Need Newbie advice on AVI File Editing

[mrtobor]

I've finally begun a task which will probably occupy a significant amount of my time for the next couple of years.
I've started copying my many hours of raw family video from analog (8mm) and digital (MiniDV) tape to computer.

I'm starting with the analog stuff and doing it by connecting my 8mm camcorder via S-video to my JVC GR-D77X MiniDV camcorder then sending the resulting digital signal to the computer via firewire to be captured by WinDV. Works great. The AVI files produced are quite clean, sharp and the motion is smooth.

My ultimate goal is to use all this random, raw footage as a basis for extracting highlights in an editing/authoring program (Vegas) to put together some DVDs that somebody might actually want to sit down and watch. The problem i'm having now is trying to clean up the AVI files. By clean up I mean edit out gaps, glitches, screwups etc. I want to work with clean takes when I start putting together my movies.

I'm using VirtualDub to trim the videos but when I save them as AVIs, not only do they greatly expand in size but I'm getting a lot of combing or interlace artifacts.
Could someone please advise as to the best software or method for losslessly doing the type of edits I described? Thank you.

[_Al_]

You can do that all in Vegas, do not use any effects, just cuts or shuffling clips around andrendering into DV avi again, it will be exact copy. While exporting, preview screen should go black with message "No compression required" and it is pretty quick. That way you know it just uses original frames. You can load that exported DVavi into another project again.

[jagabo]

VirtualDub -> Video -> Direct Stream Copy.

[mrtobor]

Thanks all.