Help re choice of converter and editing program

[berane]

Hi!

Having a lot of videos (VHS) - including many home videos - spread around the house I´ve decided to do something about it. I hope that, by coverting them to digital format, I will e.g. be able to share many memories with my loved ones (children and grandchildren) and at the same time I will shrink the footprint.

Browsing around and asking some people I´m now looking for digital video converters and have found Canopus ADVC 55 and ADVC 110. At some shops those converters are shipped with a free copy of EDIUS Neo video editing program. However, beeing a newbie in this field I need some good advice and suggestion from people who has "been there, done that".

First of all I´m slight uncertain re the choice of model (i.e. 55 or 110), which one to pick. As far as I understand there should not be any difference between the two models re the quality of output (that´s what interest me most). So, what would I benefit from chosing the 110-model over the 55-model?

Re the editingprogram: some people suggest Adobes Premier Elements. Pros and cons vs EDIUS Neo? I´m aware that I might face a steep learningcurve as I never done this before - so far I´ve only worked with photos - but I´m prepared and I´m eager to enter into this new area.

Thoughts and suggestions are very much appreciated.


My system: Win XP Pro, Intel Core 2 Quad 9300 2.4 GHz, NVIDIA Geforce 8500 GT, 3582 MB, 320 GB, 500 GB.

[lordsmurf]

Premiere Elements is made for the consumer, and for DV only video. It's pretty basic in operation, some good quality options for menus and editing.

VHS suffers from a number of noise issues that a Canopus DV device will not compensate for. However, many DVD recorders are known to filter out such problems. The computer capture method is not always the best method.

Indeed, I've downsized entire shelves to a small box of discs on spindles. Your goal is possible.

How much do you plan to edit? Many folks (myself included) just dump VHS home movies to a DVD, for the sake of posterity. The in-detail edits are more infrequent, as they are time-consuming. Especially if you get family members to make a second-audio commentary track, add photo scans, group by topic (years, person, events), etc.