Help needed with crappy Sony DVD Handycam hunk of junk...

[Scoop 0]

Hi people,

Thought I'd call on you for some help...

My friend borrowed a Sony Handycam (The DVD type) to film his sons first birthday. He gave me the small DVD out of the device to do some quick editing and make some copies onto normal sized DVDs. I have put the disc into my computer only to get the Vista prompt "What do you want to do with this blank disc". The disc shouldnt be blank. We reviewed footage the day it was filmed, so we were able to access the data then. The disc is blue which I assume is like when data is burnt and you get the different rings of colour on the disc. On attempting to place the disc back into the Handycam it prompts to format the disc in either 16:9 or 4:3 again apparantly treating it like blank disc. I wondered if the camera had a harddrive of sorts where the data may be stored but accessing the index shows nothing there. Looking online it appears they dont have a hard drive. As my friend was unfamiliar with the camera I don't believe he finalised the disc.

Is there any way of recovering this footage does anyone know? Am I making a silly mistake? I was reluctant to go ahead and format on inserting the disc in case there is data on there and I would lose it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Sam

[flow 1]

Well, I had a similar situation once with a DVD-cam (was asked to edit some interview) and if I remember correctly you have to close (finalize) the disc with the cam to be able to access the footage on computer.

You haven't lost the material, just put it back on the camcorder and it's all there.

[Scoop 0]

Thanks. When I try that it says "Formatting Starts" and "use disc select guide" or "do not use disc select guide". Then no matter what I pick it asks me to then select aspect ratio and click "ok" to format.

Will this wipe the disc? Is it simply a seclection of what future ratio it will record in? Don't want to lose it by selecting this option.

[flow 1]

It's quite awhile since I had to work with the cam but I think there was a menu called Disc, and there was option Finalize or Close Disc. Then it will close the disc and no further recording is possible, but you can see the files on your computer. So no, the format option is not the correct one. After you have saved the material to your computer then you need to format the disc to be able to use it again, but don't do it before you have a copy of the footage on your computer.

[Scoop 0]

The menu I described auto loads when I put the disc in and you can't get out of it. I would RTFM but there isnt one

[flow 1]

Oh, then I'm out of ideas.

Hopefully someone can help.

[DSE 5]

if you didn't finalize the disc in the camera in which it was shot, it's somewhat of a PITA. I went through this recently with a disc for a friend.
In the end, it was easier to take the disc to a Best Buy and read/finalize there.
If you have Sony Vegas Platinum, it will sometimes read unfinalized files, depending on the media. +R/-R. File/import/DVD Disc.

[Scoop 0]

Thanks. Just downloading trial version of Sony Vegas Platinum now. Hopefully it will allow that function in trial. The disc is a Sony 8cm DVD+RW

[Scoop 0]

Quote

If you have Sony Vegas Platinum, it will sometimes read unfinalized files, depending on the media. +R/-R. File/import/DVD Disc.

Again it has tried to format it as a blank disc. I think its lost forever Maybe the disc/data is corrupt and thats why its not being recognised on anything.