Advice sought for analogue video editing

[csl62]

My Dad has a lot of analogue video footage on VHS-C tape. He wants to transfer this to DVD, and also would like the capability to edit the footage.

He bought a "Dazzle" video capture system which was connected to the USB port of a laptop. The end results were poor. There was a significant amount of video quality degradation, and I think he also got some sound syncing problems. I'm not sure what part of the video capture process caused these problems, but I think the laptop was not a particularly quick system.

So I recommended getting a new desktop PC system, but I'm unsure as to the required spec. The system he's been considering has a 2.8GHz processor, with a 320GB SATA 2 HDD.
I'm not sure of what video capture device to recommend. Any suggestions, or comments generally about the best way of doing this?

Thanks.
Andrew.

[redsox_mark]

Quality wise, a device which captures to DV is your best bet. Either a camcorder with AV-in, or a device like this
http://www.dv247.com/invt/23453

[senu]

Originally Posted by redsox_mark

Quality wise, a device which captures to DV is your best bet. Either a camcorder with AV-in, or a device like this
http://www.dv247.com/invt/23453

To elaborate on the former, a DV (digital) camcorder with AV in will allow you transfer the VHS-C material first to Dv tape and then onto PC via Firewire.

Some MiniDV camcorders with AV in also have a feature called "pass through".
This means you connect the VHS-C to it via the analogue end and simultaneously connect it out to a PC via firewire.
In doing this,the camcorder digitises the analogue footage and sends it onto the PC " on the fly". These methods, or the use of a robust analogue to digital video converter such as the linked ADVC devices are most likely to Minimise any PQ loss and also minimise the risk of audio out of synch problems

PS: the audio out of synch can happen on a fast system as well from analogue material