My dad just bought a G5 for video editing (got a great deal on eBay) and was wondering if there are any (relatively cheap) video capture options to use. He's no pro, so he'll be needing things like RCA jacks to pull from a VCR, etc. We're probably looking for something no more than $200. It can be PCI-X, Firewire, USB, etc.

My quick Google only revealed Avid, Blackmagic, Aja as options. Any ideas?

so your looking for a program??? if so id probably go for iMovie. and what camera are you going to be using because on most cameras theres always a usb or firewire cable.
-Korki-

Well, I'm actually looking for the hardware - something that has RCA, etc. I ended up buying a firewire capture box from TigerDirect yesterday - I'll post here about how it works out.

if you have a minidv camera, most of them will work as digital convertors as well.
there is usually a setting in the camera menu telling it to use the video output as video in.
i use my sony minidv camera to capture vhs.
vhs-minidv camera-firewire to computer.
minidv cameras are getting much cheaper, if your going to spend more than $100 on a capture box, you may as well spend the extra and get something that you can use as both a camera and a capture box.

theres a device for like 200 dollars that attaches to the firewire port and have ins an outs digital and analogue

i will look for it

The Canopus 110 Firewire is 219 at Newegg.

A MiniDV Camcorder with decent quality and the correct ports would probably be ~$50-$100 more, just make sure the A/V cables can be used as inputs also.

a lot of the cannon ZRxx series have pass-through so they can be used as converters and then shoot DV if you want. I have used a ZR40 and ZR70mc as pass-through

Hello, I Have in the office a BlackMagic Desing Decklink and is too expensive($1000), well some day I found my old Pinnacle Deluxe Movie Box Firewire ($200) and I can capture under FCP with the G5 quad and my Macbook pro without a problem, just select on the capture settings "Non controlable device" option because the device (VHS or anaolg input) isn't controlable by FCP software like the DV devices are.