You can import your MiniDV videos into your computer and into Movie Maker.
In Movie Maker you can edit them, add effects, transitions, music, etc.
When completed you save your movie (save movie to computer), by using DV-AVI
format in the other settings to get the best quality for DVD. Yes, you
will need third party software (Ulead Movie Factory is a favorite- $49) and
a DVD burner on your computer. You import your 'movie' into the
authoring/burning software and follow its instructions to burn your movie
onto a blank DVD. Its true that not all formats are compatible but most are
with the new 'progressive' scan DVD players. But, if you are looking to play
on your own player you just try several of the various formats (i.e. -R, +R
etc) until you find which works....most likely it will work but not always.
For some reason -R's do not work on my internal DVD player in my home theatre
projector, so I don't make -R's if I am going to use that projector. Good
luck.