Best software for intensive HDV editing (< $150)

[peggig]

I'd like to try a different video editing program for my next project. I know different programs have different strengths and weaknesses, so I'm looking for an editing program that's strengths match my needs.

Can anyone recommend software that is good at handling a very high volume of short clips with lots of transitions and color and audio adfustments, in HDV format? I don't care whether it has a lot of special effects, themes, or fancy templates. I just need color management, sharpening, high and low pass audio filters, basic transitions, key frames, etc. It also has to do a good job of downconverting to export to DVD, as well as exporting in H264 and 720P.

When I first got my HDV camcorder, I upgraded from PRE3 to PRE8. I had to give up on PRE8 because of excessive hanging and crashing, so I installed PRE7. I was able to get through the project using PRE7, but I had to break it out into 13 separate projects, do all the editing in the subprojects, export them, then import them into the master project. This was because, when I would get too many clips and transitions in a project, it would hang, crash, or simply lose the ability to move clips on the timeline. (Very frustrating!) For one long montage (an extra feature on the DVD), I had to create two projects, export the montages, then import them into another project to combine them, and then export again to import into the master project.

I shot about 10 hours of video for this project, and edited it down to a one hour video with two extra features that totaled almost another half hour. Segments of the video can be seen at www.youtube.com/bearcreekgreenway.

Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated!

[Chuck Engels]

My initial response would be Premiere Pro, but I doubt there is a program out there that can handle 10 hours of HDV in a single project.

Premiere Pro has sequences, which are mini projects inside of a master project so to speak. It is a real benefit and a great way to organize projects and not need to have multiple projects going at the same time. That being said I have never used more than about 6 hours of HDV in a single project and usually split that off into 4 or 5 separate projects as 6 hours of HDV really bogs down even a hefty system.

Usually I don't think you want more than an hour or two of video in a single project, that goes for HDV or SD. Premiere Pro will allow you to have more than that and the ability to work with and organize all of the video better.

In short, I don't know if there is anything that will do everything you need.

[Paul LS]

Fascinating video peggig. Very interesting and well made.

And you may want to give Sony Vegas Studio a look. Try downloading the trial version and give it a whirl.