Looking for a good and unexpensive Video edit software

I'm looking for a good program to edit my home made movies with. Windows movie maker is ok, but it lacks one thing. I can't burn it to DVD or atleast choose a format so that I can have 2 hours of video on my DVD instaed of one hour.

Before I used to use my DV cable and insert it into my DVD recorder. I then choose SP quality which is 2 hours on a DVD. I can't do that in Windows Movie Maker

Any recommendations?

 

Virtual dub is the best for encoding and various filters, if your pretty competent it will also do everything else you need, If you need something easier ulead dvd workshop is also very good.

 

Depends on your needs (and what 'inexpensive' means). I use Pinnacle Studio 9.x Plus. It has good DVD menu options, transactions, pan and zoom, add music, nice user interface all for under $100.00. On the down side takes quite a while to render to DVD and it is still susceptible to system crashes once in a while. (much stabler than version 8.x I can tell you)

Version 10.x is current - you can go to their http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read_forums.asp?WebboardID=1&SectionID=273&lng=1 web site and user forms. Appears 10.x has some menu issue which are important to me so I am sticking with 9.x for now.

 

If you're looking for an encoder then you might consider Canopus ProCoder Express

Runs around $60 US

It is only an encoder/transcoder. You'll need some other software to do your authoring/burn.

Just be aware that you may be disappointed with your video quality by pushing up to two hrs on a DVD [non-Dual Layer]. Not to say it can't be done, but just so you know up-front.

Cheers

Mark

 

I really like using Intervideo WinDVD creator. It is really simple and has a lot of functions. The original price is like $80 but now it's on sale for $35. ( www.intervideo.com)

 

I get 4 hours on my encoding process with near perfect quality, 6 hours I can get on vHS quality without much trouble.

 

Thought I'd add another candidate encoder. This one supports AC3 [ProCoder Express does not btw].

TMPGEnc Ver 3.0 Xpress

wrt How much you can get on a DVD.... It's a matter of what looks good to you.... Heck... you might be able to get 8hrs on a DVD if you are satisfied with the picture/audio quality. You're talking about compression of your video/audio here and you'll start seeing 'blockiness' at some point. Depends on your subjective opinion as to how much is acceptable.

Cheers

Mark

ps... Here's a link to VirtualDub. It's widely recommended, but I wasn't aware it could encode mpeg-2....????

 

Tx people for all the great suggestions, I will take a look at all of them and try demos if possible ;-)

 

On the video editing part of your question you may want to give the F/OSS (Free Open Source Software) package Jashhaka a try...price can't be beat and I have found it to be as good as commercial SW costing many thousands of $$$'s in most non-professional applications.