I realize this may be the wrong time to ask this, but, I may be looking to purchase one soon and am wondering what features to look for.

Most CCDs supposedly have about 680K pixels, although Sony has at least one with over 1.5 million and wonder if the average person is going to see a real difference in pic quality.

Anybody have any experience with current models, and has anybody purchased online or at one of those east coast stores in video magazines with the low prices and high shipping?

get the trv 20 or better.  you do want the higher pix  it takes MUCH better pictures than my lower res video camera.  get the flash/light attachment too-about 90 bucks-it helps with photos and low light filming.

decide the one you want-go to pricescan.com  find the lowest price on your camera (print the page) call j&r (jandr.com) music world (new york)  tell them what you want and the lowest price-they will say-well, "their company is not Sony authorized" you say so what, give me your best price. and they genreally match it or pretty close.  I order from them because they are a reputable electronics company.  get really good pricing too.  

You most likely won't notice the differance as far as the video is concerned but you will notice a huge differance as far as the still pictures are concerned.
1.Get one with a serperate media card for still pictures.
2. highest resolution possible
3. stay away from panasonic (very, very  poor customer service)
LEt me know if you have more quetions.
I like the Olympus digital cameras clarity but have never tried there DV cameras. They also have good customer support.
Scratch

The two models I've looked at locally are the Sony DCR TRV17 and the TRV30.  The funny thing is, the retail price difference between these two models with similar features is about $600+.

Granted from a [i]technical[/i] standpoint the TRV30 at 1,550,000 pixeled CCD would give a better video and the 1360x1020 would give a better still, but for the price difference, you could buy a decent quality digital still camera separately.  I've been thinking that's the better way to go; buy video and still cameras separately.
BTW, thanks for the info so far.
Also, I'm stepping up from VHS-C, so just about anything will likely be a huge improvement.[:D]

SOny-and other electronics companoies are real good at convientley leaving off that one needed feature, but putting it on the next camera and charging another 500 bucks

Does the TRV30 have 1,550,000 pixeled CCD(s) and are you sure it is 1360x1020?
Broadcast TV (NTSC Standard Def) is only 720X486. This is why the still images will never look very good from them. My broadcast cameras have 3 CCD's, one for each primary color and record in Betacam SP and Digital Betacam formats. The Betacam (Sony BVW-300) is about 40K new and the DigiBeta (DVW-700) is more like 70K, both priced with lens and batteries. The stills we can grab from them are not worth wrting home about. The new DV cameras look great, we got a Sony DVCAM to play around with and it is fun, but for digital stills, we use the Nikon Coolpix 990.

Bill Casanova
Casanova Productions

Happiness is a warm gun...
Bang bang, shoot shoot...

Yeah, Sony lists the TRV30 as having a 1.5megapixel CCD and still image resolution as 1360x1020.  However the [i]effective[/i] CCD count is considerably less.[url]www.crutchfield.com/S-GsBOLadUpET/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?i=158DCRTV30&s=0[/url]
BTW, why do they list these high pixel counts on CCDs if the [i]effective[/i] count is actually much lower?