With Christmas approaching, my husband is ready to buy a video camera so he can record our daughter's first Christmas but neither one of us really have any idea where to start, what to look for, what brands to consider or avoid, etc. We want to use this camera not only for recording moments in our daughter's life (and upcoming daughter #2, due in late Feb. 2009) but also for making horse videos so it should be pretty all-purpose I guess.
Also, we've seen some that come with little mini-DVD's to record on and then play on your DVD player? Are these good? Are there other types that record on something else? I do not want to have to download the video to my computer and then burn a DVD. Would prefer to skip that step if possible and go straight from camera to TV.
Please enlighten me

Thanks in advance.