Trying to find GOOD programs

[gbabione]

I have been playing around with a lot of programs trying to find 1 or a multiple of to accomplish what I want. I have tried Ulead VideoStudio, DVD Workshop, and Movie Factory, Pinnacle Studio, TMPGE DVD Author 3, and Sony Vegas 8. Pinnacle always crashes and I can't import any videos into Vegas. TMPGE works pretty good and easy, but I have to use DVDDecrypter or Movie Factory to get video off a dvd onto the hard drive in mpeg format. Sometimes when I import video into 1 or more of these programs, the audio may not come with it. I had to switch back and forth from program to program so many times, I can't remember what all I had to do. I think I had to use one program to read the video and convert it, another to cut it, another to put it back on the dvd, and another to convert it back to author with TMPGE. It's a real pain.
What I need to be able to do is import any form of video (including IFO, VOB, MPEG, AVI, MPV, WMV) from DVD, hard drive, or video device. I shouldn't have to look for the audio. I want to cut parts of the video I don't want. I want to be able to select a frame in a video and save it as a picture. I want to author a dvd with a starting clip with audio which both fade in and out nicely and then goes into the top menu with either the starting clip, with or without audio, still running repeatedly as the background or make another video or picture as background. The chapter buttons could have pictures or videos as I choose.
I also want to be able to be able to join clips. I had to import a show onto my computer that I had recorded in sections on my DVD burner from my DVR. When I cut the commercials out of it and saved it, it was still split up. I want it as 1 clip. When I author the dvd, i want to add each clip as 1 chapter and the break that into chapters.
If there is an easy way to do all this, I would appreciate the help!

[jagabo]

LOL

[edDV]

[editorial]
Tell it to SONY, ET. AL.

When DVD camcorders were introduced, they claimed research that 90+% of consumers never capture camcorder video to a computer or edit. They just want a DVD pronto. So SONY ET AL decided what those consumers want is camcorder encoded MPeg2 and DVD ready VOB files. Using supplied or recommended software you can put your unedited home video on a DVD. Isn't that what you said you wanted?

They also say the 10% of home users that do want to edit and filter their videos already know the advantages of MiniDV format and will continue to use that format.

I and other observers were horrified by SONY, ET AL cynicism toward their "consumer" customers. It is true that many people just wanted a DVD without the computer crap. That was solved when DVD recorders added IEEE-1394 input ports.

In Sony's defense, knowledgeable media reviewers alerted potential users to the pitfalls of MPeg2 (DVDR, HDD and later AVCHD) formats and anyone who cared would have read those reviews before buying. Still SONY et al put many customers downstream without a paddle (i.e. no solutions) when it came to buyer remorse .. "I guess I did want to edit this stuff on a computer after all".

Sites like VideoHelp are the crying shoulder. Aftermarket products like Womble's offer hope for those with limited ambitions. Beyond that one has a steep learning curve to demux and rebuild these videos. SONY ET AL knew these would become issues but protected themselves from needing to offer solutions other than trading up your camcorder. [/editorial]

[lordsmurf]

Video editing was never intended for mass consumers. Sorry. There is a learning curve, and you must go slow. Do one project at a time. Don't try to find a workflow that works for every project, it will NEVER happen.

So let's look at your first project.

Step 1 - What is the source?

[guns1inger]

Most of the programs you have suggested are in fact GOOD PROGRAMS. Your problem is that you don't want a good program. You want an all-in-one piece of crap like WinAVI, which will take pretty much anything, do some mediocre processing, and if you are lucky, give you something playable.

If you want to do it properly then you need

An editor for editing

A processing tool for processing and filtering (most editors have basic tools for this built in)

An encoder for encoding (again, most editors have one built-in, in most cases it is the Mainconcept encoder)

An authoring tool for authoring (and the associated tools for editing stills/videos etc for menus)

A burning tool for burning

And the time and effort required to learn how to get the most out of them. In many cases you may need different tools for different sources to preserve the best quality possible. No all-in-one is going to do this for you and give you a quality result.

[gbabione]

Gunslinger, what programs do you suggest for each of these steps? I did say 1 or a multiple of programs. I'm just tired of fighting with them.

[guns1inger]

I use Vegas for editing DV and Womble for editing Mpeg-2. For short trims of other formats virtualdub or avisynth does the job. Keep in mind that only a few formats are designed for editing. Most are designed for end delivery, and the way they are compressed makes editing difficult.

Virtualdub for beginners or quick fixes and avisynth for the more advanced filtering and processing. Once you get past basic brightness/contrast you have outgrown most built-in tools. Vegas has some great colour correction tools built-in though.

I like HCEnc for encoding. It is reasonably fast and the quality is very good. And it's free.

I use DVD Lab Pro for authoring, although you could look at GUIForDVDAuthor for a freeware option. I use Photoshop for working with still menus, and Vegas and other tools for motion work. DLP is the glue that holds all the parts together though.

I use Sound Forge for editing audio, although Audacity and Reaper are worth considering as well. Aften for AC3 encoding.

Imgburn is the only tool I use for burning DVDs.

If you want to simplify conversion and authoring then FAVC is well worth a look. It doesn't do editing or fancy menus, but is produces good quality and takes most sources.