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So, where do I start?

Z

Ziz

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OK, now that I've upgraded to a computer that can comfortably handle editing DVD quality video, what software do I need to get started? Ideally, freeware for now...I'll pay for something fancier later on when I have the need and finances. I majored in film production in college, so I understand the logic and mechanics of editing, I just need to get into whatever the current tools are.

Suggestions? And please, back up your suggestions with some explanation as to WHY I should use "this" and not "that".
 
firsts things first you should recognize that there is no decent fanediting application. All of the softwares we use cost at least a small amount of money. Freeware is basically out of the question. So to answer this question better, what kind of budget is possible?
 
it really depends on what you want to do. For fancy stuff the freeware route might not be the best one. It is all possible though. You can create a perfect fanedit all with avisynth, as it is a non linear editing tool that allows transtitions, even audio transitions from what I have heard, cuts, special effects, zooming, AR change and a bunch of other stuff. But it is really complicated to use. There are a few programs that offer a GUI for it.
Cuttermaran can handle smart rendering, but it has a lot of bugs IMO.
Graph Edit can also do it all and is again very difficult to use. There are a lot of guides online though.
MPEG-2 Schnitt seems to be a nice editor, I haven't tried it though.

BUT, really, in the end you will probably get to use a high quality editing tool, like almost everybody here uses it. Vegas Video can do it all. Womble is good for its smart rendering engine and not too expensive. Adobe Premiere is a good one, but it requires a lot of training and very specific file formats to work with. Ulead Media Studio 7 is a fine and cheap editing tool (although old), cannot handle surround sound, but can like vegas and adobe use frameserve to export. Ulead Media Studio Pro 8 is expensive and has a lot of bugs. It's still a great editing tool though, but still expensive.

Those are the ones I can recommend. There are a lot more editors out there, but so far nothing really good came from them.

And once again, it really depends on what you want to do.
 
There is a cheap version of Vegas that does not come with all the bells and whistles, but basically operates on the same interface. I have heard great things about it, and I think you can get it for under $50.
 
$50 I can handle. If I have to pay for something, I'd like to keep it in the 2-digit range right now. I'll move into the heavy stuff later. I mentioned in another thread somewhere that I have an old program (5 years or so) called Video Explosion Deluxe. It has 2 video tracks and 3 audio (voice, music, FX) and all the usual abilities like color adjustments and transitions, but I don't think it will do surround sound. I was trying to figure out what's the next step up from that.

I'd imagine any commercial/retail program would prevent you from copying DVDs in to the computer, right...copy protection/DRM and such? So what's available to do that?
 
Theres loads of freeware rippers around:

DVD Decrypter
DVD Shrink
ImgBurn
 
Sony Vegas Movie Studio: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudio

Lists as $54 directly from Sony. I'm sure you can probably find it a good bit cheaper. (Its $49 from Amazon). And it comes with DVD Architect, a great DVD authoring software.

That basically just leaves rippers. Which as AvP listed above, you can get freeware options. So, that said, you should be able to get all the software you need for under $50.
 
That's what I wanted to hear! :D

Now to just put in a decent video card. Stuck with the integrated video to save money because the computer purchase was forced to happen during the holidays.
 
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