capture cards,,, or firewire........ *** brain freeze***

[Muffyn]

right now I'm having a melt down,, reading all this stuff.
JUST when I think I understand & decide what to do,, something NEW pops up. *help*
last year I purchased a ATI all-in-wonder 128 rage pro,, which I intended in some future time to use to make dvds. MY intention is to copy stuff from VHS & Beta tapes to burn them into movies on dvd's.. now that the pricing of dvd burners are reaonable, I am ready to TRY to tackle the job..
ONLY....... I keep reading that there can be several problems with the all-in-wonder card & several 'tweaks' to your system may be needed,, true??? is there any reaon why I shouldnt just get a simple firewire assembly,, oh, but that might not work, will it, since I am using OLD beta tapes,, & vhs,, NOT digital stuff??? see how confused I am??
THEN I read the pinnacle dc10 or 30 is great for VHS stuff, but cannot find the 'card' anywhere to purchase ( is it discontinued???)
plus I read the software that comes with the All-in-wonder,, is not that great ( or any other packaged programming) , do you suggest a really good mpeg2 encoder ( thats what it is called, right??)(for dummies, preferred)
THEN I also see a neat video card,, one of the nvidia geforce4 ones,,, and was thinking of getting that,,,,,,,, but for video grabbing? is it a good card? is the all-in-wonder better? can the 2 be used together on th same machine,, & the geforece4 card be used just for games...??
sseeeeeeeee... how confused I am>??? just wait till I start TRYING to grab the vido & try converting the stuff!! PULLEEEZZEEEE help.
thanks.........

[Craig Tucker]

If you already have the AIW 128 then give it a try, I used to have one and used it for VHS and TV capturing without too many problems. The main thing is to get the latest drivers and software for your specific card from ATI's web site. I now have the AIW 7500 and also use that for capturing with no problems. I do not use the ATI MMC for capturing I use virtualdub (does a great job for me). Firewire is used mainly for DV transfer and cannot be used to capture analogue video without some sort of Analogue to digital converter.