hardware, peripherals, and distro suggestions

Hello to all.

I am well versed in Windows and am planning to migrate to Linux before the end of this month or so. I would like to get suggestions from anyone regarding the hardware, etc. to use for video capturing my children's home movies (on VHS) and editing them, finally burning to a DVD as presents for relatives.

Right now, the hardware I have already for this box are:
AMD Athlon 64 2800+
ECS Mobo
512MB DDR (2x256)
Pinnacle PCI capture card (firewire and RCA inputs) from their Studio AV/DV combo package
120GB, 8MB cache SATA HDD
8X DVD Burner

I would like suggestions for other pieces of hardware and which distro to use. Also, is there an application easily installed like an rpm that can use my Pinnacle Capture card to capture, edit, then burn to DVD videos. I don't really want to spend anymore money than I have to. Distro's I have a bit of experience with are: Mandriva 10.1, Fedora Core 3, and CentOS 4. Althought I installed, tried, re-installed another distro to just have a good feel of those distros, I did use it each distro for a week or so to kind of get the hang of things.

Your suggestions will be appreciated.

Tony :D
Linux Newbie

Well did the distro you tried work or what? Just for a week is not enough time to get your feet wet. Have you check with Pinnacle to see what support they have under Linux? Have you tried any of the live distro? Did you try any of the video/ DVD burning stuff? :?

Zeeone,

Of the distros I tried, Mandrake 10.1 seems the best-SO FAR. I have tried Fedora Core 3, but did not like the extra hoops I had to go through to play my MP3's. Same with CentOS. They will the distros I use for my file server. I did not see Kino or any other video capturing software on Mandrake 10.1.

I did go to Pinnacle's site and found no software nor support for Linux ( :shock: ). I have not installed the PCI card into my Linux box yet. It still on my Windows PC.

I have read about Kino, but it seems to only be video from a camcorder. I am looking for something that I can hook up my VCR, capture, edit, and burn to a cd/dvd.

I love K3b, it certainly looks like it will give Nero a serious run for the money.

Any suggestions. I will be giving Suse 9.2 a try this weekend. Also, I just got the iso's for Mandrake's LE 2005 (10.2), so will give that a whirl as well.

Ideas? Suggestions? Thought? 2 cents?

Thanks.

The greatest thing about Linux is, choice. There is no, "which is the best disto", it is "which distro is your choice". You will, as well as all of us have done, try this distro and that distro until you find the one that is just right. You will find the learning curve in some areas of Linux to be steep and trying, but stick with it and you will learn more about what YOUR computer and you can do.

I am not well versed in the video capturing area of Linux. I do know that it can and is being done in the Linux world. You may want to use www.google/linux as the search engine of chioce for more info on that. And of course this forum is also very handy and full of smart helpful folks.

So welcome to the forum and the wonderful world of Linux (and BSD too), and enjoy finding that distro of your choice. :wink: