Getting a new digital camcorder - miniDV or DVD

WHA

OK, getting a new camcorder - long story, but basically just had 2 weeks of hell trying to get an oldish Sony camcorder to download to the PC, bought firewire cables, firewire cards, a new dvd recorder to take the a/v leads from the camcorder, etc. Nothing has worked - can't get anything on to the PC in decent format so I've had enough.

I've seen a nice Sony one for around £200 - miniDV tapes but I've also seen a Canon mini DVD for around £270.

What I really want to do is have the ability to download onto the PC and edit to make DVDs for family etc.

The miniDV tape one has a firewire output which I trust will give the required connectivity and quality to a PC.

The mini DVD doesn't have a firewire output but I presume (hope) that I can put a mini DVD from the camcorder into the PC to download.

Will the PC be able to accept both methods of data transfer without further conversion (i.e. is the digital output from a camcorder compatible with the digital input required by the PC)

Anyone any views/recommendations as to which to go for. I really want the simplest and best quality route to getting the camcorder movies onto my PC for editing.

withabix

Go for a DVD one. MiniDV is too much hassle and poorer quality generally.

Transferring and Rendering from MiniDV takes ages.

Mini DVDs go straight into your DVD drive.

Check your DVD drive can take the format though - eg Panasonics are RAM -RW and -R, not +R or +RW, but most DVD drives can READ these formats. If it's old and can't, it's only about £20 for one that can, of course.