Hello, I am asking for advice on what hardware to buy.
(I have seen similar posts by others asking this question, but the answers did not help becasue they were too vague, like "you can get a good cheap one for $50", or were too specific and loaded with so much tech-jargon, that I got lost.)

1) I plan on archiving VHS tapes- ALL KINDS (hollywood movies and home made vacation tapes) and want to convert them to VCD, SVCD, or XVCD, and sometimes edit and send them back to VHS, and sometimes just sometimes make a small clip to send to relatives.
3) I also want to be able to hook up BOTH DIGITAL AND/OR ANALOG video camcorders to my computer (one at a time of course) so I can transfer new stuff straight into my computer for editing or "burning".
4) I dont have FIREWIRE (YET?). My 2 standard USB's are used up, but I have a couple of empty extended USB's off the motherboard that are ready to use through a PC slot.
5) I dont want to spend a lot of money, maybe $150.00 at the most. Ive noticed EBAY might be a good place to get a deal but I need to make sure I buy the right thing before I get into that. Cicuit City is over-priced and the sales people dont know squat.
6) I want to be able to enjoy the finished movie CD on my 19" computer monitor, my 19" TV, and my 42" projection monitor. I dont want to have to make different CD's with different resolutions or file formats. Basically I just want things easy and only want to do the least possible to get finished, quality results.
7) Is Windows Movie Maker any good or helpful? I noticed its on my XP operating system. I can get whatever I need software-wise.

My system specs are in my signature file (just in case they dont show up, they should be in my profile too). I cant think of any other questions pertaining to this right now. Please realize that I DID search through previous posts before posting myself, but I didnt learn anything from them.

Thanks!
Van