I've not used or bought a camcorder for ages, a hard drive is ideal as there are no tapes to run out. I would of thought a dvd camcorder would only use certain types of dvd and your computer or dvd player would need to be compatable.
The only advice i would give is look with one with a high optical zoom not just digital. Our's is high digital zoom, but as soon as i zoomed in, the slightest bit of movement made the who picture move by a large amount and i would need to zoom back out just to find what i was looking for.
Sorry not to be more help.
Neil