Suitable Software??? Editing & Authoring

[shell_l_d]

Please, I need help in finding suitable editing/authoring software please, I'm getting tired of downloading & trialing software only to find it lacks features. Any help/suggestions/advice greatly appreciated. I'm not wanting to do extremely fancy stuff, am only an amateur, just want to create dvd's of home video camera footage & have a good result.

Thnx in advance

Requirements:
searching for something that does the following, as have heaps of vhs videos & video camera footage to convert to DVD:
- recognises capture device from Aldi (Medion Audio/Video Grabber Kit USB 2.0, MD 90041)
which is used with a VHS Video Player & a Samsung Hi8 Tape Video Camera
- works for WinXP (at least)
- multiple trimming manually (not just with scene detection as using Hi8 not DV) eg: remove many chunks of footage from anywhere in the clip
- customisable menus: change size/colour/quantity of text, thumbnails, chapters/titles, etc, be able to select which titles/chapters have menus attached (eg: if can only capture a video in 2 parts dont want it to create 2 menus) & don't want every chunk (trimmed) to be a chapter/title
- subtitles (eg: add scores to a footy game recorded on video camera)
- add jpgs with text or something (eg: add date/time/subject info for 3secs b4 associated footage, so if just put DVD in & press play & it plays to the end, can tell what each section is, instead of having to go back to the menu again to see if can figure out what section of video it relates to

NeoDVD 7.1 Trial:
- can't add text/subtitles to clips
- no multi-trim option
- can only create footage for 1 menu page at a time (eg: if 5 pages of menus, have to create 5 differrent portions of footage) so inflexible for editing
- no audio unless purchase extra software
- can't resize menu text
- can't change colours of highlight in menus (green)
- can't change colour or type of navigation buttons
- chapter adding inflexible, if create one in wrong spot, have to delete all & start again & can't auto-add at certain intervals after captured/edited
- can't crop (VHS) footage (flickering at top/bottom)

DVD ReMake 3 Trial:
- can't get trial to work properly, menu just constantly flickers (highlights) thumbnail #1, won't play
- no multi-trim option
NeroVision Express 2 OEM:
- menus crap - can't edit size of text, etc
- audio crap, static/feedback sounds in preview & on dvd
- can't put text anywhere like for a subtitle

NeroVision Express 2 OEM:
- menus crap - can't edit size of text, etc
- audio crap, static/feedback sounds in preview & on dvd
- can't put text anywhere like for a subtitle

NeroVision Express 3 Trial:
- menus crap - can't edit size of text, etc
- audio still crap even if put at 33%, static/feedback sounds in preview & on dvd
- can't put text anywhere like for a subtitle

Sonic MyDVD 4.5 OEM
- menus very limited
- fails to import
- capture error/failure

DVD Lab 1.3.1 Trial
- menus customisable which is great
- limited trim (can only trim/crop from end, not multiple trims in middle of video)
- can't preview audio & video at same time
- no capture option

DVD Lab 2 Trial
- menus customisable which is great
- limited trim (can only trim/crop from end, not multiple trims in middle of video), can apparently also trim unwanted parts (eg: ads) however it doesnt remove anything, just skips footage, so not very suitable.
- no capture option

Presto Video Works 6 OEM
- no menus at all
- no burn option
- freezes & takes 10+ hrs to encode
- no help
- no replies from emails/submissions to tech support

Ulead DVD Movie Factory 5 Trial
- like the trim options
- fails to burn (spent hours editing/trimming only to find burn fails with a very uninformative error)
- menus not as editable/customisable as Ulead DVD Workshop
- if join 2 clips (so only 1 menu item as by default a menu item is created for each clip), it adds 500Mb to file size, which is heaps for a 4.7Gb DVD
- if I add one subtitle of 3 secs, it increases file size substantially as well
- capture stops when reaches fuzzy/flickering section in video as it says it's copyright media, which it's clearly NOT, so instead of it keep recording, it stops & allows u to save what's already been captured, then have to find a section after this where it will allow to start recording again, so 1 video can end up being multiple clips with sections missing.

Ulead DVD Work Shop 2 Trial
- menus customisable which is great
- limited editing (eg: cant trim multiple sections manually)
- no audio
- capture fails - uninformative error

TMPGenc DVD Author 1.6 Trial
- no audio, as need to purchase TMPGEnc sound plug-in ac-3
- only creates video files, not DVD itself, which isn't that much of a drama

TMPGenc DVD Author 2.0 Trial
- has audio
- no capture
- no filters/transitions/effects & think no text/subtitle options either
- periodical licence validation required, don't like this, if buy it, shouldn't have to proove it many times over
- creates DVD too
- compiled project/DVD has huge black image (non-see through), can only see 1mm of footage at top & bottom, they consider this a 'watermark', can't see anything (eg: quality)

Adobe Premiere Pro 2 Trial
- can't capture, fails to recognise the capture device purchased from Aldi (Medion Audio/Video Grabber Kit USB 2.0)
- can't import mpeg 2 files captured elsewhere, so renders this entire program useless as I can't add video
- no idea if the real product has these issues too, but can't even test it, so trial useless

Windows Movie Maker 2
- constantly crashes with no proper error message, just the standard WinXP error report asking if want to send it to MS

Roxio Easy Media Creator 8
- NO TRIAL avail to download

[guns1inger]

Mostly you are asking too much of the software. Programs like DVD Lab aren't editors, they are for authoring only. They expect you to have done the editing in an editor. In fact, generally any program that claims to do everything for you will do none of it particularly well.

Video is one of those areas where the best tools for each job will always produce the best results. Look for a good capture application to transfer your video to your PC. I don't know the Aldi device you are using, but other Aldi video capture devices have tended to come from cheap manufacturers with poor support and software. This means that many apps cannot read from them, and the problems don't get fixed quickly, if at all.
Try virtualdub (or mod) to see if it can capture from this device.

You can also use virtualdub to edit out adverts and other parts of the clip if necessary. It is not as featured as a proper editor in this regard, but for straight cuts it is more than adequete.

Or you could look at Sony Vegas Movie Studio, which can edit and encode to mpeg2 for DVD. It will also create DVDs, however I don't know how flexible it's menu design is or if it supports subtitles. That said - do you really need subs, or just the ability to overlay text or graphics on the clip before it is encoded ? Surely for things like footy scores you would want them permenantly on screen ?

Finally, one you don't have on your list is DVD Workshop 2 from Ulead. It can capture (although perhaps not from your Aldi device), do simply editing, create menus, subtitles etc and output to DVD. Worth a look I suspect.

[classfour]

I thought that TDA 1.6 WOULD work with an AC3 audio stream - it just would'nt have audio on the playback/editing without the AC3 plugin?????

At least that is the case with the one that I purchased.

BTW: It is one program that I have that can import video from a DVDRAM disc (NEARLY all the time) without losing audio synch or puking on the video.

[shell_l_d]

Thanks for help, replies, much appreciated.

I did list Ulead WS 2 in my post above.
Oh ok, I didn't mean subtitles then, just text overlay with option to change size, placement, duration of text displayed.

Geez, I hope the Aldi card isnt poor quality as i paid $70 for it 3mths ago (how long i've been lookin 4 sofware for in spare time)

The list above for TDA 2 also applies to TDA 1.6 & no sound if I import an mpeg 2 file.

Furthermore...

Sony Vegas Movie Studio 6.0b Trial - rendering/opening of mpeg files disabled in trial, so can’t test with my mpeg’s or create them
- no ac3 plug in apparently in this version, only in the VERY expensive version
- has text overlays & multi-trimming
- no menus? Can’t find a menu function so assume it doesn’t exist.
- can’t capture: recognises the capture device but can’t capture: ‘The device ‘MD90041 Audio/Video Grabber’ could not be opened. Please make sure that it is turned on and is not being used by another application or user.’
- can’t test it enough to know if it’s going to be suitable

[guns1inger]

Geez, I hope the Aldi card isnt poor quality as i paid $70 for it 3mths ago

I hope that comment was made in jest. There is no such thing as a quality AUS$70 capture card. Basically, the drivers you have for it aren't working nicely with other applications, which is they fail to capture. Median/Alsi don't make their own cards - they rebadge other cheap product. If you can determine who actually made the card, you might be able to get new/better drivers for it.