V-Flyer

So, I got the Mini-DV Camcorder, the laptop has I-link, the cable is on order, but what software can / should I use to construct and burn nice chaptered / captioned DVDs?

Thanks for help provided...

Nero 7 works for me

Hi Chris

My personal vote would be for Adobe Premiere, its not cheap but very good at what it does. (you might be able to download a trial copy)

If you are after something a little cheaper and possibly not as in-depth, Nero, VideoStudio and Pinnacle Studio are also fairly good. I guess it depends what you want to do with your film? Some video editing packages simply take the film and put it only CD or DVD (with chapers and menus) while others are full movie editing suites where you can do a lot of groovy chroma key work and other visual effects, obviously these extra features are reflected in the price.

There are dozens of these programs on the market, and some are really not that much better than the free software that often comes with your camera, or even Windows Movie Maker for that matter! I guess its all down to what you want to achieve with the software.

Thanks,
Sarah

My personal vote would be save the money on Premier and buy a MAC. The Mac mini's are cheap enough now. And the OS comes with all the software you need (or if there is any missing you can get it with ilife). You get a video editting suite (imovie) that lets you slice and dice and add subtitles etc, and the you have the easiest dvd authoring software I have seen (idvd). The combination of the two gives you easy chaptering also.

PLUS, and this is a big PLUS. Out of all of the formats I have seend and tried the imovie/idvd combination give the most compatible format for the output movies.

I am sure one or two other Mac-ies will agree.

Paul

Yup, I'd agree with Paul that the free Apple software (iLife is bundled with new Macs) is probably the easiest to use in the consumer/prosumer end of the market. They also have the top end stitched up with Final Cut Pro & DVD Studio Pro - which I've used for a while now. Since my last full time job was marketing director of a software company that made video editing applications, trust me on this one

Originally posted by p17blo
My personal vote would be save the money on Premier and buy a MAC. The Mac mini's are cheap enough now. And the OS comes with all the software you need (or if there is any missing you can get it with ilife). You get a video editting suite (imovie) that lets you slice and dice and add subtitles etc, and the you have the easiest dvd authoring software I have seen (idvd). The combination of the two gives you easy chaptering also.

PLUS, and this is a big PLUS. Out of all of the formats I have seend and tried the imovie/idvd combination give the most compatible format for the output movies.

I am sure one or two other Mac-ies will agree.

Paul

I agree

Thanks for the suggestions. I will investigate.

Plan A would be a Mac, but alas, plan GBP does not allow at this stage.

I use Sony Vegas 6 and Nero 7, very happy and can get very good quality SD dvd's without having a nasty Mac in my house :-)

Vegas 6 is also ready for BlurRay and HD when they come out this year (as is my camcorder)

Originally posted by AlanA
Vegas 6 is also ready for BlurRay and HD when they come out this year (as is my camcorder)

I take it that BlurRay was a deliberate mistake!? Not keen on the Sony standard ALan??

Paul

Originally posted by p17blo

Originally posted by AlanA
Vegas 6 is also ready for BlurRay and HD when they come out this year (as is my camcorder)

I take it that BlurRay was a deliberate mistake!? Not keen on the Sony standard ALan??

Paul

I REALLY hope so! get Bluray and its worse than SD? help!!
My Camcorder is a Sony, 1080i, which they have just pleased me by announcing a replacement after only six months. :-(
latest is the HDR-HC3

I agree with Decker (and others) - Nero 7 has always been good for me.