Which Camcorder & video editing software should I buy?

I need a new camcorder for making movies and uploading them to the internet - I don't know whether to buy a DV or a hard drive based camcorder? I heard a lot of benefits to the hard drive based like you never have to convert the file - but I also hear it is harder to edit and to find editing software for - on the DV end I hear the quality is better, but it uploads to your computer in real time which sucks - but it is the easiest to edit???? please help!

My experience is with MiniDV camcorders and I would typically use a fire-wire 1394 cable to download video from my camcorder to my PC. This wasn't always problem free.. it would lose a couple frames every once in awhile.. but it worked most of the time.

My preferred software (not sure if you can still buy it anywhere) is Video Factory 2.0 (Sonic Foundry). Of all of the video editting software in the $50 price range, this one beats them all.

Now, there is another thing to keep in mind. When you download the video from your camera (in real time) the software will typically save the video uncompressed (AVI file usually). So, uncompressed video is large and will need to be compressed when you create an MPG video. It's time consuming and hard drive consuming.. but it seems to work just fine.

My last comment would be that for all of the reasons stated above, I would almost prefer to try out a hard drive based camcorder. Not speaking from experience, but the less mechanical parts (i.e. the MiniDV tape) the more reliable you would assume the camera would be.