video editing guide for a newbie with a catch.

[geepondy]

I am looking for a basic video editing program that will edit the video from my Canon S3 which I believe is video in a mjpg format? Did I get that right? The extension itself is just mpeg. I don't need anything super fancy, just would like to be able to crop, add some scene effects, join moves and be able to write a dvd with the finished results. The ability to transcode into other formats would be a plus as well but I can use other programs to do that if necessary. I was considering Adobe Premiere elements but I happen to give a file to my friend that owns an older copy of full blown premiere and it wouldn't recognize the format. If I go with Premiere Elements, do you know if it will recognize the format from the Canon S2/S3 cameras? Or do you recommend another program (that doesn't cost several hundred dollars).

[edDV]

According to this site, the new S3 uses 640x480 or 320x240 square pixel MJPeg with an AVI wrapper. Frame rates are 30 or 15 fps. It also has 60 fps possible at 320x480. Audio is wav.
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06022111canons3is.asp#specs

DVD matches none of these so conversion (interpolation) needs to be done to one of the DVD formats (720x480 or 352x480 @29.97 or 23.976 fps.). They should have provided a 24 fps mode.
https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

Many ways to edit and author it. Premiere Elements probably works but check specs against the above.

[geepondy]

Aren't there programs that will automatically resize your video to DVD as well as basic authoring?

[edDV]

They all must resize but it makes for alot of conversion. Simple x-y scaling 640x480 to 720x480 wouldn't be bad but progressive 30fps would need to be interlaced at 29.97 or frame converted to 23.976 which means temporal interpolation. Interpolation from 15 fps would be worse. All this adds up to poor DVD video quality.

It would match closer for Blu-Ray or HD DVD where a 480p 30 fps progressive mode is supported.