I'm in the market for a new laptop computer - and have my eye on a macbook pro...

I currently use my pc with ulead studio10.... but want to switch to doing that on the macbook.


My camera is an analog Sony TRV-66 - Hi-8 XR.

If I am correct - my options for importing movies into the mac would be:

1) Capture on the pc and transfer to mac via firewire 400 (um possible - but why?)
I'm not sure why - I've read that the data size is approx 13GB per hour - but mine have been about 1GB - quality on an old TV looks ok - I'm guessing it must be Mpeg that compresses it - vs an uncompressed avi format - which I'n not sure the avi would work well with mac ...)


2) External capture device for mac (suggestions appreciated here - even with the macs speed I would guess a dedicated encoder would remove overhead)

3) Perhaps - if the $ has to be spent for an external capture device - a new camcorder that can accept s-video (as well as composite) input - could then export/convert/encode the analog signal to something the mac could use via firewire.

So... what ideas/recommendations/views do you have?

I appreciate any and all ideas.

--ps - 1st posting - have read and gleaned much -- and refer those who have questions to check this site it - great site.--