Need video editor recommendations

[sldvd]

I am looking for a video editor for Windows with the following features:
- frame accurate editing
- smart rendering
- transitions
- DVD authoring (with shrinking ability)

I have tried the trial versions of Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD, TMPGEnc MPEG Editor, and VideoRedo TVSuite, and am not completely satisfied with any of those, so I'd like to try some other packages. My budget is around $100 or so. Thanks.

[aedipuss]

vegas movie studio may have a trial to test out.

[Mad Genius]

I have to side with Aedipuss on this one. Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9.0b [Build 92] Platinum Edition paired off with Sony DVD Architect Pro 5.0 are quite worth the investment and get the job done.

Sony VMS is quite stable, too and the best part about it is, if in the event the program craps out on you, your work won't be lost, thanks to a temporary saved file, which is very similar to Adobe Audition's backup feature.

While I'm unsure about compression through DVD Architect, I can tell you that you will have professionally made DVDs with this software. DVD Architect also allows you to somewhat copy-protect your DVDs, too.

[lordsmurf]

Stop trying to make one program do 3+ separate tasks.
- editing
- authoring
- encoding or transcoding

[sldvd]

I just installed the Vegas Movie Studio trial, and maybe I'm missing something, but it does not appear to support VOB files from a DVD.

[aedipuss]

a vob isn't a video format. it's a display format for a dvd. inside it is mpeg-2 video, audio files and subs. maybe if you converted it to an mpeg-2 with vobtompg vms might import it. about the only frame accurate mpeg-2 editors are the womble products, though.

editors are usually for working on source material like DVavi.

[edDV]

I am looking for a video editor for Windows with the following features:
- frame accurate editing
- smart rendering
- transitions
- DVD authoring (with shrinking ability)

I have tried the trial versions of Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD, TMPGEnc MPEG Editor, and VideoRedo TVSuite, and am not completely satisfied with any of those, so I'd like to try some other packages. My budget is around $100 or so. Thanks.

What formats are you editing?

Vegas Pro will officially smart render DV, HDV (MPeg2) and XDCAM (Mpeg2)*. The source, project and export format must match. It seems to work for other MPeg2 when source, project and "render as" all exactly match for cuts editing but adding filters or effects may cause a full re-render. I haven't tested it fully.

Also I don't know if the Movie Studio versions smart render.

Quote Vegas help
"In order to perform smart rendering, the width, height, frame rate, field order, profile, level, and bit rate of the source media, project settings, and rendering template must match. Frames that have effects, compositing, or transitions applied will be rendered.

You can clear the Enable no-recompress long-GOP rendering check box on the General tab of the Preferences dialog to turn the feature off."



* Also IMX and "HD MXF"

[edDV]

I just installed the Vegas Movie Studio trial, and maybe I'm missing something, but it does not appear to support VOB files from a DVD.

DVD MPeg2 files (720x480) seem to smart render OK in Vegas Pro although I haven't tested all combinations of VBR, CBR etc. Most MPeg2 camcorders output CBR.