Handycam compatibility with windows movie maker

Question

What type of handycam would be compatible with windows movie maker. The handycam that i've selected is a DVD format one, should i go for it or go for a DV or HDD format. Pls advise.

Note: i do not intend to use a third party software to edit my movies.

Answer 1

Windows Movie Maker is designed specifically for capturing and editing DV video captured through Firewire.  This means that the most compatible camcorders for any video editing program are the ones that use DV tape (such as miniDV and HDV).

The best camcorder you can get for using with Windows Movie maker would be one that records to miniDV or HDV tape.  These camcorders will have a Firewire port since dv tape can only be captured over Firewire.  Any model from the high-end professional to the consumer-level will work.

Windows Movie Maker may not be able to accept or edit high definition video, so you may need to set your HD camera to output the HD video in SD.  You camcorder will be able to do this conversion on the fly.  These settings are usually in the menu under the Play or VCR mode.

If you go through the questions in this Camcorders section of Yahoo Answers, you will see that a lot of people are having problems importing video from HDD, miniDVD, and Flash Memory to Windows Movie Maker