Jim,
If you do end up shopping for a digital video camera for use with your PC, I'd suggest:
1) Make sure your computer has an IEEE 1394 (Firewire) port
2) Make sure the camera has the same connector
This should make video transfer/capture much easier than a USB-based system.
Also, if you plan on doing a lot of video capture stuff on your computer, it'd be best to invest in another hard drive (internal or external) or some sort of removable storage.
Cthulhu