It seemed to me at this point in time, DVDcam format is just a gimmick.
The lower quality is due to its inferior technicality. DVDcam converts the picture into digital format at a lower rate (ie around 1 MB per second, as opposed to 3.6 MB per second for mini DV format) The link below shows how inferior the DVDcam vs. mini DV format.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1684288,00.aspBoth CNET.com and pcmag.com oppose the DVDcam format. So I guess it's not the way to go now unless you are shooting basic things

short clip for presentation vs. something you want to keep it for long term memory...
Even though it's troublesome, I think mini DV is the way to go for now.
I don't have any experience with DVD recorder yet but would appreciate if someone could jump in as I'm looking into it too.