DVD Camcorder Movie Software? Few Responses

I posted the following in 2 other CNet forums, with little response. Maybe the post is too darn long and involved, so don't read beyond this if you don't have the time... I just want to know what software is best for capturing/copying video from my Sony DCR-DVD505 camcorder (Vegas +DVD won't retain the Dolby 5.1 audio).

Which Movie Software?
by haf canadian - 7/23/07 1:40 PM

Copied from Audio and Video Forum, and Multimedia Forum:

Movie Software
by haf canadian - 7/21/07 4:13 PM

My I/OMagic DVD Lightscribe burner wouldn't etch images to the LightScribe disc face, so I returned it and got an HP LightScribe one after several weeks of exchanging emails with techs trying to fix the I/OMagic. The I/OMagic came with Nero trial software that upgraded to Nero 7 while I had it. When I installed the HP, I tried using the Nero 7 to etch LightScribe label images, and it still didn't work. I installed only the "SureThing" LightScribing part off the Nero OEM disc that came with the HP; the SureThing software did etch an image to a disc, so the original glitch must have been in Nero's Cover Designer label making software.

Now I want to compile and edit the videos I shot to DVD-RW minidiscs with our new Sony DCR-DVD 505 camcorder. I managed to muddle through one minidisc transfer before the Nero trial expired (30 days), but now without the paid-for version, it won't let me move videos into its nerovision 4 movie maker. It won't capture video if I plug the camcorder into the USB computer port, and it won't access video if I put the minidisc directly in the computer's DVD-Rom either. The whole thing was supposed to be easy, but it's a pain. Nero's tech support was several days in responding to each of my emails re. the LightScribe problem, and that helped take up 3/4 of the 30 day trial!

I reckon I can dump the Nero 7, and load the Nero OEM disc (Nero Express 6.6, etc.) and start all over, but my experience with the Nero so far is that it appears to be a pretty bloated, lumbering program loaded with a lot of features I'll never use, and the tech support is slow and questionable (I/OMagic techs were quicker and more attentive). I have yet to load up the Sony Picture Package (also contains Nero Express 6) disc because others in forums have said Picture Package is a joke. I saw Sony's Vegas DVD+ at Costco, and figured it oughta be compatible with the camera, but then noticed fine print on the box that said it converts Dolby 5.1 to stereo! A waste of the DCR DVD505's audio ability. Costco also had Roxio's EMC 9, which seems a good possibility, though, like Nero, it appears bloated with excesses I don't need.

I just want to capture, from the camera or from a disc, the videos, patch together a simple edited movie from them, and that's it. Nothing fancy with voice overs or music (at least for the time being).

My question is, with all the software out there, including the Windows Movie Maker in my XP OS, which I can't seem to get my videos into, and the Dell Roxio VideoWave movie software that came with my computer (ditto), what in your experience is my best option? My 13 DVD-RW minidiscs are all full and need transferring so I can shoot more summer video. I know I can just run straight DVD copy burns onto 12cm discs okay, to free up the minidiscs, but I'd like to edit them first instead. A lot of what I read on the forums is over my head, and more than I have time to learn. Will the Picture Package (Nero Express 6) be adequate? Or should I stick with the Nero OEM (Express 6.6) that came with the HP drive? No doubt, Nero will test my mettle again with a trial upgrade; it just seems like such an unecessarily huge software package. I bought the DVD camcorder because I thought it would be easy to computer-edit. Yeah, right.

-Perplexed and anxious to finish the job