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)

Check this review for an another alternative. Choice is there to be had.
http://www.videoforums.co.uk/guide-A...-Review-68.htm

__________________
www.playpauseclick.com

Does anybody know if these boxes are available in the UK or anywhere that they are available to get into England?

Just google. There's lots of suppliers here in the UK. I can't remember where I bought my ADVC100 from, too long ago, sorry.

__________________
www.playpauseclick.com

Jessops still do the DAC100 for 130 quid but I have never used it so I can't say what it's like. And I do recall some users of this forum saying it was a bit on the dodgy side. They also have the Pinnacle 500 PCI for 70 quid and it includes composite, s-video and firewire inputs and outputs. Then there is the Pinnacle 500 USB, basically the same thing but in an external box that plugs into a spare USB port for 90 quid, it looks like it's got audio left and right on it aswell. Both of them come with Pinnacle Studio 10 software.

__________________
Better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick any day...

I use a VHS player through a conexant 2388X and get about 5.2 gigs for an hour and a half movie. It is still too big for a single side DVD but there's substantially less to edit out to make it fit. Quality is fair, id' be interested in improving that aspect.

During the creation of the dvd the 5.2GB's is compressed down to fit onto a recordable dvd disc.

__________________
Better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick any day...

I do these on nero because I have no need to do extensive editing, just a fast and simple transfer. These are very old movies, some dating back to the 40s. After the capture NERO asks if I want the quality rediced to fit the DVD and I click YES. A few moments later NERO puts up a message "can't compress file sufficiently to fit available media" and suggests I edit out parts. When doing a DVD copy I use DVD decrypt and DVD shrink. Shrink does compress sufficiently but I haven't been able to use it with my old analog captured films, just with digitized versions. Quality here is excellent.