There are two basic ways to do this. The easiest and fastest is to connect to a stand alone DvD Recorder with the A/V (Audio Video) Cable that came with your camcorder. If your camcorder has a S-Video connector, or better yet, a Firewire (IEEE 1394) connection and the DvD Recorder does also you’ll get the best quality with these type of connections. DvD Recorders are reasonably priced now.
The next option is not as easy and takes longer. The footage will have to be captured to a computer and then burned to a DvD. This requires: Software (to edit and burn to the DvD), correct cables and ports (Firewire or USB 2.0), and a DvD Burner in your computer. The footage will be captured in real time (if there is 1 hour of footage it will take 1 hour to capture). Than you have to edit (if any is needed) and then burn the disk. Edit and burning may take another couple of hours.

Contact the manufacture to see if there is anything that can be done. If it is only 2 months old there may be a defect or recall on that model. Only way to know is through the manufacture.

That really is a personal preference. Flat answer…Yes you could. By cropping a 10 megapixel photo after enlarging it to 300 (or more) PPI you may…repeat…may get results YOU are happy with. Keep in mind that the sensor on a “point and shoot” camera is only about the size of an eraser head, and is NOT very forgiving when you start enlarging the image. The sensor on a Digital-SLR is bigger than a dime….a lot more data to work with. If the image quality and the zoom are important factor then you may want to look at an entry level Digital-SLR. The Canon Digital Rebel XT or XTi and the Nikon D40 or D40x would be a good place to start.

Many models, such as the Canon ZR930 have shutter speeds up to 1/2000 and more. Some go even as high as 1/4000. You can use firewire (IEEE 1394) to capture live to a computer hard drive but you still have to manually control the camera. There is no interface for the computer while the camcorder is in “Camera” mode only in “VCR” mode. DvD and Hard Drive camcorders usually only have USB 2.0 connections.