I currently have pinnacle studio ver 9.4.3 SE, but its seems to take forever to convert vid to dvd, doesn't like my second HD and so on. Next income tax season I plan on buying a video card for capturing from analog sources (hi-8 camcorder, vhs, etc), probably a gb of RAM and maybe better video editing software.

What video capturing/editing software would you recommend for a novice. Want something that is easy to use, yet powerful. Can create custom titles, effects, transitions, dvd menus, etc. Can capture from analog sources and from a mini dv camcorder (firewire). And for $100 or less (if possible). This will be just for home videos, weddings, transfering VHS to DVD and such. Or will the pinnacle software I have suite my needs? I like how easy it is to use, just wish it would capture to my 2nd HD (something about the data rate) and would work right for once. thanx

Pinnacle Liquid is good but abit more expensive.

If yoou get the breakout box you can capture from DV and any other source such as composite, component, and s-video.

Its power depends on your computer and your graphics card so you dont need any other third-party hardware devices to make it do stuff in realtime.

For titles it uses titlew deko although you could import titles from any other title program as long as it was maybe a JPEG or TIFF file.

The DVD side of things is not bad and allows you to make menus etc pretty easily, Although with most editing programs it still takes time to produce your final product!

If you are just copying to DVD from VHS and not editing the material than you'd be better using a DVD recorder.

Nick

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Full Specs: 3.2 Pentium 4 Processor, 1Gb RAM 80Gb Root Drive, 120Gb Video Drive + another 160Gb external, Adobe Premiere Pro, Pinnacle liquid edition pro, ati radion 256mb