Which software do I use?

[DOA]

I have some DivX/XViD files (HQ 640x480) which I want to edit. Premiere Pro 1.5 does not provide an output preview for the DivX files so it doesn't work. Pinnacle Studio Plus 9.3.5 doesn't even load the files. WinDVD Creator is the only one that supported the files so far but it only outputs to 320x240 and I want to retain the quality as much as possible.

I am looking for a video editing software program which has most if not all the features of Premiere/PS with DivX/XViD support. Basically I want to cut parts of each file and join them together along with a separate audio track with some simple transition/special effects. I know VirtualDub can cut/join files quite easily but I would like to be able to do more than this. I also prefer not to re-encode the files to another format as this is too time and space consuming.

[guns1inger]

You could try the demo of Sony Vegas 5. You may have to use virtualdub to demux the audio back to uncompressed wav if it is stored as vbr mp3. Otherwise, you may have to consider converting to a more edit friednly format.

[celtic_druid]

DivX/XviD aren't designed for editing and as a general rule editing apps aren't designed to work with them. I would suggest re-encoding (which you don't want to do) or frameserving the files for editing.

AVISynth can edit them fine though, cut, join, dub audio, do transitions, wipes, etc. Anything other than a simple disolve is from recollection a bit of work as it will probably involve changing colourspaces (RGB32 for layering), etc.

If you do want to use XviD/DivX for editing I would suggest constant quant with all I frames.