Widescreen from a Canon DVD camcorder

[SteveG]

Andy,

Thank you for the help. My computer just becomes very, very slow when I put the DVD in it. Then when I can actually open an explorer window, there are no files listed.

But, literally 15 minutes ago I looked on the cameras site and the knowledge base said:
When finalizing a disc, always power the camcorder directly from a power outlet. The finalization process cannot be started if the camcorder is powered only with the battery pack.

So I've got that going for me.

If that still doesn't work then I will try that utility.

[SteveG]

Yep, that's all it was. The camcorder wouldn't start the finalizing unless it was plugged into a power outlet.

And as Paul said, I used the Interpret Footage and I got my widescreen. I've seen that feature before but never had a need to use it.

Thank you.

[Chuck Engels]

Glad everything is finally starting to work for you Steve

[Bobby]

...But, literally 15 minutes ago I looked on the cameras site and the knowledge base said:
When finalizing a disc, always power the camcorder directly from a power outlet. The finalization process cannot be started if the camcorder is powered only with the battery pack...

That, to me, is really weird and just smacks of what I call Second Order logic - when a secondary or tertiary issue tends to get more importance than the primary issue.

In this case, the primary issue is the ability to Finalize The Disc. Some product designer (and I use the word loosely) probably thought that it would be a bad thing if the power ran out DURING the finalization process - that would probably permanently wreck the disc. True. So to compensate for that perceived problem they put in this restriction which gets them out of the loop if there is a problem.

But now the simple task of finalizing a CD in the field cannot be done. The secondary issue trumped the primary issue. Perhaps instead they could have just checked the battery level in the camera microcode instead and put out a message if too low. Or put out an "Make sure you have enough battery life" before proceeding.

Well, anyhow, sorry for the long post and glad it worked!

[SteveG]

Bob,

I see what you are saying but I also understand why they did what they did. I think I would rather be safe than sorry and have that restriction in place. Think about it this way. If you were out filming all day (maybe you had another battery, maybe you didn't, or maybe you used both batteries quite a bit), you probably do not have enough juice in the pack. I would rather take it home and plug it in. I don't think this camera was made for making a real movie so it should be that big of a deal.