Newbie Help

[njclifford]

Hey guys,

have read a lot, but want to be able to take a mini DV recording, edit (easily), create a DVD menu with chapters / video / pictures, and then rip to disc.

What are the best programs for this? Not really fussed about price, willing to pay if worth it.

THANKS!

Nick

[guns1inger]

Slow down. There are 100 ways to skin this cat. From very simple to very complex and everything inbetween. Many of the best tools are in fact free, and having money to throw at it isn't going to get you the best outcome - unless you just want to throw it as a professional and have them do it.

Do some research. Start with What is DVD (top left corner menu), then work down through the guides section a read a few. This will give you an idea of some of the different approaches.

Work out if you are a visual person, or someone who can get their head around some of the more esoteric aspects of video.

Think about what sort of editing you want to do, and whether or not you want to take it further with time. There are a lot of simple tools, but many don't have a great deal of growth potential in the longer term. Those that do may take more work up front, but will pay off big time later.

Best is a very subjective term, and one that is often discouraged from use because best is really what works for you. Example : mant people here edit DV with virtualdub. That's all they use, and they are happy with that. While I have virtualdub as a tool that I use, I find it cumbersome and limiting for the editing that I do, so I use Vegas for that. Each to their own. I suspect that once people start responding to this post, you will get a dozen different opinions on what is best.

For me, for straight DV, it is

Photoshop CS2 for stills and menus
Vegas for editing
CCE/Procoder for encoding
DVD Lab Pro for authoring
Sound Forge for audio

For VHS transfers, throw in

Avisynth and a variety of filters
Virtualdubmod
AVSEdit

also in the kit are a variety of other little tools and utilities for solving particular problems or converting to non-DVD formats.

But that is just me. Other will have totally different ways of working.

[mats.hogberg]

Welcome to the forum!
...and please use a more descriptive title to your questions!

/Mats