Cons: terrible software, motor noise, poor quality bottom loading, bad user interface, poor low-light quality
The Bottom Line: Buy for price, not for versatility. If you do lots of long shootings on tripod or under tricky conditions requiring manual exposure/focus, avoid it. Beware of quality issues.
valleyman's Full Review: Sony Handycam® DCR-TRV460 Digital-8 Camcorder
[Broken in 2 years - See latest upgrade at bottom]
I'm upgrading from my (really) old CCD-TR818, Sony's entry level Hi8 camcorder. So Hi8 playback is important. (Was looking at TRV260, which doesn't read Hi8 - and the price difference is <$50; $14 at Fry's.) Not having to dump my stack of Hi8/Digital8 tapes (and buy more expensive miniDV) and able to use my old filters are pluses. I was (and am) happy with TR818's combination of ease of use and feature set, so I assumed that TRV460 would be similar, at just above $300.
Therefore, the following would use CCD-TR818 as the main reference.
. Features
Like TR818, the excellent 20x optical zoom is attractive at this price point, and SteadyShot really does the job, though not as stable as in TR818. I don't have a problem with TRV460's quality under good lighting.
Nightshot (active infrared) allows you to shoot in the dark. It can be useful, for example, when camping out in the forest. The output is black and white in Nightshot mode.
Like Sony's other lines of camcorders, TRV460's power switch is combined with mode switch. But unlike TR818, TRV460 does not use physical position to switch between recording and playback. Instead, it uses a toggle to switch between tape recording, Memory Stick recording, and playback.
Once in one of the two recording modes, TRV460 has two operating modes, EasyCam and normal. EasyCam is really easy, though you don't have as much control as you can get from TR818 - you don't have control at all.
The normal mode offers lots of menu options, including wide-screen shot. The menu is not backward compatible with the (old) analogue system. This prolongs the learning curve. Having owned this unit for over a year, shot over 20 hours of video, I also find the menu system not well designed.
Multiple auto exposure modes (centre weight, spot, etc.) allow you adapt to different subjects, themes, and lighting. Such controls have proven useful in still camera operations. But TRV460 buries them deep in menus, so difficult to access (also partially due to its control layout - see below) that they are of little practical use. One characteristic of video shooting is that subject and lighting can change quickly. Quick access to exposure controls is a must.
Compared with TR818, this entry level model has built-in light that is better than none. It also records in stereo, while TR818 only does monaural.
TRV460 comes with an infrared remote control. Although the body has only a front sensor, I find that reflection from furniture and/or walls are mostly sufficient to operate the camcorder when used indoors.
The remote can be used to start, stop, or pause recording. It can also start, stop, or pause playback. This very basic remote can even perform date search in playback mode - something you cannot do from the camcorder, nor from your video capture software.
But the remote cannot switch between playback and recording mode so you still have to press the mode switch on the main body, even if you have the remote in your hand. This is a mind-boggling design decision considering that TRV460's physical mode switch is a toggle, so "soft" switch using remote can be implemented with ease.
Digital features include DV output via Firewire (i.Link, IEEE-1394) - only, RGB or YUV via USB, and MPEG-1 via Memory Stick (Sony's proprietary flash media) or USB. (MPEG-1 via USB only works if you have a CD writer on the computer and are willing to record directly to a disk.)
Digital 8 is Sony's proprietary equivalent of mini DV, so I believe that the best you can get is DV; this means that using RGB is just a waste of disk space. In DV mode (Firewire), TRV460 encodes 640x480-pixel frames. In RGB mode (USB), it does both 640x480 and 320x240. (Digital 8 specification is 500 lines.)
TRV460's MPEG mode only does 320x240 (VCD quality). So I find pricey Memory Stick totally useless for this model because it only records in MPEG-1. (Glad I did not surrender to the temptation. OK, you can take still photos with Memory Stick. But at maximum resolution of 640x480, who wants the picture?)
On-tape "Digital Editing" allows you to mark sections of taped video for transfer and ignore the rest. It could be a useful feature if it works with digital transfer. Unfortunately, "digital editing" only works when output to VCR, an alalogue transfer. Gotta ask: How many "Digital" 8 users really want to output to a VCR? On the other hand, this VCR transfer function itself is amazing in that it integrates with over a hundred VCR's remote control codes. If your VCR is not one of them, "digital editing" won't have any effect.
Hi8 tape transfer to digital is very useful. The quality is definitely better than cheap converters that use VBR compression (I previously used an ADS USB device); you can do RGB if you like. (But then you don't want to use an old computer with USB 1.x only - even YUV data rate is too high. TRV460 presumably does MPEG1 streaming, but unless you want to burn it directly to CD, you can't get the benefit.)
You can even use it as a (really expensive but quality) video converter, for example, to record regular TV program or any other analogue video source (i.e., not necessarily Hi8). In order to do this, you switch to "Edit/Playback" mode, unload the tape (TRV460 won't take external input when tape is loaded), connect your video source to S-video or the 3-wire RCA-mini-jack, then connect IEEE-1394 to your computer; you need to connect audio to your computer separately if you use S-video.
In the following I'll focus on problem areas, mostly comparing with TR818, which had a similar target group and price point.
. Poor software bundle
I'm totally unhappy about the bundled PicturePackage software. Unlike Canon, who bundles 3rd-party products, Sony's proprietary (albeit commissioned) bundle might be considered easy to use by some (features like "Burn VCD" with the click of a button, though I didn't try), but is extremely limited in functionality.
For example, when you push "Burn VCD" button, "Burn VCD" is exactly what you can do - and nothing more. If you don't have a CD burner on this particular computer, it won't even do a thing, i.e., it won't write to your hard drive. I'm not sure how many beginners (which this model targets) are comfortable enough to just shoot and burn. I'm pretty sure if you want to work on your recordings later, you'd like to save it on hard disk first.
On the other hand, if you do have a CD burner on the computer, Sony's software allows you to store the stream on the hard disk (as an alternative to burning directly to CD). This odd combination of software decision is an understandable smartass mistake from amateur consumer product designers, not something you'd expect from a consumer electronics heavy weight like Sony.
The workaround, if your computer has neither a CD burner nor IEEE-1394, is to use ye old (and yes, maybe open-source) video capturing software together with Sony's driver. TRV460's MPEG-1 streaming will not work with any third-party's software to save to a hard drive, so you must transfer with DV or no compression, unless your capture software has on-the-fly compression capability.
The other "fun" components of this "Picture Package", Auto Video and Auto Slide, limits your end product to 10 min. That could be fun - but impractical. And Sony offers to burn your 10-min video production directly to CD - by default. You can change this to write the 10-min video to hard disk.
The picture viewer in the package has an awkward user interface design that you don't usually find in any product related to pictures today. In all, the only component I find useful is the USB video driver. And then, if you use Firewire (IEEE-1394), there is no need for even that.
. Ease of use - or lack thereof
Compared with top-loading TR818, TRV460's bottom loading mechanism is very cumbersome when you use a tripod in the field. How many opportunities can you lose during the added minute or so loading time?
Compared with TR818's well conceived combination of quick access buttons/wheel and menu system, TRV460 has fewer buttons - and no track wheel! You have to reach the touch panel on the LCD screen and open the extensive menus. You even have to reach the screen just to play back unless you have the remote handy. I see lots of drawbacks in this. For one, this reduces the life of the screen. Second, out in the field, you'd probably use your finger to operate the menu - though reasonably sized, you can get frustrated when it's cold in the field, for example. The screen also helps drain your battery faster.
Another potentially useful feature, off-centre focus, is also crippled by this touch-panel-only design. Usually you don't want to constantly focus off-centre, so a quick access (and reset) mechanism is a must for it to be useful.
Like TR818, TRV460's zoom button is located at the rear end. But because of the shortened body, TRV460's stability is more easily compromised by zooming. The tinier start/stop button also tends to destabilize shooting because it's harder to "feel".
On the wish list is a colour viewfinder as TR818, which does not have a display panel. This would increase the cost - TRV460 already has a tilting colour screen. But because battery life is halved with digital, I'd rather not use the screen.
. Essentials, or the lack thereof
Though an extremely basic model, TR818 has easy manual focus and exposure controls. I can't find these essentials on TRV460. Is a track wheel really that expensive?
As I later noticed, if you open the screen and fumble through the menus, you can get manual focusing and exposure - by pressing arrow icons on the screen. This is just terribly impractical in the field - control your focus on the same screen you view your subject? The control bar precisely blocks the centre of the screen.
Another essential I can't seem to locate is how to print date stamp on video output. Recording date can be displayed while playing back on the camcorder, but not when transferred to the computer. I don't know if the information is stored in the AVI file (and kept when compressed to MPEG formats); even if yes, there is no easy way to append this to final output. I use the camcorder mainly for record keeping, not for professional post-production. I certainly like the option to date stamp.
Update: MiniDV transfer (requires IEEE-1394) does preserve time stamp; it can be retrieved with appropriate post production software. I tested ULead Video Studio and Magix Movie Editor Pro. Only the latter supports time stamp from MiniDV. But this is still rather inconvenient; I cannot easily produce the time ticking effect.
. Quality - or lack thereof
General quality is fair - until it broke in less than 2 years. (See update 2 below.) But I find the brighter silver coating cheap in appearance.
Another problem many people noted is video quality under low light (without invoking NightShot. The 0-lux feature does not seem to work as well as TR818.
As several Circuit City reviewers indicated, the motor is terribly noisy, much noisier than my old TR818. So far I haven't got the chance to evaluate the impact because I haven't done recording in quiet environments, but the noise would most likely spoil the scene with my baby in sound sleep.
In the end, this TRV460 becomes a replacement to my TR818, not an upgrade as I expected. (Retiring the old unit to my parents-in-law - per wife's request; don't get your Christmas gift idea from here:-)
---- [Update 1: Using Memory Stick - Oct. 2006]
With memory price war, Sony finally dropped price on Memory Stick. I got a 1GB stick at $34. (Compared with $20 for same capacity in practically any other flash media.) This gives me a bit over 1 hour of recording time.
Recording with Memory Stick is the same as recording with tape, except you can also take snapshots with the video camera. TRV460 has only two resolutions: fine (320 lines) and coarse (200 lines). The "camera" snapshots records 640x480 pixels, but still too low for serious use. Additionally, all snapshots has a brownish tint.
Using Memory Stick offers more flexibility. You can easily download recordings to a computer for post processing. (I always use a card reader and not bother the camcorder's transfer.)
But TRV460 only records MPEG 1 on Memory Stick (hence 320 lines). So you are stuck with this VCR quality. For this reason, I use the stick only when I'm temporarily out of tape.
[Update 2: Tape feeder broke - Oct. 2006]
Less than 2 years after purchase and under 20 hours of recording,the unit started to fail. The problem is in the bottom feeding mechanics. Unlike the TR818's side feeding, there is no touchable button you can push to open and close the tray. Everything relies on switches activated by the position of the side panel. (Remember the early crankless car windows?)
At first, the unit refused to record and prompted me to "reinsert the tape". I would reinsert the tape, many times, but the unit insisted, refusing to record. After several times, I was not able to pop the tray out and eject the tape. That got me into real nerves. Then, somehow the tape would eject, but the tray assembly refused to retract.
With the tape tray half open, I can't even use the Memory Stick to record.
I would not consider a bottom-loading camcorder again.
[Update 3: Recovered tape feeder - Apr. 2007]
Two months after tape feeder broke, I seriously thought about sending the $300 unit for repair (out of warranty). Before I did, I tinkered with it some more and miraculously, the tape feeder closed, and all symptoms disappeared.
While I am glad to have the camcorder back (without paying an arm and leg), the incident still tells about the quality of the product.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 314 Recommended for: Home and Families - Keep Memories of Family Vacations
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