I want to transfer my home movies to DVD. I'm thinking of buying a standalone recorder (e.g., Panasonic, Philips), transferring the VHS-C tapes to DVD, then copying the files to my computer, so I can edit them and recreate the DVDs from there. I don't have a digital camcorder, which I understand would allow me to do this as well. Is my plan feasible or am I missing something?

Is there a better forum for me to post my question or is this the right place?

You should be able to do what you have described. I don't have a lot of info in this area, but it seems feasible

You can I think if you get an HS2 with the hard drive built in. I am not 100% postitive abotu that though. You might want to go to www.avsforum.com and check out the dvd hardware forum and ask your question there.

typical of any DVD, the files are in VOB format, you would need to rip those out to some other format and then re author.

There are VOB utils that allow you to chop and join, but youd still need to author them and I'm not sure you can author VOB files themselves, most packages only work with mpegs.

hope this helps
Andy

Been doing exactly this for about 3 months now.
My setup is :
Panasonic EM30 DVDRAM/DVD-R recorder
and
PC with DVDRAM/DVD-R Drive (or DVD-ROM Drive that will read RAM Discs)

Record to RAM and then just pop the disc into your PC. The Video file can be dragged across to the PC and renamed *.mpg and most decent Video Edit softwares will let you mess about with it to your hearts content. Author and then burn to DVD-R or use your TVOUT to transfere to Video or the standalone recorder.

Any more help just let me know.