does anyone know of any dvd recorders with firewire in and output?

Lots of models with firewire input. Hardly any with firewire output, unless they are new models perhaps. The very expensive pro models will have this option though.

this JVC miniDV/DVD/HDD does! (directly to miniDV!)


http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/features.jsp?model_id=MDL101541

That looks like a cool deck, but I don't think it has firewire output. Look at the diagram on the technical info page. It has an arrow going away from the DV camera, but none going towards it:

http://pro.jvc.com/pro/attributes/DVD/images/srdvm70_workflow.gif

Also if you look at the specs in the color brochure under i.Link it lists MiniDV, HDD and DVD under input, but only MiniDV under output. It does appear that you can output from either the hard drive or DVD to a MiniDV cassette in the deck itself (if I understand the charts), but apparently you couldn't hook this up to your computer and capture material from a DVD via firewire. You'd have to copy it to tape first.

Try Pioneer consumer DVD recorders (if you are talking about this price range).
They ofer 2way FireWire contrary to all other consumer models that are only offering inputs.

You're right, according to their site they do now have two recorders with that feature:

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/comparison/results/0,,2076_4139,00.html

When I was in the market 2 years ago these didn't exist. I would still want to read all the fine print before making a purchase however.