Help in choosing a new computer

[didikai]

I've been trying to find / custom make a system that I will use primarily for transferring all my analogue video tapes to DVD.
I need to be able to edit without dropped frames. Something my present system cannot do.
I've been in every computer store in my area, but they are all staffed by guys on minimum wage who have little. if any, knowledge of my requirements.

I'm not looking for brand names of components. Just the technical requirements I will need.

I have around $1500. 00 Cdn

Thanks

[chongo]

I've done a lot of VHS-DVD, and it's been my experience that it does not require much; I'm using a p4 1.8 with only 256 ram and I do not have a big problem with dropped frames when capturing unless I am multitasking during capture. And I have not had a problem with dropped frames when editing; it just takes longer. But if you are multitasking during editing/encoding, 1 gig ram and the most L2 cache you can afford would probably help. [The most I can do with my computer during encoding is light websurfing or Word]. I would recommend getting a larger hard drive since they're cheap, but I used to have just a 40 gig and I did okay with VHS transfers. Also, I get excellent quality off my cheap tuner card when using composite inputs.

[budz]

easiest is to get a standalone dvd recorder to do your analog to DVD.....unless you want to spend some bucks get yourself a CANOPUS ADVC-100 to do your analog to digital conversion.....no drop frames at all when using this device with your pc....the CANOPUS is hooked up via firewire to your pc.....you hook up the audio/video inputs to your source (VCR, laserdisc, betamax etc)......use a program like SCENALYZER to capture then TMPGE plus to encode to MPEG, TMPGE DVD AUTHOR then NERO or your favorite burning program to burn to DVD.

build your own pc or order your components then get someone to build it for you.....i would suggest a PENT 4 Northwood 2.4 chip 800 fsb, asus p4p800se motherboard, 1 gb of pc3200 crucial memory, ati 9200 video card 128mb, pioneer or benq dvd burner, liteon dvdrom, antec power supply and case, and 2 hard drives, 120 gb for your operating system and a 200 gb for video capturing and editing.....

others here may disagree and suggest you get a capture card like a ATI all in one graphics card which you would need to tweak your pc to make sure you're able to get no dropped frames or audio/video sync problems....