Moving away from Studio 8 - but to where?

[RickK]

(First, thanks for a very informative website!)

I got Pinnacle Studio 8 working well a couple years ago, then have been careful not to jostle the configuration since then. I've transferred a bunch of home videos (both digital and VHS) to DVDs, with chapter titles and menus. I'm very happy with the results. But I've got many more to do, and my system is getting "long in the tooth", and it's time to upgrade.

Given reviews and horrible stories of later Pinnacle Studio versions, I'd like to move to a different, better reviewed toolset. I like the simple capture (from digital camcorder), automatic scene recognition, simple titles with fade up/down, basic menus, and drag&drop movie creation.

What tools do this well for someone who doesn't need a lot of complex featuers, and just wants basic editing as described above?

[dwill123]

Many people like Sony Vegas Movie Studio + DVD. For stability and easy of use.

[harley2ride]

Vegas Movie Studio, Adobe Premiere Elements, Ulead Studio 8 or 9, or, since you are familiar with Pinnacle, pick up a copy of Pinnicle Liquid Edition off of Ebay for around $70.00 and have a good professional leved software, which you are already familiar with. But if you aren't into doing heavy duty stuff, stick with the package stuff, or look into some of the freeware options which do a very good job (IE: capture with huffyuv, edit with virtualdub or tmpgenc (costs a bit), and encode with tmpgenc and burn with any burning software. Using free stuff, you have a few more steps, but more control over every aspect. Using a package software, you lose a little control and freedom. But if you are just doing simple editing and effects, the package stuff is a good way to go. If you want to be creative and have control, get individual softwares for each step.