Away from PPro editing for six years - looking for advice

Hi there. I've been away from shooting/editing for six years and at that time was shooting on mini-dv tape, then capturing into PPro 1.5 and using the footage along with other assets to create edited pieces authored to DVD and compressed for online segments (i.e. not broadcast).

I'm looking to return to creating similar pieces with perhaps a DSLR video cam and with similar endpoints (DVD and online segments). The computer I used before was a PC running on XP Pro. I know I'd need to update, but am wondering a) what specs would I need to have on my machine in terms of OS, processor, memory, vid/sound cards, etc for everything to run smoothly?; and b) how steep is the learning curve from PPro 1.5 to CS6, and for tape capture to using HDM1 cards?; c)any thoughts on using the Adobe Cloud for monthly fee versus buying the software?; and d) any suggestions for an easy to use DVD authoring app? The Adobe one seemed cumbersome at the time and I just used ULead's DVD Workshop 2 because it was simple and served my purposes just fine.

I've been away from the process for a long time and was not the most sophisticated user to begin with. I've not kept up with this world I loved and left, so would be very appreciative of feedback from the Creative Cow community on these questions to help me jump back in. Thanks so much!