Hi. I'm new to the world of capturing and creating video CD's. I've read many of the topics and really like this site.

I want to get all my home videos of the kids transfered to something more permanent before they degrade too much. I was thinking VCD would be a good choice because it's about the same quality as VHS and it plays in a lot of DVD players. But I don't have the right equipment to do the job.

I have 2 computers that could be used (albeit with some hardware/software upgrading).
1. iMac 333MHz running MacOS 8.6, 30G harddrive, 96M RAM
2. IBM ThinkPad A21p 700MHz, Win2000, 30G harddrive (11G free), 512M RAM

I'm debating which route to go. I'd like to use my iMac, but I'd have to seriously upgrade the hardware/software. I was thinking a capture card (Dazzle?), a Harmoni upgrade board (gets me to 500MHz and a FireWire port), MacOS 9 (or X?), some editing software, more memory, and of course a CD burner.

For the ThinkPad, I could get a PCMCIA FireWire card, capture card, software, and a burner.

Obviously, the second is the cheaper option, but the laptop is really for business use.

Am I kidding myself here, or should I just get a new system? Since I have a lot of raw tapes, I want to be able to edit them before burning. But I don't think I would have the patience of waiting 10+ hrs per 60 mins of video either.

Any advice on specific hardware/software for doing this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
-- Dave