing films.
To my knowledge Sony haven't got a supported/updated driver made available via their website to solve this problem.
If you want/plan to capture many films of family etc., and want to store them onto CD/DVD, then avoid this camcorder and go for one that uses DVD as a media instead of the outdated Digital8.
SONY!! PROVIDE A FIX FOR THE DRIVER PROBLEM PLEASE!!
Jerseyf1's Response to 4Reall's Review
Written on: 03/03/2008
Some of it is just untrue. For example the drivers have not slowed my computer down at all nor has it made it more crash prone. I just believe this user is a fanboy of another operating system because it does not do anything but help you put the footage onto computer. <br/><br/>The only problems which I had with this camera was compatibility with windows. I installed a updated driver but I can't use without Firewire. Lack of a firewire cable would therefore be my only criticism possibly along with the use of digital 8 instead of dvd or even minidv at least.,