I've always liked Sony's Vegas. They have a slimmed down version (~$90) which is probably all you'll need. It runs great on any old computer, makes full use of multi cores, has a very shallow learning curve, and works fine with Vista. http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=204775878&listingid=19307854&dcaid=17902
PS If you have a lot of family videos it will be LOTS easier to just get a standalone DVD recorder. Otherwise you may have to first record them to your camcorder, then capture them. Expect them to look terrible compared to your digital video. On Sun, Jul 6, 2008 at 8:43 AM, Daniel Else <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > My wife and I are planning to purchase a new laptop and need recommendations > on the most cost-effective hardware/software combination. I welcome input > from anyone with relevant experience. By the way, this list has yet to steer > me wrong with the many pleas I've posted in the past. Congratulations! > > One of the principal tasks for the system will be to download and manipulate > digital videos shot with a Sony digital videocam. We won't need much > sophistication in the video manipulation - probably not much more than the > ability to edit for length, cutting and pasting an hour or two of video into > 20 - 30 minute packages that will then be burned to a DVD. A secondary task > will be to take all of those family VHS tapes and load them onto DVDs for > archiving and copying for family. ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
