Sony HDR-XR155e

I bought TWO (2) units of this Sony HDR-XR155E for video editing project. The hard disk drive of both units became faulty and an error code E:31:00 kept on displaying on lcd screens of the units.

When this happens you will not be able to record or even access the HDD to view your recorded files and copy to back it up.

You will not be able to see the removable storage disk on your computer. That means you will loose all your recordings and photos.

Sony has probably a way of recovering all your data in the HDD if you send your camcorder to them for servicing but that is a lot of hassle.

In addition, the zoom lever of one of the units became faulty as well.

Not worth paying for the high cost of these camcorders when they came out new.

Totally disappointed with the quality of these camcorders considering they were just occasionally used and they were made by Sony.

This is a really good camera and overall I've been impressed with the fact that its pretty easy to use (chose one that was good on 'auto' as realistically I dont have the inclination to play around with loads of manual settings).

The picture quality (when you can view it - more on this later..) is really beautiful compared to my 4 year old JVC standard definition camera.

Its quite lightweight and quite small, so far so good.

The touch screen is a little unresponsive compared to 'proper' touchscreens on the market, like an iPhone - so this can be a little annoying but not a deal breaker.

What is HIGHLY annoying to me is the fact that the output of the camera is Sony's proprietary .mst or .m2st file format.

If you want to view your files on your TV or your PC as I do, then its a nightmare as you have to have specific software to view these files on. You can't just go to the file in Windows Explorer and open it, you have to find the right software first. To be fair, Sony does bundle some software that does this (Picture Motion Browser, or PMB) but I dont want to have to use this, I want to just be able to open a file 'normally'

Also, if I want to share these files with people then they have to have this Sony software too. A real pain

On top of that, in the 'small print' you find out that you have to have a PC that is at least Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz or faster to actually be able to view the files. My Core 2 Duo 2GHz PC creates a load of 'zigzags' on the screen as it can't handle it. Annoying.

You'll struggle to find a TV that will view .m2st or .mst files either, so you can't view them on that.

Just to add insult to injury, we have a WDTV Live media streamer which should work ok with these files through the TV, but it doesn't. It plays just sound for about 5 seconds, then just video and then joins the two together later on. When it is joined together you can see how stunning the output is on a decent TV (we have a Philips 42PFL9604 which is really good HD quality) - but obviously you can't have all your videos losing the first 10-15seconds

So, great if you only want to view all your videos on the actual camera, or you want to go out and buy a new PC to view them on, but if not then its really frustrating as you have to save those lovely looking High Def files down to standard definition, which kind of makes buying an HD camcorder pointless - you have the files in HD but you can't view them!

A real shame, but because of the file format issues I wouldn't recommend this camera.