Hey guys,

Anyone know of a mini DV player that won't cost a ton, but can be put into an HT? I've got all these family movies and I hate hooking up the camera to the tv all the time, and I just don't have time to edit all these tapes to DVD's. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Mark

Mostly I've seen combo decks... Mini DV + SVHS for example. Don't recall too many full-sized Mini DV only ones. Maybe someone else has an idea...

There've only been a couple, and they've all been over $1000, IIRC. I don't know your definition of a ton, but I always found it a better choice to simply haul out the camera. That's what those front inputs are for in my house. I'm sure you could do a quick search to find one. Probably JVC.

Spiky,

I have found a JVC for about 800 dollars at eCost.com. I just don't really want to put that much into it when it's just for family movies. I wish one would come out around 400 or so. I don't know why they are that expensive when you can buy a camera for 200 or 300 nowadays. You'd think they could build one with the guts of a camera in a case that could sit in your system for a decent price.

Thanks,
Mark

Got a computer or a DVDR? Takes lots of work or at least time, but transferring them to CD/DVD makes for easier viewing, anyway. Nice DVDRs with Firewire connections for mini-dv camcorders are cheaper than that. I'm hoping next year to jump on that.

I have a DVD recorder in my computer in the HT, but no time or patience to work with buggy software to dump these to disk. If there was an easy way to do it with software, ie, push the start button and walk away, I would do it, but I have tried multiple software packages that always seem to crash. I may try them again now that I have XP pro running my computer.

Mark

I know what you mean. I've dabbled in DVD burning, and never really got anywhere. I didn't have crashes, that's probably related to your setup/computer/software, but it is difficult.

I'd like one of the new Pannys with a hard drive for this and recording from TV.

What Panny are you talking about Spiky? Maybe that's what I need...

Mark

Yeah it probably was my computer. 3 years old. I am a software collector :-) and the thing was bogged down. Crashing every 1/2 hour last week. I just installed a new 120GB drive and put XPpro on and it is a new machine. Maybe I should just try it again with my video software.

Marky, you have quite of few units here to choose from, some a little more expensive have hard drives inside for downloading video onto them and allows you to do some editing before burning.
[Link: www1.shopping.com]

J. Bond

Thanks for the info. I didn't know there were units like that with a hard drive built in. I just assumed they were burners/players with a firewire port to burn from tape to dvd directly. This could work nicely.

Mark

Yep. I'd like the Panny 85 among those currently available.

Sony makes an easy DVD recorder, model RDR-GX7, that has a firewire port on the front and a one touch record button that even rewinds the camera for you and syncs the DVD up and finalizes if necessary.