Basicly, I need to get the video from my camcorder and then edit it, and finally burn it to DVD. I have a mini-dv camcorder and a fire wire card. I just want to get some opinions on freeware programs that will help me get this done. Thanks, Roy
You can transfer from the camera with WinDV and edit with either VirtualDub or AviSynth. All of those apps are free. AviSynth has a steeper learning curve, but I personally think it's easier after you've played with it for a very short time. VirtualDub has the advantage of being GUI based, as opposed to AviSynth using text files with instructions on what operations to perform. Where you'll run into problems going all free is in an MPEG encoder. TEMPGEnc is free for MPEG-1 encoding and has 30 days of free MPEG-2 encoding. It's also very reasonably priced if you want to buy it after you try it out. On the other hand it's a little buggy and might make you decide to buy stock in an aspirin company. CCE Basic is a little more expensive (about $10-$15) but also a much better encoder. It's big brother (CCE SP) is the gold standard in MPEG encoders and they both use the same encoding engine. Unfortunately there isn't a fully functional trial version. The trial only encodes 3 minutes of video at a time. For authoring DVDs, there are a couple of free possibilities, IfoEdit and Rejig (and maybe more I'm not thinking of), but unless you want to get deeply into the structure of IFO files you won't be able to do anything fancy.
