I have read all kinds of reviews but would like a little info from some of you. If you were buying a new camcorder which kind would you get? I have never had a camcorder but have a baby on the way so I need to get one. At first I thought the dvd camcorder was the way to go, just take out the dvd and put it in the player but after doing some research it doesnt sound like its as simple as I thought. It seems like I can get a camera that is as good as quality as a dvd camera but cheaper if I go with the mini dv? Is this true? I want a good quality camera for making home movies, what would some of you suggest?

This post sounds familiar. Did I read the same thing in another forum?

Anyway, I'll take a stab. Part of the answer depends on how much post-processing you want to do and how comfortable you are doing it. If you just want to take what you shoot and only put it on DVD, a DVD cam is a good solution. Just beware that at highest quality you usually can get only 30 minutes per side on the 8 cm DVDs most cams use. Lower quality lets you put more on the disc but it may not be acceptable to you. Some cams only use DVD-RAM discs which are less compatible with set top players than DVD-R and DVD+R. If you go the DVD cam route be sure to check the specs and ask reputable sources so you won't be surprised with what you get. (Hint: a lot of camera store clerks are not good sources for cam details. Reviews on this and other technical web sites usually are a better bet.)

With miniDV cams you must capture the video to a computer do some processing to put it into a format that DVDs require (called encoding) and create the menu and file structure that DVDs use (called authoring) and then burn the actual DVD. Obviously, you also have the option to edit your video to remove unwanted scenes, add music, narration, etc. if you want.

You can find software that will do the capture, encoding and DVD authoring and burning in one step but you usually have less control over the process. You can also use DVD recorders (like VCRs but with DVD burners and sometimes hard disks built in) to do the encoding, authoring and burning.

If you wish to put your video on a web site then you may want to go with miniDV as it gives you more options for final formats to encode the video to that work better on web sites than MPEG-2.

So the answer depends on what you want to do with the your video. This topic is covered a lot here. Do a search and you'll find other discussions with other points of view on this topic. I'll also put in a plug for my DVD tutorial that goes into some detail on the DVD creation process: http://patmedia.net/dennisvogel.

Good luck and let us know what you decide.

Dennis