NLE and two "preview screens"
 

I have a m675 (hyperthreading I think) Windows XP Pentium (R) 4 cpu 3.4 GHZ with 1 gb and sigma tel major audio and ATI Radeon 9700 128 MB.

I'm just starting out with video editing so I don't want to get too expensive. Downloaded a trial version of Sony Vegas Movie Studio and while it looked like I could eventually pick it up I didn't like that it had only one view screen.

I had a chance to use Final Cut Pro and really liked that when splicing two scenes together I could choose exactly where the splice would go. And I could best choose where the splice went because I could see the two splice joints (I hope this is making sense.) Vegas Movie Studio only shows one screen.

I want a simple NLE with a timeline, ability to choose which video/section of video I'm working on, and hopefully a simple user interface. (What I didn't like about AvidFree is you open it up and it's "busy" - lots of little screens everywhere.)

Can someone recommend another NLE software, hopefully decently priced?

Dare,

What you are describing is the basic "Source/Record" interface. Avid made it popular, and many NLE's recreate the look. As you've noticed, FCP and Premiere both have "Souce/Record" modes. You can also alter Avid so that it's interface has as many 'screens' as you call them, (Bins is Avid's term, from film terminology) as you like - open at a time.(You can cut with one 'monitor' or two, or one monitor for each open clip.) I'm not sure about Avid Free, but the interface is completely customizable in Avid Xpress on up in the line. Never used Liquid, but I'm told it can emulate the look as well.

Interesting to note, that while Vegas doesn't emulate the look, Sony's professional system XPRI does. I expect as some point, the style will migrate down to Vegas.

Program similar to Womble, but more sophisticated?
 

I tried Womble and liked it, although it's a little to simple for my needs. But the user interface is good. Is there a program out there that is more sophisticated than Womble but with a similar interface? Thanks.

Dare,
Never heard of Womble, can't comment on it.

How much money to you have to spend?

I think I'm going with liquid
 

I have about $250 to spend, but I think I'm going to have to scrape a bit more money together.

I've seen some previews of Liquid and it seems right for me (very similar to FCP, which is the videoediting system I used first. It does three point editing and so does FCP.)

I wish Liquid had a system where you can download and try for 30 days. Oh no, they have to send you a demo in the mail. However if the demo works well on my computer it looks like the right editing system for me.

I think I'll go with Liquid 6 if I can find a copy at a decent price which allows me to download updates. While I plan to get an HDV camera (sony hc1) I don't think my computer will currently handle HDV editing perse. But I will upgrade eventually to a new computer and then I'll be all set.