A little confused...

[xinjingqiao]

I a still a newbie at this thiing! I work with a Christian organization that does relief and aid work in China, specifically now working in a school for disabled chidlren. We are now making video progress reports of the children so that we can better plan for their needs. What I am trying to do is to download video from an DV camera, edit it, add still pictures, delete audio from some portions, add voice audio to othors, add chapters and titles and then burn a VCD. What is confusing to me is that when I read some of the guides, one guide will use, say Virtualdub to do one thing and in another guide someone will use Virtualdub for another function. Can someone recommend the minimum number of (preferably freebies) that can do this? WinDV is a no-brainer but after that the trail begins to look more like spaghetti. I used to use Ulead 6.0 and was not happy with it because, while the layout of the menu was "intuitive" it seemed difficult to adjust most things - if you wanted to use all defaults it was a breeze. Also the program was a bit unstable on my computer and the results we not very spectacular. Is version 8.0 any better? Or is there some other program out there for about $100 that will do the trick? I have been told that if I learn how to use several programs I can ultimately make better quality VCD's because my options will be less limited.

[daamon]

Hi xinjingqiao,

1. As you say, WinDV to capture.

2. Editing, adding in / cutting out audio, adding in stills - Try any of the following.

Free: Windows Movie Maker (will do, as the end product is VCD), Wax 2, Zwei Stein, AVITricks.

All would appear to be able to do what you want.

US$100: Pinnacle Studio, Adobe Premiere Elements.

Trial them, pick what you like.

I've not used any of them, but basing my suggestions on the write-ups and feedback in these forums.

3. TMPGEnc will encode to MPEG1 for VCDs, and it's free (only costs to do MPEG2 for SVCD and DVD).

4. VCDEasy (free) to author your VCDs.

There are other tools, and other people will have other ideas.

It's just a case of pick a method / set of tools, try them out and find what you like.

Good luck.

[xinjingqiao]

Thanks...perspective in this discipline is essential

T

[daamon]

No problem.