Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
  Keep looking January 8, 2009
I'm very disappointed with this product.
First of all, let me say, I like Samsung, and I had high hopes.
Problem number one came when I realized after purchasing the camcorder that it was completely incompatible with my Mac. Almost every camera/camcorder in the world works fine on a Mac, but not this one. Beware.
Second, the videos record in "widescreen" but they only playback on a computer or TV at 4:3, so if you record in widescreen everything will look squished and ugly.
Lastly, the included software is buggy and unhelpful, and Samsung's customer support site is worse. The camera does not connect to my PC correctly either, and I have been unable to get any help from Samsung on the issue.
I would strongly recommend sticking to a stronger camera brand, like Canon or JVC. I have owned a JVC camcorder in the past and had none of these issues, and my best friend uses an entry level Canon which also works great.
Don't buy it.
 So-So December 28, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
For starters...I'm Rick's 13-year-old daughter. I recieved the Samsung SC-DX103 for Christmas. The instruction manual said it came with a diskette, however I did not recieve one. My uncle got the same camera--again with no diskette. That was OK since I'm not terribly excited with diskettes anyway. I prefer SD cards. A 2GB card holds 143 minutes of normal-quality video--better than an hour with the Flip Ultra. I prefer swapable memory cards over disk space.
The zoom is great (a big step up from the 2x optical zoom I had when I had the Flip Ultra which suddenly stopped working), the only problem is holding the camera steady at high zoom. The still pictures are nice, and the video is decent quality. However, the camera doesn't do so well in dim light.
One thing that really does suck is battery life. The first time I charged it, it charged so quickly--about 20 minutes. I was impressed and thought it would have a good battery life since it was all-digital. I was terribly wrong though. The battery only lasts as long as it's charged for, maybe a little longer. Maybe it's a defective battery pack. I don't know.
Overall, it's a good little camera with decent quality. Do some research before buying is all I suggest.
I don't suggest this to anyone December 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought one from Electronics expo , in New Jersey. Don't buy anything there.
Coming to the Review:
Bads
1) It won't finalize the disk. Without finalizing the disk you can't see it on the Dvd players, or copying to computer etc. If you are lucky enough then you get your DVD finalized. Two of my disks for a major event recorded, can't do anything with them ready for garbage.
2) If you are on 25th minute, and want to take video again, if you power on your camera it takes 4 minutes to come to stand by, By the time it is ready event will be over then.
3) It will not support SDHC memory.
4) Without any reason it fails the disks. You get error some times.
5) Battery time is too low. If battery dies in between the shooting, you may end up loosing your disk.
Goods:
1) If you come over with all the above bads, then picture will be very good on your TV. all the best.
If I don't like this product and wanted to return to the Electronics expo store folks, they will simply show the exit doors, customer care is too bad there. You are allowed to buy not to return there. Also they over price it and don't even do the price match at all.
Finally I am throwing my cam to the trash.
horrible camera December 16, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have been very unhappy with this camera. I'm told I can't transfer video to my pc with a USB cable until I purchase additional software (which costs $100). I've gotten several "write error" and "disc error"s. Do yourself a favor and don't buy this camera (or anything Samsung or should I say Samdung).
 I'm sure this will work for some people, but I feel a little misled September 22, 2008
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
Maybe I'm asking too much for a $250 product, but I feel a little misled. In addition to the MiniDVD record capability it has a flash memory where you can take video and pictures too. The product came out this year, so I thought I could use a couple larger flash memory cards and mainly record video that route. Once I get this, I learn it only takes 2GB cards (no SDHC). So I buy 4 2GB cards and a 3pack of MiniDVDs, figuring I'd just use flash memory and that would be easy enough for most of my recording. The first time I put in an SD card and see that the screen switches from 16:9 to 4:3 on me. I discover that it only records 4:3 on SD. And I learn that it records in MPEG4 for SD memory (versus MPEG2 on the DVDs). I understand their MPEG4 has proprietary codecs, etc. I tried importing video into Sony Vegas, but found it would not read the format off of the MiniDVD. I tried re-ripping the DVD using DVD Decrypter, but that still did not work as once I dragged the video file into Vegas, I got only video (no audio). Also, in general I found the use of the MiniDVD's on this Samsung to be not very attractive. Like many users, I pause when recording. When viewing the recorded DVD, each pause at the end of a segment would show as a frozen image for 2-3 seconds before moving to the next scene, which is very annoying compared to using tapes to record to. Thanks to Amazon's generous return policy, I'm not at a loss. Am seriously considering going the High Def route, as it seems many of those products have less problems (based on reviews here) for someone like me who wants to be able to do some editing of the video I shoot.
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