[rescue] Video encoding

[rescue at sunhelp.org]

I know that this is really dangerous, but I have a pretty open-ended
question...

I have tons of old video tapes that I am converting to mpeg and burning in VCD
format.  My son's 14 and he's just discovered all the old Dr. Who's and Blake
7s that I recorded 16-20 years ago during high school.  The tapes are really
starting to degrade.

The question is what is a good system for doing this?  I'm currently using my
"pee-cee", but I would still like to play games, and such during the encoding
process.

Is a SGI O2 the way to go, or should I save up a little more and go with an
Octane?  I'd really like something that I can get on the cheap.

Thanks

Seth