Thinking about a mini DVD camcorder? You're not alone, it's a rapidly growing \rsector of the camcorder market, with Hitachi, Sony and Panasonic all making more \rthan one mini dvd camcorder.

These camcorders differ from regular digital video cameras in one important way - \rthey record video onto mini DVD discs, rather than DV tape. This has a number of \radvantages. DVD discs are more robust than tape and won't get chewed up in the \rcamera. Although this is thankfully a rare occurance, it scares me every time I here a \rstrange noise coming from my camcorder, so it's with bearing in mind.

The second advantage is that DVD discs are random access, compared to tape on \rwhich everything is recorded sequentially. This means that there's no need to \rrewind and fast forward to find the clip you're after, just select it from the menu. \rSome cameras even allow you to perform basic editing functions on-camera. An \radditional side-benefit is that a mini DVD camcorder doesn't have tape heads to get \rworn or dirty as happens in regular mini DVD cameras.

And thirdly, you can easily watch your home movies by removing the DVD from the \rcamera and playing it in practically any DVD player.

However, there are negative factors to. The most siginificant one is that video is \rencoded as MPEG-2 on a mini DVD camcorder, as opposed to DV format. This \rmeans that it needs specialist software to edit - you can't just use your regular \rvideo editing program (unless it specifically supports MPEG-2). And if a Mac user \ryou're out of luck, as there are no MPEG-2 editing applications for the Mac.

Also, mini DVD camcorders tend to cost more than similarly specified mini DV \rcameras. And the media is also more expensive. However, if you don't intend \rediting your movies and don't mind the extra cost, a mini dvd camcorder does offer \rextraordinary convenience.

Kenny Hemphill is the editor and publisher of The HDTV Tuner, a site which aims to cut through the confusion \rsurrounding HDTV and provide surfers with up to date, accurate and easy to read \rinformation on HDTV.