Can anyone explain whether a DVD burner peripheral purchased from a site such as Newegg would operate as a stand alone device? Will they accept/transfer and then burn discs from video images out of my Canon DVD camcorder? Do I need to buy special power or connecting cords?

My iMac computer has a great DVD drive/burner and iMovie software. The problem is that it doesn't recognize the USB connection from the camcorder, even though the manufacturer claims that it will. I need a way to get DVD clips from the camera to the computer software for editing.