Hello,
I have a Panasonic NV-GS4 digital video camera which has a ‘S-Video in/out’ connection and a ‘DV out’ connection but not a ‘DV in.’
I would like to buy a DVD Recorder to edit my camcorder tapes onto a DVD as I do not have a good enough computer to do it.
Is this possible, and if it is, how is it done? Also, what kind of things should I look for in a DVD Recorder.

Thanks.

[MarkE19]

Well the best quality DVD recorder for connecting your camcorder to would be one with a DV port. Not all, but some do have this.
Also you are likely to want to edit your video a bit before writing it to a DVD so a recorder that also has a hard disk would make life a lot easier.

You say your PC is not good enough to capture/edit video. Well it doesn't need to be that good to do it. I've seen editing done on an old Pentium 2 PC. It will be slow but can still be done. You just need to find some old software that will run on a low SpecPC and this should be very cheap to buy as it is so old. Then you just need to add another hard disk so you have plenty of space to capture the video. A 160Gb HDD will be well under £100, in fact for that amount you could get the firewire card and software as well. Add a DVD recorder for under £50 and you have everything you need and should be able to get better results than from a standalone DVD recorder. The PC just needs to be running Windows 98se or later to be able to see the firewire card.

Mark.

[laser]

It you don't want to edit camcorder footage on a PC but still transfer and edit footage to DVD then check out DVD recorders with HDD from Pioneer and Toshiba:

Toshiba RX-XS32 (www.leconcepts.com)
Pioneer DVR-520HS

There are cheaper model which do not have the firewire input if you want to record via s-video. The HDD is essential if you want to edit.