Software advice needed

[ccm]

Hello,
I am a new member and also very new to the world of video. I have been using MyDVD to move my digital movies from my digital video camera to my PC and then burning them to a DVD. I love the simplicity of the software but I have a lot of problems with it. I only use the software a couple of times a year and really don't want to get too deep into this hobby. I am at the point where I need a more stable software to take care of my needs. My needs are pretty simple compared to most on this forum. I want to:
Copy my digital movies from my camcorder to my PC
Very basic editing of movies. Just want to trim unwanted footage and add transitions
Burn the movie to a DVD
What I like about MyDVD (when it works) is:
All in one software. I can transfer my movies to the PC, perform basic editing and burn to DVD with
a single piece of software.
It would be greatly appreciated if you would recommend either a low cost software suite that will accomplish what I need or, if that is not doable, mulltiple, low cost, softwares that I will need.

It is important to understand that I don't want to get overly involved with this software. It needs to be very user friendly for someone who does not know squat about video.

My PC is a couple of years old and I am using Microsoft XP as an operating system. I have sufficient hard drive space and memory. I say this because when MyDVD does work I have no space or memory problems.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

[LJB]

You say that you are having problems, but you don't identifiy the specific problems.
What I have learned from this forum is:
1. Use verbatim for media.
2. You can use your favoite software to author, but alway burn with imgburn.

If you do your edits in MyDVD, save the finished project to a VIDEO_TS folder on your harddrive, rather than burn directly to disk, and save the burning for the latest edition of imgburn, which is very uesr freindly.

When I listened to this forum and started using better media and imgburn, I stopped making coasters.

[ccm]

LJB,
Thanks for the reply.

I am using Verbatim media.

The problem I am having with MyDVD is that when I go to burn the DVD the "Burn" button is greyed out. It is not accessable. My first thought was that MyDVD was not recognizing the drive but I have used the drive, in the past, to burn DVD's with MyDVD.

Please explain what is "Video_TS"

Thanks in advance.

[LJB]

If you look to the left column, you'll see "What Is DVD".
(https://www.videohelp.com/dvd) The VDEO_TS folder contains the actual video data. When we burn a dvd, this folder is created and burned to the media. If you author to a folder on your harddrive, inside the folder will be the dvd structure: AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders. (Please note that AUDIO_TS is an empty folder.) When I have completed each of my projects, I "burn" them to a folder on my hd, and then use imgburn to do the actual burning to the media. In the burn "window" of MyDVD choose to burn/save to a folder on your hd rather than the actual burner. You can test the quality of the project by playing the dvd folder from your hd, by using your software dvd player, or vlc (great free player). This will save you from burning a coaster, if the completed dvd has issues (typically for me, it would have been an encoder setting issue, which are not related to the media). After I'm satisfied with my completed project, then I burn to the media.

Side note -> If your dvd burner should ever fail, replacements are dirt cheap.

Hope this helps in solving your problems.