Adobe Premiere Elements (or other low cost editing software)

[TVisitor]

Hey all,

I'm interested in converting some old VHS & some old Hi8 home movies to DVD.

I'm thinking of either the ADVC55 or the ADVC300.

I don't need the power of Premiere Pro CS3, nor the expense. Will Premiere Elements work with these products? Otherwise, can someone recommend some fairly low cost editing software? I'm looking around the $200 mark or cheaper.

I'm not looking to to a lot - some possible trimming of scenes (get rid of some bad camera work), as well as breaking it up, and adding some titles & chapters for DVD's. Some playing around with some scene transitions would be cool to play with, but not required.

Thanks.

[GrassValley_BH]

Any NLE that can "talk" to a DV camcorder or deck should work with the ADVC55 or 300. The ADVC (non-HD) series "looks" like an attached DV camcorder or deck as far as the computer is concerned.

[pjsssss]

You can always try GV Neo

[TVisitor]

I was looking at an free video capture package, and I noticed it said this, in relation to it's capture:

VirtualDub supports DV capture from Type 2 (VfW) FireWire controllers only (capture will not work with Type 1).

I'm not sure, PC wise, what this means - Is Type 1 an old standard that would not be around anymore? [I recently built my PC, only about 6 months ago. In the meantime, I'll look in the manual].

[kbosward]

Use a free capture program such as WinDV or CaptureFlux.

Ken.

[jjccl]

I use Premiere Elements and I believe it is one of the most powerful and well set up interfaces going. It's an amazing NLE. ( I like the earlier versions 2 or 3 better than the current V4. You would find good deals on these on Ebay)

That being said, it is also a bloated resource hungry NLE. I strongly advise downloading the demo and seeing how your system likes it.

For simple cuts in your video and without the need to do video effects, titles, overlays and such, you may also want to consider an Authoring application rather than a Non Linear Editing (NLE) program such as Ulead Movie Factory or Sony DVD Architect Studio. These programs allow a better way to menu and set playback buttons for TV viewing than the limited authoring modules in an editing application.

Capturing with one of the above mentioned freeware programs is a good bet regardless of what you choose to edit with.

[GrassValley_BH]

There's a free 30-day trial download of our EDIUS software too! :)