DV-in is disabled on many European camcorders because the EU levies some ridiculous tax on anything imported that could be classified as a VCR. From memory, it's something to do with the French and one of many sordid moments in French history when they allocated one customs official in a small hut to physically check every imported VCR, in an attempt to slow the tide of Japanese imports, thus preserving the market for e.g. Thomson. So, to hit a better price point, imported camcorders have DV-in disabled, so as not to attract the tax. It used to be the case that you could easily upgrade your firmware - I did it with my entry level Panasonic for about £25 - but I think there was a good deal of clamping down on it, possibly by the manufacturers, and it's now much harder to find sites that are still active that offer the upgrade. Or it was, last time I looked.

__________________
Premiere Pro, Encore, Photoshop, Ulead VS6, WXP Pro, Core 2 Duo, 2GB, 2 x 250GB SATA3 drives, 2 x 250GB USB 2 external drive, DVD writer, GeForce 7300 GS 256MB

The biggest fool can ask questions that the wisest man cannot answer...