DVD video camera that self finalizes

Ok so for reasons that really don't make sense to me (I can think of better ways to achieve the same result) for work I need to find someone a camera that records directly to DVD and does not require the finalization step.

As far as I know, this is impossible if you want to watch the DVD on any player. Can anyone prove me wrong (it would be cool if you could)?
Cheap consumer grade (obviously with DVD) is what we are looking at here.

I'm going to try to steer her towards a camera that records to SD cards instead, but I've got a feeling that there is going to be some resistance to change here.

FWIW I think DVD cameras rank right up there with Rax.

That person who needs that camera is an idiot. Finalization on many dvd-r cameras takes pushing two buttons ... "menu" and "Finalize."

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Originally Posted by Tippster

That person who needs that camera is an idiot. Finalization on many dvd-r cameras takes pushing two buttons ... "menu" and "Finalize."

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Not entirely. She is trying to speed up the process, this is being used in a classroom setting, each student takes their DVD as soon as they are done. The next student can't start until the previous DVD is finalized. This happens almost every session of this class.

I tried selling the idea of a camera that uses SD cards, I received a "I'm not sure I understand how that works, let's find a DVD camera that finalizes quicker". :confused:

I have no idea how I'm going to find the finalization times on the handful of DVD cameras still out there.

I can't find a chart comparing Camcorders by their Finalization times.

I think if your friend is looking for a camera that lets her students take their material home right away to critique then the DVD Camcorder really is the way to go. If they switched to a SD card based system then they'd still need computer or laptop to view the files.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tippster

I can't find a chart comparing Camcorders by their Finalization times.

I think if your friend is looking for a camera that lets her students take their material home right away to critique then the DVD Camcorder really is the way to go. If they switched to a SD card based system then they'd still need computer or laptop to view the files.

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These are actually grad students who are all required to own a laptop, rough estimate 85% of them are watching the DVDs on their laptops anyway. Other instructors for this course are recording straight to a PC and students either collect the material after class via their own flash drives or the video is uploaded to the website for the class.

I have no idea how to find the camcorder with the quickest finalization times, I'm thinking write speed will be the only indicator of how fast a DVD can finalize. Given that DVD cameras are designed to write at one speed (while recording), I'm assuming that write speeds during finalization won't vary much across models.

I've got a blueray player that I can play my HD SD cards in as soon as I take them out of the camera.

neener neener