Advice on which software to use to burn dvd from my cam.

[Primary B]

Hello everyone. I just picked up a Pana PVGS400. Probably will be shooting in widescreen mode but need to experiment first. Our main TV is a HDTV w/ widescreeen, cinema and standard mode which the video will be viewed on. I'm a newb to serious video and editing. My question is which software has the most versitility and produces the best results getting my video to DVD. I've been seeing alot of Ulead and Sony Vegas. Perhaps there are others out there you might rcommend. My experience is that I'm best off, starting with something good, sticking with it and learning how to use it. I guess it is also cheaper. LOL Perhaps since I really don't know which results I gonna like: Cinema, Widescreen or Standard 4:3 is there a software I can do that with in the post process? Or is it better to make that choice during the film shooting. At the current time elaborate editing is unfamiliar with me but I would not want to change to a different app because I out grew it.

Thanks everyone
Butch R

[thecoalman]

Pick your format before shooting. The only way to change later is by cropping which results in loss of quality since your cropping out a lot of the original resolution. I personally prefer widescreen.

IMO For software on the cheap side Video Studio 8(capture to burn), it's packed with features and unless you think you want to get really creative in the future it is probably your best bet. On the high end best bang for your buck is Ulead Quartet which comes with 4 apps including Media Studio Pro and DVD Workshop 2. These two alone purchased seperatley cost nearly $300 more than what the quartet package cost. They have a 30 day free trial period give them a try. I'm pretty sure VS8, MSP and DVDWS all use the same encoding engine so the quality of your video won't suffer if you pick VS8, the Quartet package just opens up a world of options.

Also there's tons of freeware in the tools menu.

[Primary B]

Thanks Coalman. I currently have Pinnacle Studio 9 That came with my DV Moviebox. The cam I had was analog and was getting tired of it which explains the Moviebox. There seemed to always be talk of Ulead or Sony Vegas and didn't know if they did more than let you add titles, transistions, cut and splice. Will read and see. Thanks for the advice.

Butch R

[thecoalman]

Sony has a app similar to Ulead VS8. They are both on par with Studio 9 as far as features. Not exactly the same but similar.

MSP, Adobe Premier Pro and Vegas are all high end editors with many features beyond transitions. Like I said I prefer MSP, Ive compared and for the price it's a great app.