Hi,

I am new to this game but want to get the best.

I want to transfer my films onto DVD. I have a Sony DCR PC115E (PAL vesrion), which came with the MGI 4 software. I can capture my films onto my P4 2.4Ghz in no time through my firewire card. This works great. Like many other people, the resulting AVI video on my flat panel does not look great but it probably comes from the progressive rather than interlaced feature of the screen. It got me worried first. The editing function is working OK. The scene detection worked fine. I even managed to mix some audio (by the way, MGI is great to capturing audio CDs when no other software handy). I managed to convert to MPEG-2 as I eventually want to burn it onto DVD-R to read on my Malata N996. I intend to go for the Pioneer A04. The conversion process is fairly fast: approximately 15 minutes of conversion for 5 minutes of film. I am working in PAL through the whole process since my player can play it on my NTSC TV. The result played onto my computer with power DVD does not look great: picture are not fine/clear quality as I would expect for 530 horizontal lines of definition on the camcorder.
Questions:
1. Will the be the same once I have burnt it on a DVD to play on my standalone player ?
2. is MGI as bad as what I have read on other forums and what software would you suggest for capturing, editing, converting and eventually burning.
3. Any other useful tips / suggestions ?

Thanks.