The price should tell you. You get what you pay for! On the other hand, I will give you the tech answer. On the DVD cameras, you are dealing with a spinning disk that is recording data, therefore the data will be recorded at a slower rate than a hard drive depending on the price and model you purchase. If you bump a DVD recorder then you will get a skip in your video vise a hard drive recorder will not because the data is going strait to the hard drive. With a DVD recorder you have to contend with "what DVD is best with my recorder" vise having the same recording media all the time. Last the DVD needs to finalize the disk in the end of recording and the Hardrive does not. You could loose that important moment when the disk is finalizing itself. I would like to reemphasize that in the electronic world you get what you pay for and I have had very few times when a bargain is a bargain in the electronic world.Good Luck!