Ask Engadget: Advice on buying a DVD camcorder?

By Peter Rojas

It's Ask Engadget Time again, last week reader Eric S. wanted some
tips on picking a smartphone, this week Kap would like a little advice about whether or not he should buy a DVD camcorder:

I was asking about JVC hard drive camcorders at a local store, when the salesperson told me that I'd be better off
getting a DVD camcorder.

Apparent benefits of DVD camcorders over JVC camera:

-Cheaper media (esp. DVD-RW)

-Cheaper cameras, feature for feature

-Can just hand disks over to other people for viewing on their DVD players

Apparent limitations of DVD camcorders:

- I want to be able to edit decent quality video footage in iMovie. However, I've heard that DVD camcorders record
directly to MPEG4 and hence aren't ideal for video editing (didn't sound right to me, but that's what I've read)

- DVD discs hold significantly less footage(?)

My requirements:

- I much prefer the idea of transferring video directly to my computer (i.e. no tapes) for quick editing.

- I'd like to be able to transfer video from TV or my computer and take it "on the road" with me (i.e. Using the
camera like a PVP) with a minimum of effort/fuss.

I was wondering what other Engadget readers thought.

Any advice?

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