head's swimming - want to convert hi8 movies to dvds

I'd like to convert my Hi-8 and VHS home movies (some being quite old) to DVDs, so it appears I need to find out more about what encoders are "best" (I realize that's subjective). I own Nero Studio 6, and downloaded the trial versions of CCE (too short, limits me to three minutes) and TmpGeng. I've made a few short attempts, but I'd like to get a full-blown encoder now. My friend likes CCE, because he says it's so much faster (he lives in another town, so I haven't gotten to see his results). I've read that TmpGenc's CQ can be fast, but I've also heard it's no longer an option on the newer versions of TmpGenc. I've never seen TmpGenc 3.0 Express, but I might download its trial - it claims to be fast as well. I'm sure there are other encoders as well. I'd like to get just one, staying under $100 (preferably around $40-60), which will give good consistent quality, and not take forever doing it. FWIW, I have an XP 2400+, large hard drive, and a Radeon 9800 Pro.

as far as i know, video card specs dont have anything to do with encoding. anyhow, i have been playing around with NuEnc and QuEnc for weeks now, and they seem to be pretty good. they are free so they are worth a shot (in my book) and can be as slow or as fast as you want really... depends on the settings. i guess this is true for any encoder really though. they might not be as easy to use as the others, given the interfaces, technicality of options, etc, but if you have questions, the people on this board are always more than willing to help it would seem.

Thanks! I hadn't even heard of those until finding this forum. Nero came with "Recode" but it seems to be strictly for copying dvd to dvd, not what I need. I'll try those you recommended - thanks again!

well i am assuming you have some knowledge of actually recording the tapes in question to your computer. you will need some sort of video capture card (and possibly some other equipment?) you might need to educate yourself on avisynth scripting as well. then find some tool for authoring dvds if you want menus and such. not sure if you have any... that nero thing probably has it. (studio 6?) as of right now i am on a sort of personal vendetta to author a dvd using solely freeware tools. for that i am using GIMP to make the menus, NuEnc or QuEnc to encode the video files, TooLame to encode the audio tracks, and dvdauthorgui to author the dvd. i might make some sort of guide once it all comes to fruition, but that would have to wait until i get some decent amount of free time, and also clear some other stuff off of my ever enlarging to-do list.

Yeah, Nero 6 will let me author the dvd's, though I don't know how good it is. That's really the only reason I bought it (when Fry's had a sale and rebate on it). I wish I'd known about other options then, because its encoder is slooow, and I don't use any of its other programs. I have tons of home movies on vhs and hi-8, from back in the 80's until now, so this is going to take a while. And a lot of disk space. Oh, as for capturing, I now have a digital hi8 camera, and I connect it to my PC via firewire, and I do use Nero for capturing that (I forgot, another reason I bought Nero).

in my experience, nero products are very good at what they do. they have some smart people working for them, even if their programs seem a bit bloated.