"WWW" <www@www.www.video> wrote in message news:3EFFB75C.9F9E9F09@www.www.video...

> I've been thinking of buying a digital camcorder for a long time and I

> think now it's the time.

>

> I know I need something compact, so Sony TRV-33 looks like a decent

> choice. The problem is that I don't like the idea of having to use

> special cables, capturing software (reminds me of the A to D conversion)

> when everything is digital.

>

> I've recently discovered the existence of compact digital camcorder

> which burn DVDs. I started looking at Panasonic VDR-M30 which has a

> comparable price with the Sony TRV-33.

>

> I was wondering whether somebody can advice me which one to pick? Is

> there any catch in buying a DVD burning camera?

>

> How does the image qualify differ between these two? I don't care about

> the stills. I have a really good digital camera.

>

> Thank you very much...

You are missing the basics: Mini-DV is a format that is very high quality

(for a consumer format), and that "special cable" (FireWire) directly dumps

the taped digital signal to most new computers these days. Disc recording

is in a more highly compressed format, with relatively little software available

for editing it. If you never want to edit, and want to play disks directly for

viewing instead of playing tapes directly for viewing, you may be OK with

the hit in quality and record time with the disk camera. As far as the cameras

themselves go, the TRV33/38 is probably the best 1-CCD imager out

there now in terms of image quality in all but low light (and I hate the

touch-screen controls, too - would that Sony had continued the TRV27...!;-).