Sony DCR-DVD403: Review and Test Footage

[@ShitakiBoy]

For anyone wondering how to use the usb port, plug in the usb to the computer and the camera, then go to the movie/photo viewer on the camera. It should bring up a screen that says USB MODE, from there, if you finalized the disc, you can transfer files onto your computer directly that way. Afterwards, use something that can rip the files accordingly.

[@nickalvizo]

Would I need to have a DVD-RW cause I have a DVD-R & my computer doesn’t recognize it

[@ShitakiBoy]

@@nickalvizo the USB should work without having a dvd-rw, just make sure you finalize the disk before trying to connect to PC, as well as having the proper software to rip the file

[@nickalvizo]

@@ShitakiBoy When I click finalize it says no recording allowed after I finalize the DVD

[@irlixi2722]

@@nickalvizo finalize means you can play it and no recording. so that’s probably why your computer won’t recognize it. finalize it.

[@sarah.b5247]

i have recently re-found this camera in the "old junk box" in our house. my dad used to film me on it and i found many dvds with me as a kid. it brought up many memories. i decided to try and learn how to work with it and film some more stuff to remember.

[@ghostgamerjc]

Same here I was looking around for an vintage hand cam to make some old school videos and my mom told be qbout hers she still had. I took a look at it and found a bunch of old videos of me and my brother. It was very nostalgic.

[@AnthonyPtak]

Is this shot in anamorphic wide mode? Other than that optical distortion, I am impressed by the clarity of the image particularly the lower light performance seems really good. Better than I expected for sure. There is something pure about the video quality that is lost in newer digital video recording and I think the sound is good too

[@domiwez5924]

I got this cam as a bday gift and i cant wait to recrod some footage on it!

[@Dozymetria]

I have this model and rly love :) I also have a Sony Sr90e, I also recommend it! Also 1/3 inch CCD matrix, I believe that the CCD matrix is ​​better for recording movies (worse for photos)

[@oolala8334]

I recently just bought 2 new dvds for my camcorder and it keeps giving me the “disc error” message for both of them. Is there other ways to prevent this or do I just have to keep buying more discs? Amazing review btw! Very informative!

[@FatCatTech]

Thank you for the kind words! Unfortunately, the issue could be a rather wide range of things. I've bought a number of discs that were duds, so there is a possibility that that's what the problem is, though I'm not certain how likely it is. The issue could also be that the sensor for the DVDs is being blocked by a residue that's built up, my suggestion there is to make sure that's clean. Could also be that they're the wrong type of discs, check to make sure the discs you bought are listed to be the type that are compatible with this camcorder (like DVD-R discs, for example). If the problem persists after those, then I'm not entirely sure what the issue could be, it may go as deep as some part of the camera's circuitry. At which point, you may be better off finding a second one of these on eBay.

[@welcominggift]

It’s better if the disc is Sony mostly, or & there’s definitely some dirt built up that’s blocking the potential of the camera or it’s just old and u gotta live with it, I just keep trying (opening and Closing with the disc in it until the red access light comes on which means ur good to go until the the footage is erased, den the opening and closing with disc in starts again) AND scratch resistant - RW DVDs last long but still same problem but like u and me said it could be dirt built up or it’s just old and should upgrade to a better and long lasting vhs cam

[@nolencuster4622]

Great review very informative

[@IamEinsteinification]

how do i get the date and time on playback please!!!!

[@BASH-CORONA]

Found this camera and the DVD player it comes with in my house. The only thing im in need of is the dc adapter and a new battery, have any links to a specific battery & dc adapter for this camera?

[@FatCatTech]

Any adapter in the AC-L200 series should work, and the camera takes Infolithium P, V, and H series batteries. In my experience, most substitutes should work. Charger: www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/367164-REG/Sony_ACL200_AC_L200_AC_Adapter.html Battery: www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/836029-REG/watson_b_4218_np_fp71_battery_pack_for.html

[@theatre3814]

I'm blown away by the video quality. That sharpness and colors is exacly what I'm looking for. I have a DCR-DVD105 model and after rendering the footage the image was not looking great (artefacts and softness). I was looking on the internet of the test footage of other Sony DVD camcorders and image was looking similar to mine, so seeing this is uplifting. Do u know what models also have the same HD sensor, how can I spot this in the specs? So I can get the same looking image.

[@迷案研究所]

Nice video, please keep it up

[@retrovideobuzz]

I have the Sony DCR-DVD610, which has the Memory Stick Dou option. I haven't tried using a DVD RW yet, but the video quality is very similar to the Sony Handycam DCR-SX40, (which is kind of fuzy, not too sharp) Thanks for sharing, great vid!

[@MegaAriyo]

Am unable to open the disk compactment. what do I need to do? Does it open after setting up? I bought this more than 15 years ago and I just opened the box today and it is fully charged and wanted to insert disk and record. The 8mm disk compactment refused to open. I need help and suggrstion

[@TVperson1]

Oh that's pretty cool, they put an HD sensor in it and it really is noticeable in the footage. I have no idea who this is targeted at, people who wanted a sharper image camera would have used Sony's HDD cameras and the consumers who wanted a DVD camera would have bought the cheaper models.

[@FatCatTech]

The problem of marketing these things was most likely why they didn't seem to last too long. It's pretty hard to find the higher end DVD camcorders from Sony on sites like eBay, presumably because anyone who wanted a good camera (especially at the retail price for the time) would've bought either high-end MiniDV or HDD.

[@TVperson1]

@@FatCatTech Yeah, I'm trying to find an AVCHD DVD camcorder and it's not so easy.

[@FatCatTech]

If you haven't already, I'd suggest you take a look at the Sony HDR-UX series.

[@TVperson1]

@@FatCatTech Yeah, they're pretty cool, I have no idea how they put HD material on a 1.4GB disc. I'm thinking about getting one.

[@retrovideobuzz]

I'm amazed at the sharpness and FPS of this video! What did you use to capture/tranfer? Did you re-encode the video? Very nice.

[@chrisgullett4332]

No. This DVD camcorder is the measuring stick. Out of all the DVD camcorders, the DVD403 is universally known as the best model. It came out in 2005, and they stopped making DVD camcorders in 2009, and after 2005 every new model was compared to the DVD403. You can still find articles on new DVD camcorders released in 2008 and 2009, and they were still comparing them to the DVD403. It was the first DVD camcorder to use a 3 megapixel CCD. Sony made a couple after that used 3.3 megapixel CCD sensors, and even a couple that used 4 megapixel CCD sensors, and Panasonic made a few DVD camcorder that used 3CCD, but the DVD403 is still known as the best. You can even look at USAToday's review of the Panasonic VDR-D300 which was the one that used 3CCD sensors, and literally the first thing they mention in the review how good the DVD403 is. The Panasonic 3CCD models have a better quality picture, but none of them seem to be thought of as being better than the DVD403.

[@Baer9471]

@@chrisgullett4332 I actually can’t believe it has a frickin 1/3” sensor when others would have 1/5” or smaller

[@chrisgullett4332]

@@Baer9471 They did some crazy things with DVD camcorders near the end of their run. They started making what they called hybrid DVD camcorders,, which were DVD camcorders that recorded to DVD and other mediums like SD Cards. What made them crazy was they recorded in HD. The problem was the DVDs could only be played back in bluray players. Yes that is correct, you used the same MiniDVD, but it would record in HD. I think there were like 9 models made between all the major companies. Sony made a couple, Canon made a couple etc. Most people do not even know they exist.

[@Baer9471]

@@chrisgullett4332 perhaps its existence should not be known because the recording times is horrendous. 15-20 mins iirc, quite unusable ngl.

[@Baer9471]

@@chrisgullett4332 btw I own a sister camera of DVD403 which is the DVD703E. Sadly there is a mishap when I tried to adjust the laser strength potentiometer and ended up ruining it

[@charmgarcia567]

hi! may i know what USB cable this camera is supported of?

[@jambomdotcom]

this was my childhood camera but I LOST THE CHARGER. idk if anyones gonna read this but if you have any idea on how i could find a charger for this handycam plssss reply

[@dalemartin1141]

I'm having trouble trying to transfer the videos to my mac. When I plug this camera in, it says the disc are empty. Have you had this problem?

[@FatCatTech]

Unfortunately, my experience with Mac is quite limited, so I'm not too sure. Have you finalized the disc and put it into the disc tray to play it that way?

[@cssplayer91]

To be honest video quality doesn't look bad compared to minidv. I got a handful of minidv camcorders from back in the day and I remember reading online articles saying stay away from miniDVD they are all bad. I have miniDV tapes recorded with friends and family and some of them have degraded for no reason (audio cutting off 90% of the time, video skipping) and from what I read there's no way of recovering original footage from bad miniDV tapes. I think miniDVD discs would have lasted longer and held footage better 😢

[@myvlog4686]

Is their any slots for memory card? Bcoz in DVD we can record for 30 minutes only.

[@rodersupreme2757]

What a brilliant video!

[@cdg2838]

is there a specific size or name of the hotshoe ontop of the camera?

[@FatCatTech]

Sony refers to them as the "Active Interface Shoe".

[@nickalvizo]

How were you able to connect it to the computer! I got one of these in 2017 & I had trouble getting the camera to connect to the computer

[@FatCatTech]

For DVD camcorders: I place the disc in the computer's DVD drive, and then use either MakeMKV or Handbrake to rip the contents from the DVD.

[@nickalvizo]

@@FatCatTech Does a USB work with it or no

[@FatCatTech]

@@nickalvizo I'm not *entirely* sure how the USB transfer works for these DVD models, but I do believe you would need the camcorder's supplied software CD-ROM.

[@nickalvizo]

@@FatCatTech Where can I find that

[@FatCatTech]

@@nickalvizo ​ @Nick Alvizo Thanks to a comment from another user (shout out to Aaron), I've actually been able to get you a much better answer than before. This process is actually much easier and straightforward than I had thought. All you have to do is finalize the disc, plug the USB cord into the camcorder and computer, then switch to playback mode on the camcorder. Your computer should show the disc, and you should be able to use the camcorder as a USB DVD player of sorts. Ripping the DVD is the same process as before, and, as such, I still recommend Handbrake.

[@eduardoaponte90]

What quality you using?

[@FatCatTech]

I typically record test footage in the highest possible quality. This was recorded in the "HQ" setting. Important to remember that the disc was imported using MakeMKV and deinterlaced using QTGMC.

[@prodkazzz]

my camera is all black and white, idk whats wrong

[@andersonevans1553]

Hi, could I just ask you how to transfer the footage to your computer? I tried different way such as av video capture or just connect the camcorder to my laptop by usb cable. I tried these two ways, but when I got the video it always has some flash in some lines of picture, sorry I could not describe it very well, it seems like the edge of everything in pictures always flash when they move. And I pretty sure I did exactly same settings with you, I set HQ mode too. Could you please give me some advice? Thank you so much!

[@andersonevans1553]

Your footage is awesome and the edges of subjects are really smooth, but I always got sawtooth😢

[@FatCatTech]

@@andersonevans1553 The sawtooth you're referring to might be interlacing, for that I'd recommend processing the video one of two ways: 1. Deinterlace the video with AVISynth via QTGMC, there's a number of tutorials about this process (I have a link to one in my analog-to-digital conversion video's description). 2. Import the DVD using a program called Handbrake, which will allow you to change a whole plethora of settings to your heart's content, including its own built-in deinterlacer. For the test footage that came from the DVD403, I imported the video using MakeMKV, and then proceeded to use method 1. However, more recently with DVDs I've been using method 2, it works just as well in my opinion. Hope that helps, thanks for the kind words :D

[@andersonevans1553]

@@FatCatTech thank you so much! I'll give a try!

[@blurout]

I m having trouble importing videos to my computer (windows 10). It doesn't have a file for videos, only for photos. Do you have a fix for this? How did you import the videos?

[@FatCatTech]

I use a program called MakeMKV for importing videos from DVDs

[@blurout]

FatCatTech thank you very much

[@timdunk7278]

No disc demo?

[@draxbrady1535]

Does this allow a fisheye Lense attachments.

[@bradytrain2326]

Is there any way to delete stuff off the discs, I got a used one of these and it came with used discs some of the discs are blank, but I’m trying to clear up the others

[@FatCatTech]

If my memory serves correctly, that largely depends on the type of disc it is. If it's a DVD-R disc, then you cannot clear its contents from the camcorder. According to Sony, attempting to reformat the disc from a computer will ruin the disc as well. If it's a DVD-RW or DVD+RW, you should be able to format the disc from the camera's settings menu.

[@katiaps624]

great video thank u so much

[@mcjuggernuggetsfan8176]

did you end up getting thr camera, if u did, can u tell me if its worth it?

[@caitlinhodder7367]

How can I charge it? I have a battery charger but it doesn’t work unfortunately

[@sofiamartinez1079]

I also need help with this

[@shellb887]

fantastic

[@mariafernandacavaliere8038]

is there internal memory? or you can only safe on the minidvds?

[@FatCatTech]

There is no internal memory on this model

[@stacy3]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa. My aunt had this in 2007 I saw it on the pictures of 16 December 2007 in my other aunt wedding day I was born the next day and today I am dying for one

[@shoukeenkathat7913]

Iska Dubai Mein service centre kahan per hai

[@System6VideoProductions]

I have the dvd650

[@Tagabanaybanay559]

oh mr bean camera

[@shoukeenkathat7913]

Service centre location send in Dubai

[@Lektor735]

🤮