All,

I appreciate all the comments and suggestions. As I mentioned earlier, my goal is to convert analog tapes with a maximum of quality, perhaps sacrificing slick-ness.

It seems that capturing in MPEG2 is acceptable (the Sony PC comes with capture hardware and an application that allows three levels of quality), but I give up the ability to go beyond simple cutting for editing (using TMPGenc Author).

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?

Again thanks for all the help