I am looking for a quick and easy program to do high activity video editing. I am very new at this. I have a Sony DCR-SR100 if that helps. I want to take clips from many videos, add music. Then put them onto a dvd. Thanks folks
minorman
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General discussion
Video Editing soft ware
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A very nice program that I too use with my SR100 is Sony Vegas Studio+DVD. You can find it on sale for about $50 and it is, in my opinion, the best consumer editing software I have used. It is very easy to get the hang of and can do anything I throw at it.
Importing and exporting is also a snap. All you have to do is copy the video off your SR100 to your computer's HDD. Then, in Vegas Studio, go to File->Import->Media and select where you saved it and it will pop right up. Edit as necessary and export as either an .avi file for watching on the computer or as a .mpg for burning to a DVD.
Hope this helps. 
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So after I edit my HD AVCHD file, I can save it in .avi or .mpg if I understand correctly. Are these by definition SD formats?
My ultimate questions is, can I export an edited AVCHD HD file onto a regular 4.7 GB DVD and play it on my current run-of-the-mill SD DVD player? Or am I bound to watching my HD footage on the TV only by means of the camcorder until Blu-Ray writers hit the market in numbers?
I just got a Sony HDR-SR8 and am trying to decide whether to keep it or go for the MiniDV sibling. Quality is not my first concern (compressed HDD files will be good enough for me). BUT being handcuffed in workflow (from recording through to showing off my HD footage), and having limited options for playing my edited HD footage, is of paramount concern to me.
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Yes, .avi and .mpg are SD file formats. In order to view the HD video for both HDV and AVCHD camcorders, you need to hook the camcorder directly to the TV in order to view the video in full quality. Actually, AVCHD files can be burned to regular DVDs without the need to downsample to SD, but you must have a BluRay player to view the files. In this category, the HDD camcorder has the advantage since it can hold more video at a time whereas with HDV you would have to change the tapes every hour to view all the tapes you have.
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Whizkid.. please.. I am an old fart and I am not at all edified in the arena of technology with regards, HDTV and such.. and I am reading this thing about something called "Blu-ray". The article said something about, as I tried to understand it.. that HD TV was going to be replaced by Blu-ray.
Sir.. please.. can you please email me to my regular email addres, wilsonccjr@gmai.com and tell me what the heck Blu-ray is?
If you cannot then please just accept my deepest and most sincere gratitude for your time and attention, and if you can, then please accept my super double gratitude!!
Warm and sincere thoughts,
Charles Wilson
wilsonccjr@gmail.com
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It probably came with iMovie. It is fine for what you have described you want to do. If not, iLife is affordable. You will need to get a free download to convert hard-drive based camcorder files. Go to apple.com, get to the discussions area and there's all sorts of information.
Whether Windows or Macintosh, if you want to "look profesional" then guess what? You should consider what they use.
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