I've been fiddling with my sony DVD camcorder for WEEKS and have FINALLY figured out how to get the video clips onto the computer, convert them to a usable format, and chop them up into clips. The conversion process took FOREVER because I didn't want to pay for software so I had to try out a dozen different freewares to find one that worked properly.
If anyone would like to know how this works just let me know I'm feeling rather good about myself for figuring it out