Virgin Camcorder User

Hi,

I was hoping someone out there can help me narrow down what kind of camcorder to start looking for. I have never owned a camcorder nor even used one before. I tried to do some reading to familiarize myself with the different kinds and ended up being even more confused. From what I am aware of there are "MiniDV models", "DVD models", "Combination Hard Drive and DVD models", and "Hard Drive models".

Can someone help me narrow down what kind of model I should be looking at and then I can do some research to narrow down the camcorder I want. Here's some information that may help narrow the models down.

My main purpose for the camcorder is to record home videos of my family during the holidays, birthdays, etc. So most of my filming would be done indoors but sometimes outdoors. I would like a long battery life for recording up to one hour or so. I'm not picky about what medium to use to store the recordings, however I would like something that is mainstream so I'm not always out hunting to find that "item". I'm willing to spend in the ballpark of $500-$1000. I don't plan to do anything fancy, such as editing but I may want to add music later on.

I hope that is enough information. Please ask me any questions to help me on my quest to find that perfect camcorder for me.