I'll just get this out of the way:

Windows XP SP2 (Fully Updated)
PIV 2.4 w/ HT
640MB RAM
250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache HD
Intel® 82865G Graphics Controller (96 MB DVMT)

This program is a joke. I just went back to Windows Movie Maker. Once I import my captured DV videos and try to work with a project, VideoWave just goes into this hard drive reading frenzy. It takes a good 5 to 10 minutes for the program to stop reading the hard drive and come back to life. What a rip. Roxio has some serious issues with this software. I know what they will do. They will fix it in version 9 and expect us to pay for it again! After reading this forum, I am surprised they have not offered a patch for this (or even a replacement) piece of EMC 8.

Roxio, if you're reading this, perhaps you will take note to all of the dissatisfaction to VideoWave 8. For now, i am forced to go back to my FREE Windows Movie Maker, which BTW, does a pretty #$^@ good job. At least it works.

First, if you had taken the time to read through the forum, the 'hard drive frenzy' is only temporary and has nothing to do with Videowave. It's part of Media Manager and can be turned off (watched folders).

You're computer meets the requirements for EMC. However, your video chipset does NOT fully support DirectX. To take full advantage of what Videowave and MyDVD has to offer, you should consider a real video card with dedicated memory and it doesn't have to be expensive either.

Thanks for the tip. I spent some time looking through the forum (as well as Google results and product reviews). I really hope the watched folder setting helps. I'd really like to try VideoWave out. I know I am at a slight disadvantage with the integrated controller, but a test drive of VideoWave is my first goal. If I don't see an advantage over Movie Maker, I will just continue to use it. All I do is make DVDs from my mini DV cam. For that, so far, Movie Maker has worked so well.

Well did not help at all. Same thing happens. In fact, I am sitting here waiting for my End Task command to go through. Well, it is a shame. Thanks for the tip though. And from the time I did take reading through the forum, I see other people have problems with the program displaying such problems as locking up etc. Perhaps they are having the same issue.

If you have any other suggestions, I'd be more than grateful. I really wanted to give it a shot.

Did you capture from the miniDV camcorder using MPEG or DV AVI? It is NOT recommended to edit MPEG files. Even on my new 3Ghz dual core processor, editing MPEGs is slow. Why? They are compressed and must be 'uncompressed' before editing. I think Videowave does this on the fly. Adobe's Premiere Elements 2 actually converts the file to AVI to a temp directory BEFORE it will even display a preview. The point - don't edit MPEG. It's a hassle.