Newbie looking for easy guides, links, and general information

[TazDevil]

Hi Ho everyone, great site with lots of information but I am kind of lost as to what I need to read up on and where to find it.
I have been doing my best with video stuff but I have found that I still have some problems when it comes to understanding all the information here, and getting all the stuff to work right on my PC and was looking for some links to easy to understand basic guides and advice.
Let me give you a quick idea of what I can do.
Rip DVDs can do with little or no problem.
Capture Video can do with some problems like knowing what rate/format to capture
Author my own DVDs can do but with lots of problems like quality and sync issues.
Convert files like divx to dvd can do only with one click programs and have had quality and sync issues.

The main thing I am looking to do is to get good at is producing a good quality DVD with my own content, a few projects that I have attempted on my own is:

• Several videos from a Sony HandyCam of local school programs for the teachers and after many trials and errors I was able to produce one dvd of fair quality.
  Capturing TV shows to my PC and producing a fair dvd but nothing that could be called good.
  I have also tried to put AVI files that a friend gave me on to DVD's with some success but more often all I make is a nice coaster...lol
  Capturing old VHS Tapes and putting them on DVD's what a nightmare that is. I was never able to get that working right always had sound sync issues. ended up getting a standalone VCR DVD recorder, still learning on that piece of equipment, but thats for another post.

I know that I have lots of questions on several topics but I do hope that the kind people here can offer a little bit of help to me, and just to let it be know, I am not looking for speed in doing any of the stuff above I have a dedicated video PC so leaving it to work its magic is not a problem, what I am looking for is easy simple to use solutions.

Thank you in advance to all who read this post and to anyone that offers any information.

TazDevil

[t0nee1]

Hi and wc! start with the very good "How to guide" on the left here..lots of info to read there....

T1....still learning.... 8)

[fredfillis]

Hmm, lots of questions!

Most of what you want to do is pretty easy with the right tools. A lot of them can be found here and are free.

However, I've spent a few bucks here and there to make my life a bit easier. I've fooled around with capturing on my PC and found it a bit hit or miss in terms of quality. Now, I capture exclusively in DV form via my canopus ADVC300 and use Scenealyzer as my capture software. I also spent money to buy Vegas as my NLE and could not be happier.

I've hooked up a TV as my external monitor because I learned that a computer monitor is not a TV and you can spend a lot of time on projects making them look good on the PC only to find they suck on a real TV.

Some will argue you can use the freeware stuff for NLE and that is probably true and I have done it myself but I've found the investment to be worth the money.

Good luck!