Months ago I was working with Video Studio 8 trying to render an SVCD. I don't remember now exactly what it was doing, but as I recall it would look like it was rendering but in the end there was nothing on the CD. It was like it was shooting blanks. I'm trying to get back into it and looking at that same project I notice it included wmv, avi and mpg clips. I haven't been able to find out what formats VS8 supports. Does it not support wmv, for example? Or do all the clips in a project have to be the same format?

I have limited time to devote to experimenting with such projects; perhaps the learning curve for VS8 is just higher than I'm willing to make time for. Can anyone suggest real intuitive programs that will let me create good videos from clips and good slide shows, with some transitions and maybe a pan/zoom feature? I've got a project to do for our organization, and the deadline is not far off. I appreciate any help you can offer.