PC or Mac?

[Beavis]

All,
The only alternative for a PC based solution may be to purchase an external capture device to avi...like a Canopus 1394, or Adstech Pro AV link, which I would have to purchase anyway if I went with a Mac. The question is if I opt to capture to .avi and use Screenblast movie studio 3.0 to edit then render to MPEG2, then author and burn with TMPGenc Author what can I expect for quality as compared to my present arrangement?

Relative "quality" aside (a lot of that is subjective anyway)- what you've described would be a very nice (and very common) setup for home video work. The Sony / Vegas software is very good. The suggestion from cbkilner about getting a miniDV camcorder with a pass-through to do your A/D conversion is a good one because then in the future all your NEW footage will already be digital- but it's not manadory. You could buy a Canopus, etc. box if you want. I think the latest Screenblast will actually do your basic DVD authoring as well, but I'm not sure of it's limits and / or flexibility.

[vwcrusher]

Thanks for the replies,

I am not quite sure why this thread was moved to the Mac forum, but at any rate I do appreciate your suggestions.

I do not do much taping anymore, as my kids are all grown, so that solution is not as attractive. The PC came with the ability to capture directly to MPEG2, but I am questioning whether I should capture to .avi thru a purchased device, thereby acquiring the ability to use Screenblast MS to perform the 'slicker' edits, transitions, etc.

The only question is whether the outgoing quality will be better, the same, or worse than if I continue to capture to MPEG, edit the MPEG file and burn with TMPGenc.

Thanks again[/code]

[galactica]

I am moving this to the CAPTURE forum, as it seems you got your fix of the info avaliable from the MAC FORUM