I've been using Ulead to edit video - its fabulous. Very easy to learn, so now editing home video is a cinch.

So the problem is I've been using my friend's Mini DV camera, but I have an 8MM Samsung camera. Its a great camera, but its not digital, so I need a converter to put videos on my hard drive for editing in Ulead. I tried to use a friend's video card but 2 hours of tape took up about 150 Gigabytes of hard drive space! So my first question is will a converter shrink the video down more than this? My friend's DV camera usually captures to the hard drive at about 15 Gigs per hour of tape, so something doesn't seem right with my conversion rate.

I've been looking at the Plextor PX-AV100U ... seems like the best value for the buck, and I have the right processor to handle it. Does anybody know if this is a good product?

Also, what is so much better about the next model up, PX-M402U, that makes it $100 more?

Thanks for your help! (much appreciated from a video editing novice)