Try finding your camcorder in a store display and popping your mini in and see if it will finalize for you. I agree that they should either provide software or services to do this.

My Hitachi does the same thing. Never figured out how to fix it, either.

Sometimes it's fine, then it just stops. I'm wondering if it has to do with a low battery, although I've used the external power supply to try and finalize; that didn't work.

I know this is no help, but misery loves company.

Good Luck.

try nchsoftware.com

I have a canon mini dvd camcorder that a friend gave me because he had no software to read it. I had sony vegas movie making software and that reads it, whether finalized or not. (Another friend gave me a sony gift card for my birthday and I got the software with it). So the gift card was 100 bucks and having the software got me a free mini dvd camcorder! I have no idea why they sell those things without software to read them. I have 3 movie softwares that came with my 4 year old desktop and all of them are crap because they are all crippled by the vendors. Sony vegas was a fantastic gift and the camcorder is very good too. I do not see any difference between it and a mini dv tape, except it is way quicker to load onto the computer and edit.

Just leave your mini DVD into a black envelope at the entry of a police station and call the day after asking for your "lost" item.

I bet your ass they'll have your video recovered and a few questions for you.

Yahlasit

"My Sony camcorder faulted and would not finalize the almost filled mini DVD."

there are a number of reasons why the finalization failed. all of these you will find in the cam's manual. proceed with the proper step(s) from there. otherwise, look for the nearest technical support you can call (also from the manual), and tell them your problem. you can also go back to the vendor, and ask them for help. another way is to post the problem in a sony dvd users' forum. you might just easily find your solution there. one of such forums is Videomakers Forum. another is Yahoo Answers. a google search with "sony camcorder dvd fail finalize" showed me this link from CNet.

"I searched the internet for programs to allow me to recover the video on the DVD. I tried several of those recommended but they did not even 'see' the disc in my computer drive."

have you tried restarting your 'puter after installing it? or, pressing F5 (refresh) in Win Explorer?

"Recovery service companies charge high fees for their service. What is so difficult about reading raw data from a DVD? This seems to be a frequent problem of camcorders, and when you lose a recording of a wedding, graduation,etc., its very very upsetting. Why don't camcorder companies provide a video recovery program to customers, since this problem will ultimately decrease recorder sales?"

it's called "proprietary technology". until now, with so many technologies coming up, data formats created by various media still sorely needs a "standard" that will enable it to be read by the "mainstream" operating systems of Mac, Windows & Linux.