These are my programs, what's best to use?
 

Hey all,

These are the programs I have:

Cyberlink Power Director
Pinnacle Studio 10
Roxio Easy Media Creator 9
DVDIT Pro HD
HDVSplit

I have a Sony Blu-Ray burner and Samsung Blu-Ray player so I'm all set for HD. Most of my movies are of travel and some family gatherings. I don't think I'll use/need the 24p too much for what I use the camera for. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

Can someone tell me what program(s) out of the ones I have are best to use? I would like best quality video I can get with titles, chapters, transitions and menus then burn to Blu-Ray. Is there a difference between each of the mpg files that the programs capture the video? All but HDVSplit come in as mpg. Is one program better to capture and another to edit and or do transitions etc.? Of course the fewer programs I need to use the better.


Thanks!


Mike

Any ideas? Suggestions?

Mike

Michael, What you have listed there are programs that could be all used in your workflow... from using the HDVsplit for injest, to the DVDit for Blu Ray
output...

you just need to get to work and shoot some footage and play with the software you have there...

Hmmm..It seems that none of the programs I have recognize the M2T files that HDVSplit captures.

Mike

I can't speak directly to any of the software you are using, but generally I've had success getting programs to open .m2t files simply by renaming them .mpg files.

how much was your bluray burner?

Are there any drawbacks or information lost by renaming the M2T files?

Blu-Ray burner was $400 at a local CompUsa that was closing. I really wasn't even in the market for one yet but the price was a couple of hundred less then what it was going for elsewhere so I couldn't pass up the deal.

Mike

Mike,

I don't know if you've firmed it up, but like Ray said, you may need several programs for your work flow. It really depends on what you become most creative comfortably with and what your final project work is.

I've been using Pinnacle for a couple of years now and just upgraded to Studio 11 Ultimate. The nice feature in Studio is it's geared for the kind of things you said you like to film (travel and family gatherings). You can lay down your footage and add music to the timeline, specify some preferences and click on "make movie." This process may offend the purist, however, you can put together some fun things quite quickly. You can "tweak" the production further and personalize it very easily with prefab titles and more. Pinnacle is great for using stills and applying the pan and zoom effects for family memorobilia, photos, etc.

I've use Roxio Media Creator to build a number of my Pinnacle projects into a DVD with menus. It's (in my experience) easier to choose, select and build your DVD project than Pinnalce. The menu choices are nice and you can import your own graphics if you want. I've tinkered with it's editing interface, however, I still prefer Pinnacle.

The two I've worked with are both basic (non-professional) programs, but it boils down to what your personal preferences and creativity lean toward.

Good luck,

Jeff

Michael - I am using Pinnacle 10.7 for HD capture, editing and creating DVDs. You will definitely need to download the latest update but you will also have to pay $50 to get the HD addon to capture and work with those HD files even if you don't capture with Pinnacle. You might be better off rather than buying the HD plugin to buy the version of Pinnacle 11 that supports HD. Now most people around here will tell you that Pinnacle is for amatuers but it accomplishes most everything I want out of an NLE. I may try Vegas 7 but I like Pinnacle when it finally reaches a version level that works. I hear that 11 hasn't had all the difficulties that previous versions have had. Maybe they finally are getting it right.

You'll have to look at your book on Roxio to see if it supports burning to BluRay. I'm not sure about it. Burining to BluRay is a very cutting edge prospect. I suspect that you have a lot to deal with when you get that for in your project. I personally use and like Nero for all by CD/DVD burning needs and it comes free with most all the DVD/CD drives that you buy as upgrades.

Hey John,

Yes, it seems Pinnacle 11 Ultimate is working much better, with fewer crashes. (I upgraded to Ulitmate 11). I've been doing my projects on a laptop for the most part, as I was mainly using digital photos shot on "road trips" for presentation purposes. I added a 7200 rpm external firewire drive and this squelched the frequency of crashing.

I'm building a new tower system for my home studio which hopefully really make Pinnacle more robust AND able to do it all in HD. I thought about moving up to Liquid, maybe even Xpress Pro... we'll see. Pinnacle really has worked out for me as an all around NLE as well.

Good point about the Blu-ray support in Roxio. Although I haven't done it yet, Easy CD Creator does support it.

Best of luck guys.