Samsung SC-DC164 - camcorder - DVD

• Average user rating: 1.5 stars out of 10 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars

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• 3 stars

  Would be good, if only it were dependable

  by M_L_Weiland on May 11, 2006

  Pros: Supports double-layer DVDs, good zoom range, good feature set

  Cons: Failures! - writing to DVD fails sometimes

  Summary: I like to edit videos on a computer and thought that a mini-DVD solution would be better than MiniDV tape -- so I could bring the data into the computer ...

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  Summary: I like to edit videos on a computer and thought that a mini-DVD solution would be better than MiniDV tape -- so I could bring the data into the computer easily and faster than real time. That, and play the video immediatly on a DVD player. Something that had held me back from mini-DVD was the size limitation: 30 minutes (in "SP quality") on a disk. This unit accepts double layer (DL) DVD+R's, so I thought that mitigated the limitation.
  Well... turns out DVD+R DL's are not on the market yet, only -R DL's (which this can't use). OK, I can wait.
  But the showstopper problem I had with this unit was disk problems: 1) Some new DVDs (single layer -R's) were rejected right away with "disk error" messages. 2) Others worked, and I could replay the disk on the unit, but it fails when "finalizing" (necessary to use on the computer or DVD player). 3) Worst, one DVD appeared to finalize correctly -- but then in the DVD player or computer no data was readable. This was an intermittent problem; I did have some disks that worked OK. But unfortunately the ones that failed were at a daughter's school play and those moments are lost forever now. This reminds me of early DVD-writers on PCs (and years ago, CD writers): you made a lot of coasters as well as usable disks. But if you lose video to a coaster you CAN'T GET IT BACK!!!
  I ended up returning the unit and got a hard-disk based JVC Everio. It has been rock-solid reliable so far, and allows over 4 hours at top quality level. Moving data from that system to computer is almost as easy as mini-DVD's (it's a USB 2.0 connection; camera looks like a disk drive to the PC, and I just drag & drop the file onto the PC).

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  8 out of 8 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 3 stars

  Not a great camera

  by joshuaren on January 7, 2007

  Pros: screen, wide screen shooting, DVD

  Cons: auto focus, photo quality, reliability with memory card, computer software, start up/shut down time

  Summary: This camera was a big mistake. If it were $200 it would be worth it, but unfortunately I paid $399. I bought a samsung home theater which I enjoy, and ...

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  Summary: This camera was a big mistake. If it were $200 it would be worth it, but unfortunately I paid $399. I bought a samsung home theater which I enjoy, and I heard a lot of good things about their televisions, so I mistakenly thought their quality would extend into other realms. I was very wrong. The autofocus is TERRIBLE, it can't "make up it's mind" EVER, I will keep the camera still on a flat surface in a bright room, and it will not stop adjusting. The image quality for this camera is terrible, and many times when I take pictures to upload to my computer and they are corrupted. The zoom is large but even with the anti shake it's VERY shaky at high zoom. It's not the most intuitive camera to use either, you cannot upload video directly to your computer if it's on a mini dvd, you have to put it in the computer drive, so make sure your drive will play those kind of dvds. This camera also takes a VERY long time to turn on and turn off. It's not worth it, almost any camera is better than this one.

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  2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 1 stars

  Never buy a Samsung camcorder.

  by famatheus on February 15, 2007

  Pros: Unknown by me.

  Cons: Too many to count.

  Summary: I bought this camcorder last summer with the hope of using for quite a long time. Regrettably, my hopes were soon dashed after the machine broke down. It spent nearly ...

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  Summary: I bought this camcorder last summer with the hope of using for quite a long time. Regrettably, my hopes were soon dashed after the machine broke down. It spent nearly five weeks at the repair facility.
  
  It received a minimal amount of usage and approximately two half months ago, it broke down. It's been sitting there at the repair facility. I am very dissatisfied with the product and the service. Samsung has offered to replace the camcorder for a new camcorder of the same model. At this point, I would prefer either having my money back or some other new camcorder since I believe that most likely, this model is poorly designed and it is found to break down. Do n never hase any camcorders from Samsung.

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  1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 9 stars

  EVEN MY KIDS CAN USE IT..

  by ENERGIZERBUNNY6969 on January 20, 2011

  Pros: PICTURE IS GREAT , EASY TO OPERATE, ZOOM FUNCTION IS ALSO WONDERFUL AND CLEAR.

  Cons: WISH THE BATTERY WOULD LAST LONGER

• 1 stars

  Samsung must take responsibility for it's product.

  by masbeni on March 3, 2010

  Pros: Nothing beneficial - after knowing fatal failure of the product.

  Cons: Cannot finalize discs. My precious memories are gone!

  Summary: I used to believe in Samsung's products before. My washing machine, television sets, celular phone, refrigerator were Samsung. I never have any problem with them. That's why I ...

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  Summary: I used to believe in Samsung's products before. My washing machine, television sets, celular phone, refrigerator were Samsung. I never have any problem with them. That's why I decided to choose Samsung when I needed a camcorder.
  
  I was very excited when first time used this produt. But, soon, I deeply regreted realizing that I cannot finalize it's disc. Failure happened. My memory has gone. A beautiful memory with my wife and children which I couldn't repeat again.
  
  Poor product. Poor me.
  
  Samsung had to take responsibility for this. I don't believe in Samsung anymore!!!

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• 2 stars

  This camcorder has serious problems

  by schefer on August 7, 2009

  Pros: Nothing positive about camera.

  Cons: Samsung should be ashamed to make such a product that is so impaired, is so expensive and it is so poorly designed. This camcorder has serious problems with focus, the DVD does not work properly, it cannot read what it burns.

  Summary: This product is frustrating. I have read the other complaints and I fear mailing it to Samsung. Previous complaint does state that Samsung wants to charge to return camera even ...

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  Summary: This product is frustrating. I have read the other complaints and I fear mailing it to Samsung. Previous complaint does state that Samsung wants to charge to return camera even though it has not functioned properly since day one and Samsung knows it. I bought this camera through HSN so I never saw it in the store. When I called HSN they told me to return it to Samsung. Shame on everyone.

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• 8 stars

  Decent camera for 3 years running! :)

  by GTiManDan on July 6, 2009

  Pros: Flexibility; Battery Life; Features; Light Weight; 16x9 Aspect Ratio; Strong Zoom; Easy-To-Use Controls; Reliability; Remote Control; Inexpensive & Durable Media

  Cons: Auto Focus is very finicky

  Summary: Unfortunately, the Internet can be a host of many negative comments posted regarding mfr's products or customer service, while the positive aspects for these same items fall by the ...

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  Summary: Unfortunately, the Internet can be a host of many negative comments posted regarding mfr's products or customer service, while the positive aspects for these same items fall by the wayside since we always expect our purchases to be perfect every time and as such very few people list positive reviews in almost every case. Use an objective mind when doing your Internet research.
  
  That said, I've had my SC-DC164 for about 3 years now and I really enjoy it and find it to be completely reliable. It formats discs very quickly and for the most part is quite easy to use. I use Memorex DVD+RW discs almost exclusively and have had zero problems out of them in all of these years. I also have not ever had my camera exhibit the lost data or disc errors that others have mentioned here.
  
  I can only find a single fault for my trusty little friend: The auto focus rarely can find happiness when I'm zoomed-in on something. The closer I am to the object, the worse this becomes. Perhaps this has something to do with trying to use it for near-macro situations, I don't know. No biggie - I merely hit the AF/MF button on-the-fly while still recording and then set the focus perfectly. One more tap of that button reenables the auto focus feature as the recording continues.
  
  The battery life is surprisingly good on this little guy. I have a similar photo camera from Sony called a Mavica. It uses mini CDs to record its pictures, in lieu of a memory card. It's a fantastic camera and I love the ability to use inexpensive, reusable CD+RW or +R discs which are very lightweight yet durable, and it's simple and highly affordable to take several discs with you on an excursion. The Sony camera doesn't have as good of a battery life as my Samsung video camera which is a bit surprising. I'll owe that to the Sony's even smaller lithium battery.
  
  At the end of the day, my faith in Samsung's fantastic quality is on-going. I have many of their products in my home and they have all been of top-notch quality and total relability. This little video camera is quite handy and very simple to use, although not perfect. For similar money [the camera is selling for about $299 nowadays], you can get much more feature-packed machines from big-name manufacturers. If you can find this camera for a steal, I'd give it a big thumbs up.

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• 1 stars

  Please don't buy this camera and Samsung for that matter

  by beyenel on March 8, 2008

  Pros: Just for being able to record straight on DVD

  Cons: the whole camra is horrible

  Summary: This video camera has very bad lighting both indoor (very dark) and outdoors (get saturated) no matter we tried to adjust it. The DVD writer always errors out after few ...

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  Summary: This video camera has very bad lighting both indoor (very dark) and outdoors (get saturated) no matter we tried to adjust it. The DVD writer always errors out after few minutes of recording and need to recover the CD repeatedly ( very very annoying). A lot of times the camera can't even detect the CD inside, imagine this is a 2 month old camera hardly used. When the camera is power on it takes a minute to be ready for recoding. over all this is a horrible camera it finally gave up completely and also damaged some of my CDs. I can't even recover the recoding on some CD I tried to use in the camera.

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• 4 stars

  its not worth 400 dollars

  by punkd2493 on December 29, 2006

  Pros: great lcd screen

  Cons: worst battery life ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!

  Summary: the battery life is the only promblemand its the won that should tell u not to buy the camera \. also not memeory car dspplied
  
  so u have to buy a
  
  ...

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  Summary: the battery life is the only promblemand its the won that should tell u not to buy the camera \. also not memeory car dspplied
  
  so u have to buy a car dand a nother battery?

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• 2 stars

  Worst customer support! Bad camera

  by PatrickVegas on February 13, 2008

  Pros: Don't know of any as of yet

  Cons: Warranty and customer support at Samsung are less than desirable

  Summary: We bought the Samsung camcorder one year ago. It has never been used. Did not work from teh first day of opening the box. My only opinion as of now ...

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  Summary: We bought the Samsung camcorder one year ago. It has never been used. Did not work from teh first day of opening the box. My only opinion as of now is based on the warranty and customer support for the camera. After several months of trying to charge batteries and even taking the camera back to the store for a new battery, which did not solve the problem, we still do not have a working camera. Never been used as of today. Sent back to Samsung after several long phone conversations. A week or so later we receive email that we need to provide $80.00 to cover warranty repairs and they will hold the camera until payment is received. 2 weeks later they want to offer a rebuilt camera to replace the brand new one we had purchased. (Never used!) We decline the rebuilt replacement. Samsung then calls us to ask what the status is on the camera. (Shouldn't they know this??) Finally, they offer to expedite the repair as management has changed and assure it will be fixed in a week. They would not give any definite answer as to when we may receive our camera back. After reading other reviews I would suggest spending your money on any other video camera and avoid the hassles of dealing with Samsung at any level.

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  0 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

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