So - after a few months of entering the HD playground and many attempts at loading demo's of software etc. I finally opted to purchase a couple of software packages for the basic home editing of my HD. Nice and cheap and very effective.
So, I have an X900 and all of my footage is shot in Full 50p since storage space and archiving is not an issue for me and is my personal choice. I do some slow motion edits so this helps.
All basic editing is done in Sony Vegas HD Platinum suite which seems adequate for my general editing. Not looked at the supplied tutorial DVD as it all seems quite logically laid out and I've used similar editing software in the past. Now one piece of software I've never heard mentioned here in the forums may be of interest to people and so I wanted to let you know some of the features I use form that - Nero 11Platinum HD. Whilst is has many editing features and cd/dvd/br support the section of software I use is the videoStudio11 part. Once the editing is completed in Vegas, I load it up into Nero where I am able to use any of the many (and I mean loads) of authoring menu templates to produce a nice menu system for viewing on DVD. There are quite some 2D, animated 2D and many fancy 3D templates available and they also offer some customisation. Also thought I'd mention - there is an AVCHD to DVD output option to finalize to a regular DVD disc. (I heard Sony removed that functionality from thier lastest software).
Mostly in Nero I am making "Editable DVD's" which is a nice option - Using a DVD+RW you can add more movies to the DVD (and append the menu system) as and when you want to. Its a real good feature and simple to use / apply. Once you've filled a DVD you can just copy it to a regular DVD. So, Vegas for editing and Nero11 for final authoring.
Before anyone jumps in - I'm just using DVD and so I know it'll not be 50p but I also have all the 50p edits saved on NAS as masters for in-house streaming to TV and for backups.
So - if anyone is looking for nice fancy menu's for thier DVD's then take a look at Nero11. I bought the whole suite to get all the templates etc. but I think you can get just the VideoStudio side of things as a single install.
So, I have an X900 and all of my footage is shot in Full 50p since storage space and archiving is not an issue for me and is my personal choice. I do some slow motion edits so this helps.
All basic editing is done in Sony Vegas HD Platinum suite which seems adequate for my general editing. Not looked at the supplied tutorial DVD as it all seems quite logically laid out and I've used similar editing software in the past. Now one piece of software I've never heard mentioned here in the forums may be of interest to people and so I wanted to let you know some of the features I use form that - Nero 11Platinum HD. Whilst is has many editing features and cd/dvd/br support the section of software I use is the videoStudio11 part. Once the editing is completed in Vegas, I load it up into Nero where I am able to use any of the many (and I mean loads) of authoring menu templates to produce a nice menu system for viewing on DVD. There are quite some 2D, animated 2D and many fancy 3D templates available and they also offer some customisation. Also thought I'd mention - there is an AVCHD to DVD output option to finalize to a regular DVD disc. (I heard Sony removed that functionality from thier lastest software).
Mostly in Nero I am making "Editable DVD's" which is a nice option - Using a DVD+RW you can add more movies to the DVD (and append the menu system) as and when you want to. Its a real good feature and simple to use / apply. Once you've filled a DVD you can just copy it to a regular DVD. So, Vegas for editing and Nero11 for final authoring.
Before anyone jumps in - I'm just using DVD and so I know it'll not be 50p but I also have all the 50p edits saved on NAS as masters for in-house streaming to TV and for backups.
So - if anyone is looking for nice fancy menu's for thier DVD's then take a look at Nero11. I bought the whole suite to get all the templates etc. but I think you can get just the VideoStudio side of things as a single install.