Camcorders: hey guys. need some professional help. :)

Video quality is only one aspect to the whole process.

If you start with the premise that video compression = discarded data = reduced quality, then you know there will be a difference (miniDV records DV/HDV formats which compresses the digital video stream a whole lot less than the other available consumer media storage methods).

But in my mind it is the other stuff that piles on that also counts. Your video capture requirements will dictate appropriateness.

If you plan to capture loud audio - big crowds at noisy sporting events, loud music (whether amplified or not - marching bands are not amplified), motors (race cars, planes, big boats), or any other high volume audio, there's a good chance the vibration from the loud audio source will trigger the vibration sensor in the HDD camcorder to parkj the hard drive heads - so nothing will be recorded. MiniDV tape and flash memory camcorders do not have this issue. In general, laoud audio recorded by a camcorder using only the built-in auto-mic gain will probably end up very muddy, regardless of media storage type. Camcorders with manual audio control are strongly suggested - either that, or use a field recorder (Marantz, Edirol, M-Audio, Zoom, Fostex, among others) and replace the audio on the video with the audio from the field recorder.

If you plan to capture video at high altitude (9,800 feet+), there is not enough air pressure for the heads to work effectively. Again, they will park in an effort to protect themselves and nothing will be recorded. MiniDV tape and flash memory camcorders do not have this issue.

If you drop and break a HDD camcorder before transferring all the video off the hard drive, you may need to make arrangements with a data recovery service like DriveSavers. Be prepared to open your wallet. MiniDV tape and flash memory camcorders are less prone to requiring the data recovery service because if the tape or memory card/stick is intact (but the camcorder is broken), all that is needed is another camcorder. Even if the data recover service is required, they will be dealing with a single memory card/stick or a single digital tape rather than a large 40+ gig hard drive. (Bigger = more expense for the data recovery). You *could* try to remove the hard drive yourself and stick it in another hard drive based camcorder - but that would void that warranty on the new camcorder (if it has a warranty).

After capturing the video to a HDD camcorder, your first step *should* be to create a back-up or archive of that video. Most likely to another hard drive or a series of DVDs (storing the files as computer readable data files, not DVD player-readable files). Then you can copy the files over for video editing project work. External terabyte drives are getting more affordable - and you should probably do this same step for flash memory camcorders, too. Back-up to external DVD is also possible. Note that the optical disc method is a back up, not an archive - there is a difference. Back-ups are typically short term; archives are typically long term. If the HDD camcorder has a 40-60 gig (or larger) drive and a lot of that space is used by video files and a single layer DVD blank can do 4.7 gig or a double layer DVD blank can do 8.5 gig... well, you can do the math on the number of discs and amount of time it will take to make the back-up. With miniDV tape, the original captured video is the archive. Just don't re-use the tape and be sure to lock the tape when you pop it out. At around $3 per hour of DV or HDV (translating to 13 gig or 44 gig of computer hard drive space per hour of DV or HDV, respectively), miniDV tape continues to be the least expensive back up and archive storage media.

If you connect the NTSC camcorder (shooting out 29.97 frames per second - round to 30fps) with the analog/composite AV cable to a PAL TV (doing 25 fps), you will have viewing issues. I've heard of - but not used - the new PAL 30 fps TVs... I presume it should work - but will look to someone else for validation/confirmation.

The .MOD files from the JVC camcorders are supposed to be an "improved" version of the mpeg2 standard that most other hard drive and flash camcorders use for storing standard definition video. If you don't like it, I don't think you'll like any others. You need to convert that .mod file to something else before pusing out digitally to a DVD burner. Normally, a video editor takes care of that for you.

There are a number of posts regarding the .mod files and this one looks like the most useful:
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7594_102-0.html?forumID=59&threadID=145687&messageID=1630841&tag=forums06;forum-threads

Good luck!