Connect the camcorder to a computer with a USB cable. Camcorder in PC mode. Be sure to connect the AC power supply, too. The camcorder memory should mount like any other external mass storage device. Copy the video files to the computer.
Since you don't have a BluRay player connected to your HDTV and a regular DVD player cannot deal with AVCHD (MTS) format video, use a video editor that can deal with AVCHD (Sony Vegas and Adobe Premire for Windows; iMovieHD '08 or newer or FinalCut running on an Intel-Mac), you can import and edit, and get the video project out to a DVD authoring tool (like WinDVD for Windows or iDVD for Macintosh). That DVD authoring tool will downsample the video to standard definition VOB files that a regular DVD can deal with. Burn the regular DVD using that DVD authoring tool.
Is this the same as recording from a standard digital camera to a DVD.
I do not understand what a "standard digital camera" is. There are several recording media formats and file types in consumer-grade camcorders. DVD based camcorders record to very highly compressed VOB files for standard definition video - and AVCHD/MTS files for high definition; flash memory and hard drive camcorders record to very highly compressed MPEG2 files for standard definition and AVCHD/MTS files for high definition; miniDV tape records to not so compressed MPEG2/DV for standard definition or HDV high definition files. But I guess the short answer to your question is, yes.
Can you play the DVD on a regular DVD player?
Only if the files are in a format that "regular DVD" can understand - typically VOB files.
Will it look anything like HD on a HD TV?
No. But it still looks better than standard definition.
I don't have a Blue Ray, but my DVD player is progressive scan?
Great - doesn't matter. But at least you can connect using component cables.

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