if you don't have a dvd writer, you'll need to burn to vcd, svcd or xvid. PLEASE don't record back to any analogue media. it's a nightmare.

the bouncing business was more for TheCause, you don't want to be spending that kind of money at the mo

512 would do you for now, yeah. it'll be a bit slower, but quite a bit cheaper.

firewire would be to get video in off a dvcam. i really would go for internal hard drives unless you plan to be taking it about with you.