Avid Xpress Pro HD...

another vote for FCP & DVDSP

Vegas 8 Pro. I started on Vegas movie studio 7 Platinum, then on to Movie Studio 8 Plantinum, then to 8 Pro. If you aren't using more than 4 video channels and 4 audio channels and aren't syncing multiple cameras, give Vegas Movie Studio Platinum a try. It's less than $100 and extremely powerful. It also is extremely similar to Vegas Pro. Its a low-risk, low-cost way to edit and see if you like the Vegas system.

V8Pro + DVDA5 now pretty happy with it, although it has it's quirks and crashes. Burned discs are good and compatible with ever player I throw them at, including now HD on standard DVDs in a BR player!

in the past...
Used Magix, liked it a lot, good multitrack capability, but at the time I used it, the burned disc compatibility was not so good...

Used Ulead Video studio - came with a firewire card for free, was worth quite a lot more... got a good start for me with a "real" NLE!

Movie studio (yeah the included Microsoft thing) - nice toy... took one look, didn't bother.

Sony Vegas studio... switched to this and finally got good compatibility of the burned DVD's, eventually went "pro"

In short, NLE agnostic, only thing I care about is how well the final product turns out and if the DVD plays (and all the menus work properly!!!) in whatever player I toss it into...

CS3. I've been using Adobe since Premier 1. I've also used FAST (one of the first hardware NLEs for the PC) and Media 100.

I really liked the Media 100, but I'm a PC guy now.

I just made the switch from a core 2 quad and cs4 to an octo mac and FCS2 and man my machine just chews thru video like butter. I couldn't be more happy.

Just looking at my current project, with barely any actually editing done... just putting the media on the timeline, I have 26 tracks. This is from a three camera shoot. That track limitation is pretty restrictive when you want better audio.

I played with a ULead system. I demo'ed Avid & PP. I checked out Liquid (could not stand the interface). I DL'ed Vegas 6 and it just made sense. The user interface was perfect for someone that had not been a NLE editor before. I jumped to pro because I never even considered that I might not need the many tracks, CC wheels, scripting, etc. Scripting has been a massive advantage for me (and a money earner for VASST). I got the bundled DVDA and have only ever used it for DVD authoring. I skipped V7 (no real improvements for my needs). I re-upped to V8. Not sure if I'll need the next one because i have no 64bit hardware / OS and I'm not shooting HD yet.

I don't know if there is any point in this thread. I love the Liquid interface. Which just goes to show how much it boils down to personal preference.

I totally agree. For some reason, the Liquid GUI just didn't make sense to me. I couldn't wrap my head around how to work it.

I think it also helped that I found DVInfo and there was pages and pages of great tips & tutorials available (and on VASST, and JetDV) for Vegas. I just saw the huge community and went with the NLE that seemed like it was the easiest to start right in with out the steep learning curve. Different brains work different ways

(my wife might say that my brain doesn't so much "work" as mysteriously function on nothing but coffee and oatmeal).