[Fodda]

Hello all

I'm new to this camcorder malarky. Had a Mini-DV Sony last year for holiday but Vista wouldn't recognise it so couldn't get video into the PC.

Now I have a nice HD Panasonic SD20 and the PC actually sees it nicely.

What I'm after is a good editting suite that's easy ish to use for a novice. I'd like to edit footage, move stuff around a bit, maybe add or mix a soundtrack (commentary, music etc) use fades, add titles or on screen text and stills fvrom my digital camera... And maybe later get even more adventurous.

I'd like the finished article to be in the native 1080i and 5.1 sound resolution, and also be able to output to SD and stereo for giving stuff to my parents...

Any suggestions welcome. And the cheaper the better, but if quality comes at a price, then so-be-it.

Tried Windows movie maker? That what I used first to get used to time lines and all that.

Sony Vegas is good, platinum edition can be picked up from under £60.
Also got Pinnacle studio Ultimate 12 which you can get for under £50.

wait a wee while and some real experts from here will recommend good software, theses are just my views.

[Fodda]

My mate uses Vegas as a work tool. Hadn't realised it was under £100! I was expecting prices of £200 or more, but £50-£60 is definitely doable for a good software suite.

LOL... See I told you I was a n00b!

Sony Vegas Pro cost alot, hundreds of pounds. but for home editing the plantinum version will be more than adequate.

[Waveform]

Over the last few weeks I've been trying all the recent product demo's with some footage from my Panny SD5, I gave up on direct avchd editing last year and went back to mpeg2 as everything I tried was unstable and slow.

I went for Sony Vegas Movie Studio in the end although Adobe Premiere Elements 7 was a very close second (didn't seem quite as quick rendering the final output).

There's a good deal on the Movie Pro version (if you have Student/Teacher in the household) for £59 on Amazon otherwise its £78 vs the Platinum at £57. The Pro version adds more visual effects, Sound Forge Audio Studio for better sound editing and Cinescore Studio for royalty free soundtrack creation.

If you have the time I would download the demo's of Premiere Elements and Vegas Movie Studio to see which interface you prefer.

I found Pinnacle Studio 12 to be fairly similar to my experience with last years version, buggy, prone to crashes and slower than the competition, of course YMMV - still its a bargain at £48 for the Ultimate version if you don't mind the hassle/thrill of wondering whether it will finish the render without crashing...

[timcs]

I have only ever used TMPGenc DVD author 3 for dvd and divx authoring and this didn't cost much - Also found it easy to use and fast

[Fodda]

Thanks all, but especially Waveform. Mrs F is indeed a teacher, so I'll have a look at Movie Pro, I've used Soundforge for years so know that very well. Plus my mate who uses Vegas at work, can give me some pointers when I invariably get stuck.

Cheers, I'll have a go with all the demos and see which fits the bill first though... Vegas has a bit of a head start.