Best but cheapest video editing software.

And see what you get with their machines. Very nice.

Bob

My suggestion is to try Scenalyzer. $34 at Scenalyzer.com. Will capture your video with sync lock and offers a simple editing program.
For basic editing with good results you can also use Windows Movie Maker (included with XP & Vista).
Another inexpensive (under $100) program is Pinnacle Studio. Fairly sophisticated program for novices.
Good Luck

Hi ,
You already have a computer! You don't say, I assume you will have windows, if so,and if it is only a few years old Operating system, you will have Microsoft Movie Maker software.
I would try that for free and get some experience before spending more on editing software or a computer.I bet it will do the trick.
Shafiq

I also recommend Windows Movie Maker as the cheapest way to go. If you have a Windows Media Center computer and a USB output from your camera, you can just connect, capture and edit with the program on your computer.

After that, the cheapest and program is the one that works the way you think (works logically for you. That makes it easiest to use.

Almost all of the companies who make this type of software have trial software for downloading. The cheapest and best is the one that works the way you think. That makes it easiest to use. Many programs can give basic video editing but will allow you to do more fancy things if you want to. The majors in this market is Pinnacle (Studio), Ahead (Nero, Ulead and Cyberlink. I have tried all of those but found that Roxio's Easy Media Creator works the best for me. EMC is a suite of programs that also gives a lot of other functions like audio/storage/back up, etc. They also have Stand alone versions of Video Wave and MyDVD that you can look at.

The trick is to get the videos onto your computer. If you have a digital video camera, then it is pretty easy. If it is not digital, you'll need to get an A/D converter. Some are internal cards or you can get a USB device for the video capture and converting. Most of these A/D converters come with a program.

I prefer Premiere Pro which I've been using since the first version, but the new version (CS3)is great. The bad part is it is relatively expensive unless you are upgrading. Premiere Pro CS3 also comes with Encore (for authoring DVDs, Blue-Ray discs, and exports to Flash), and OnLocation which allows you to connect to a laptop on location and operate camera(s) and other fine-tune your video.

There's also Premiere Essentials which is about $100 (full version) and $80 (upgrade). You can even upgrade from it to the Pro version.

I've used an older version of Final Cut Pro for the Mac (Version 3) which combined many of the features of Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects which was nice, but the Mac hated my $2000+ camcorder.

There are many others that are probably cheaper or even free. If you are only doing non-professional output, you may be able to find something for a lot less, but Adobe products, in my opinion, are fairly easy to learn and give you top-quality output.