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written by on 15/04/2011
BOUGHT THE SAMSUNG VP-DC161 FROM A SHOPPING CHANNEL, AFTER WARRANTY IT WOULDNT WORK, KEEPS SAYING "bad disk or no disk " MAKES NOISES FROM THE DISK COMPARTMENT, THE RECORDER WAS ONLY USED A HANDFUL OF TIMES, WOULD NOT RECOMEND THIS PRODUCT TO ANYONE JUST A COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY. WAS CONSIDERING GETTING THE ITEM REPAIRED LOCALLY, BUT AFTER READING THESE REVIEWS, THINK THAT WOULD BE A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND MY MONEY, SO ONLY ONE SOLUTION BIN IT. DO NOT BUY. SOUNDS LIKE SAMSUNG IS A WASTE OF TIME TOO.
written by on 02/01/2011
I have had nothing but trouble with this camcorder. I trusted the dork in Currys and have wasted £299. I have tried to use this on three holidays now & we have no use-able footage what so ever. Cant format discs, cant finalize discs, cant connect to mac, cant afford to waste another boat load of money. Thanks Samsung you thieving pirates!
Why dont industry test these things before they buy stock and pass them on to us customers.
written by on 12/10/2009
terrible..absolutely terrible..couldnt finalise any discs after the first one wasted valuable footage please DO NOT BUY ONE. disgusting aftersales service from argos and samsung,, bad video unfreindly to use poor, poor ,poor ,poor to say the very best about this peice of absolute trash
written by on 24/07/2009
only had Samsung VP-DC161 camcorder a few months and it stop working. would not recommend to anyone.
written by on 24/10/2008
I've had this camcorder for 18 months now. The first one broke after 2 weeks with disk errors/freezing etc... I took in back to Argos who offered me a refund or an exchange. Stupidly I went for an exchange. It then broke again two days out of warranty. Argos were excellent and sent it off for repair. Since then it has been for repair a further two times and it is as bad as ever. Battery shows as full and then goes to empty in less than one minute. If camcorder loses power, which it does regulary, then disk can't be finalised and recording can never be played on a DVD player. We've just been on a short break and the camera worked fine for 20 minutes. The disk we had in was a 60 minute disk, but due to previous problems I decided to finalise so I wouldn't lose my recording. Upon asking it to finalise it came up with disk error and kept switching itself off. Then when I got the camera to come back on it said there was no disk in the camera. I'm going back to Argos today with a copy of all these reviews as this product should have been withdrawn from sale. It obviously has many faults most relating to the software within the camcorder. Fingers crossed Argos take upo my case. Under any circumstances and no matter how cheap DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT
written by bubblewrapprincess on 11/10/2008
My Samsung VP-DC161 has been completely useless and Samsung far less than helpful when things went wrong, as were PC World, they were not interested in either replacing or repairing mine even though I was told it had a two year guarantee!
The camera lasted for one and a half hours of recording and now does not work at all. Could not even finalise the disc that was in it when it packed up, lost valuable footage of baby daughter.
Bought another off e-bay if only to finalise the disc but it had the same fault only backlight came on and nothing else at all! I do not recommend buying the Samsung VP-DC161 I have wasted over £350 to date and have now decided to write to the BBC Watchdog program as feel sure hundreds of people have bought this duff product from Samsung and it is high time they owned up to making a dud and provided replacement of refund.
written by madasahatter on 05/10/2008
Very disappointed in the camcorder. It was my first camcorder. Yes, I also thought it was me being a beginner and could not use it properly. Now that I read the reviews...it is the camcorder that is bad.
written by jnardiello on 26/08/2008
Had the camcorder for 13 months has now completely frozen, do not buy, very unreliable.
written by on 15/08/2008
Bought this camera just over a year ago so therefore it is out of guarantee. We have only actually used it for 34 minutes.
The only advice we get is to send it for repair which seems a waste of more money. I WISH I HAD SEEN THESE REVIEWS EARLIER. DO not BUY
written by baheid on 01/06/2008
Be warned - buy this and you will waste your hard earned bread. Absolutely rubbish battery life - expect 10-15 mins maximum. Autofocus is poor in terms of responsiveness. Grainy LCD, joystick operation confusing, menu is unintelligible.
written by on 23/04/2008
My Samsung VP-DC161 regularly crashes or says disk error / disk not loaded when a DVD is in. First broke in a week and this one has just broke 5 days out of warranty. It now seems I've lost my sons Communion I recorded on Sunday.
Hopefully Argos may exchange for another model?
written by on 10/04/2008
I bought the Samsung VP-DC161 as a panic purchase. It seemed great value and so flexible with the DVD's. The first Camcorder broke within a week. The second one annoys me ever time I use it. The LCD screen is so bad you can hardly see what you are recording on it. I am now going to throw it away and write it off as a mistake purchase. REALLY, don't waste your money on it.
written by Trotsky on 18/03/2008
The focus on my Samsung VP-DC161 never worked properly. Sent it for repair under warranty just before it expired. Used it once for 2 minutes after the repair and now it has completely frozen and Samsung and Comet don't want anything to do with it even though it hasn't worked since the repair under warranty. Estimate 10 hours use in total from new (have had it for over a year). Might as well throw it against a wall. £250 wasted.
written by on 18/02/2008
I am so glad I found this website as I thought it was me having a technophobic moment with my Samsung VP-DC161 camera! This product is absolute rubbish. Please, please do not buy it - it is an utter waste of money.
written by oumie5 on 07/11/2007
Absolute rubbish and Sam sung are not interested in assisting you in any way other then giving you the number of a company to arrange repairs and when you phone it you cant speak to a technician they do not have one on site I am absolutely dissatisfied and disgusted.
written by sashimi on 25/10/2007
You would be better off taking a pencil and a piece of paper than this Samsung to record your moments... absolute rubbish!
written by J L Walker on 09/08/2007
Purchased the Samsung VP-DC161 especially for a holiday to America and Canada which we have just returned from and was absolutely rubbish!! Frustrating, annoying and a complete and utter waste of time. Low and behold another couple on the same trip had the same camera and were having same problems. Only purchased in May and this was the second time we used it!! Now it has had to go back in for repair!! DO NOT PURCHASE IT!!
written by tueswed on 03/07/2007
If you want a video camera that works, then don't buy this one.
written by chalky76 on 29/03/2007
Brought the Samsung VP-DC161 camcorder this morning, wanted an idiot proof one so that anyone could jump on and use it. Nice and easy to use but very poor with regards to battery life. The shop assistant said the battery life when recording would be around four hours (users manual states fifty-five minutes), well have charged it up four times today alone and the average recording time was fifteen minutes or thereabouts, absolute waste of money if you need it for a day trip or similar. To use the disk in a DVD player you need to finalise the disk. If there is even the slightest vibration (and I mean the slightest) you will cause playback freeze (much like when you watch digital TV with a poor signal), I finalised my second load of film with the camcorder on my computer desk and opened the DVD compartment of the desktop computer the vibrations through the floor were enough to cause the playback problems outlined above.
If you want my advise stay well away as this camcorder is defiantly false economy.
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474038_Alanwgjones's Response to bubblewrapprincess's Review
Written on: 19/07/2009
I found this review very helpful because...i was thinking of bidding on one of this model. After reading this reiew i will not bother. I think i have just been saved some money. Thankyou.