Use the best cables you can for connections. Video cables from (lowest to highest quality are), RF, composite, S-Video, Component. Which cables you use will be determined by the types of outputs and inputs on the DVD Recorder and the TV. That's all I can offer as far as the machine problem you may need to take it in for service or replace it..

DVD players do not have tuners which select stations, so there is no need to supply them with a signal from an antenna. It can't do anything with it. Your DVD player only sends a signal out. Can the TV handle both the coaxial antenna from the cable box and the yellow/red/white RCA cables from the DVD player? If it can, your problem is solved.

First things first. No matter how much you spend, what you record is not going to be any better than the original. Yeah, there might be a little tweaking you can do with contrast and the like, but you will not make a DVD copy of a VHS tape which will look much better than the tape. The keys there then become the quality of the VHS tape player and the tape itself, with the tape itself being the most limiting factor. Tape quality is affected by the original formulation of the tape, how the tapes were used and stored, etc. At this point, there is little you can do about any of that. Let's just assume that the tapes you have are good enough to view and to transfer. If you already have a VHS player which has a picture you like, I would use it. You won't gain much at all by buying a new combo unit. If you have to buy a VHS player, you could consider a combo unit (though I'd check the owner's manual just to make sure you can copy from tape to DVD without problems; I've never done this myself and I'm not sure what the tape copy protection [if any] might do when recorded onto a disk). One thing to consider is the quality of the DVD itself. There is a growing concern about the longevity of DVDs and CDs. "Bargain-basement" or "free-after-rebate" disks often won't hold a valid signal after as short as six months. This is too much work to repeat in a year or two. Make sure you buy high-quality disks from companies like Imation, TDK, Maxell, etc. That will help insure that your disk copies live longer. And get "record-once" DVDs, not rewritable ones. That will help them live longer, too. As for the unit at Target, I'd be leery of why it was returned. A decent name-brand DVD burner goes for about $100; there's little point IMHO to buying a returned one for $50 and spending more on an extended warranty.

First off let me say that I prefer Mini DV camcorders to the direct to DVD type. If you plan on editing you video then a Mini-dv will end up giving you a better quality result because it will stay uncompressed until you are done and ready to author the DVD. In the DVD camcorders you get MPEG compressed video on the disc so any editing will uncompress and then recompress resulting in lower quality. To answer your questions: 1. The mini dvd's are either DVD-R or DVD+R discs these differ not in the content on the disc from normal DVD's but in the actual disc itself. The recordable disc's both mini and full size use a color changing dye to record the bits of data while a normal dvd is a pressed layer. Most newer DVD players and DVD-ROM drives in PC's will read either format with no problems. However you can go to Video Help.com and look up your DVD Players, others have put in feedback about what type's of disc your player works with. 2. The CCD is the electronic device that actually converts the incoming light signal to the electronic format, the number value attached is typically a resolution number, the higher the resolution (pixel count) of the CCD the higher quality the captured visual information can look. There are higher end models that employ three CCD's to give an even higher resolution image. 3. Both digital camcorders (a sony and a panasonic) I have owned had this feature, its name varies by manufacuterer. 4. Nope no adapter is typically required. If you look closely at the tray there is normally an indention to hold the smaller disc's, this has been a standard back to the mini CD. 5. Sound sync issue you experienced is likely due to the way you captured the video/audio. You dont say much about it so I can only speculate. In any case the MiniDV and the DVD camcorders should not have this issue is setup properly. You can also go the videohelp website for tips on how to capture analog video and convert if you are still interested in that for you old tapes. 6. Dont know check the manufacturers specs for their camera. Are you certain that the Panasonic was mini VHC (VHS-C)?? If its miniDV then I think you need to reconsider a new camera and look at how you edited and converted the video to DVD, it should not have the problems you described. Here is an excellent camcorder buying guide at Cnet.com