i was used to save videos from my Sony DCR-TRV120E Pal Camcorder to the computer in mpg format via Dazzle* Digital Video Creator (US$199). i was able to hold one full 8mm cassette to one VCD so i was fulfilled how the things went. today i tried capturing video using the moviemaker 2 and i was so impressed to see some very useful automated features in moviemaker 2. these features were not avaiable in MovieStar (the program which comes bundled with the Dazzle* Digital Video Creator).
moviemaker 2 can automatically determine the best capturing configuration for my computer. the help describes it better.
Best quality for playback on my computer (recommended)
Specifies that you want to capture video at the recommended video setting. This video setting encodes the captured video at a higher quality setting. The specific capture profile that is detected and used by Windows Movie Maker for this video setting depends on the selected capture device and the audio and video it can output to the computer, as well as the processor speed of your computer.
This setting is well-suited for a majority of the video you capture in Windows Movie Maker and plan to edit in Windows Movie Maker, and then plan to save to your computer, to a recordable CD, as an attachment to an e-mail message, or to the Web using the Save Movie Wizard.
according to my computer's performance, the audio configuration is wma9 vbr 75% and the video configuration is wmv9 768kbps. trust me it is better than mpg vcd quality and half the size. one hour of video is only 275mb. so one 650mb could hold 2.5hr video! but my cassettes are 60, 90m, 120m so it is more than enough.
what really surprised me was moviemaker could also control my camcorder! it can rewind the cassette. fast forward/rewind/play/pause/stop everything.
i got no probs if i wanna create a vcd someday. when burning vcds in nero it re-encodes to mpg vcd format. so i am pretty much satisfied with the way i am sticked to now. there may be advantages/disadvantages regarding this method. any comments are welcome.
useful links:
http://www.dvdrhelp.com
http://www.tmpgenc.net
p.s. didn't know where to post this, to share my feelings with my BetaONE friends.
~*McoreD*~ 
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