[xmacx]

hello all - I have my wedding video on VHS and mini DV and partially done in a crappy way on DVD. I would like to do following -

1. download the video and audio on my powerbook
2. edit it
3. add more music to it
4. add chapters and chapter links to it
5. add text to it
6. finally burn it on a DVD to watch it with any DVD player and pass it along within my family

I would like to know what are my options and what do I need in terms of hardware (cables, etc) and software applications. it needs to be cost effective but I would like to know my options besides just being cheap and poor quality.

Thanks!

[BRussell]

You didn't say whether you already have a computer, but any Mac with a DVD burner would do the trick. Macs come with iMovie and iDVD, which, if you haven't used them before, do great things with home movies. You'd also need a digital camcorder, which I assume you have if you have your movies on DV, to transfer the movies via firewire to the Mac. You may also need a firewire cable, but I believe most camcorders come with the right cable (mine did anyway), and would only be a few bucks at an electronics store if you don't have it.

To get VHS into the Mac, what I've always done is just record the TV to the digital camcorder and then transfer that to the computer, but there are dedicated devices that do that sort of thing if you do it a lot.