[MacDV] For Macguy re dvd burner question

[olivia block]

Thanks so much for answering my question. My only hesitation about having a
built in DVD burner is that I might want to upgrade computers at some point,
getting a desktop, and using the laptop for traveling, although I guess that
shouldn't really stand in my way.
 I was hoping to find an external burner which would also act like a
consumer recorder/player, in that you could hook up the camcorder directly
to the burner in addition to using it with the computer. Is there any such
device? I don't want to be tethered to low memory capability on my computer,
because I have a lot of other software which uses a lot of memory, like
protools, etc, with large files, so I was hoping to combine editing on my
mac with direct recording from my camcorder if there are large blocks of
material to record. I would also like to be able to record from a VCR.
 Also, regarding the finalizing issue on the consumer recorder, I actually
did finalize all of the DVDs, but still none would play on anything other
that the (cheap) ilo DVD recorder I bought. I tried all different types of
DVDs, even the recommended ones, and still, no luck! Is that just part of
the DVD phenomenon?
 Any advice?
 Thanks so much for your help!
 Cheers