From backyard barbecues and family reunions to graduations and weddings, summer is the season for making outdoor memories. But when autumn comes and the weather changes, those memories can start to fade. Instead of letting precious moments slip away, you can preserve them forever with a DVD camcorder, which combines the versatile capabilities of a camcorder with the unbeatable convenience of DVD media.

Because these dream machines record directly on mini DVD media instead of using camcorder tapes, viewing your footage on a big screen is as simple as taking the disc out of the camcorder and putting it in a DVD player. There's never any need to copy the footage to tape or connect your camcorder to the TV with messy cables. Imagine how easy it will be to share your footage with family and friends!

Videography has come a long way in the past few decades. Before digital camcorders, there were VHS camcorders, and before that, home movie buffs had to use cumbersome 8mm film. Each development in technology made it easier to capture memories, as cameras and media became smaller and produced clearer images. For the home videographer, DVD camcorders and mini DVD media represent a major technological leap forward, greatly simplifying the whole process of capturing, preserving and enjoying memories.

Because the discs are recorded in real-time and frequently must be handled in less than ideal field environments, the new DVD camcorder format demands tough, reliable recording media. Fortunately, long time recording media leader, TDK, has come up with a solution.

Designed specifically for DVD camcorders, the company's ScratchProof Mini DVD is tough enough to withstand whatever comes its way. The discs are up to 100 times more scratch resistant than standard DVD media, and they also resist smudges and dust, common contaminants that can interfere with the performance of optical recording media. Anti-UV protection further ensures the discs' worthiness for heavy duty use in the field, where discs may be exposed to direct sunlight. Hard coating surface technology ensures your DVD discs can survive everything from accidental mishandling to food and beverage spills and an unrelenting environment.

Mini DVD media can be played in virtually any home DVD player or computer DVD drive. The discs are widely available in recordable DVD-R and rewritable DVD-RW formats. For recordings you want to preserve for the long-term, using DVD-R media is recommended, while DVD-RW is the way to go if you want to re-record on the same disc. DVD-R and DVD-RW discs provide universal compatibility with DVD camcorders, so you can't go wrong with either choice.

In addition to delivering unprecedented convenience and ease of use, DVD camcorders and mini DVD media capture your memories in stunning detail, and enable you and your loved ones to enjoy once in a lifetime memories year after year. So what are you waiting for? It's time to have some fun with your summer memories. - ARA