Lost in shipping confusion - (although upgrade helped)

I'm throwing n the towel on shipping! :frusty:
The upgrade was wonderful and now the rates are matching both domestic and international. But the new shipping categories seem more confusing than ever. And the choices aren't exactly the same on the zencart module as I'm finding on the USPS rate charts.
I just can't figure it out. I don't even know what to search for since I'm not sure how to configure what I want!

Could someone be so kind as to steer me in the right direction? I'd like to charge customers as "true" a shipping cost as possible.

I'll need both International rates and Domestic rates.
Items shipped will be band merchandise (think music cd's, shirts, hats, mousepads, photos). I'm using large polymailers for the products except for cd's sent alone which will be in bubble lined square envelopes (media mail).

If I understand Int'l rates correctly, these items would be First Class Package up to 1 lb and automatically Priority for orders over 1 lb.
I was trying to find a generalized int'l rate chart to see the difference between First Class and Priority. If there's not much of a difference then I'd just send everything int'l by Priority Package to make things easier. But now is First Class Int'l in Zencart the same as First Class Int'l package?

Now for Domestic.....
1-3 cd's would be Media Mail rate. Although I was willing to just charge First Class Package rate for everything to make it easier since there wasn't much of a $ difference. But Zencart only has First Class not First Class Package which is a different rate.

According to the new rates after 1 lb it jumps to Priority which is quite a bit more expensive (If I configured everything for this shipping method I'd be charging $4.60 to send one cd which should be $1.65). That's a big jump in price to be charging customers. Most orders will be less than a pound but a couple shirts and a mousepad sends it over 1 pound easy and we don't want to lose money either.

Do I do table rates for this? Table rates according to weight? Are there laid out directions as to how to set this up? I couldn't seem to find one. Will l need different zones too? Int'l and Domestic?

I'm not quite grasping the table rate concept but am I on the right track? Here's how I was thinking it works.

Configure 2 different Table rates (but if Zencart had First Class Package it would be 3 choices)-
Table rate #1. Three unique weights for the cd's (weight of 1, 2, and 3 cd's) all configured as Media Mail
Table rate #2. Everything else over 1 pound configured for Priority

But now where does the difference of Domestic and International come in? Do I have to add zones to all this?
Don't even know where to start!