Total video noob, need to edit & convert videos

[HDn00b]

Hello everyone.

I'm totally new to video editing and am very lost reading any of the articles.

Just got a new Sony HDR-CX100 and I'm not sure what software will help me the most. I basically just want to edit video (in SD & HD) both from my camera and from other sources (various family videos relatives have recorded over the years). So I'd like to be able to import from a variety of formats, and also export my edited videos for DVD, Flash, YouTube, etc.

If I take the videos straight from the import folder they're unwatchable in VLC (very choppy), so i found I have to convert them out to MPEG2 to even watch in a media player outside of the Sony provided software (PMB). Is this a hardware or codec issue?

Thanks for the help!

[Baldrick]

Try play your video using Splash or Media Player Classic HOme Cinema. They are very good AVCHD players.

And have you tried any editor? I would probably try Vegas MOvie Studio or maybe Pinnacle Studio or Nerovision are simpler to start with. And see https://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/video-editors-advanced?orderby=Rating

And remember that editing AVCHD/HD may be very slow if you don't have a very fast computer.

[HDn00b]

Thanks for the advice!

No, I don't think the computer is too fast.... I have a decent video card for gaming, not sure if that helps.

[Bjs]

Id go with adobe premier elements 7 for hd editing and covers most of the formats you mentioned and mobile devices