My system isn't the greatest, but I want to start getting into HD video anyway. My new camera is a Sony HDR SR-12. Which editing program would you recommend for a PC with these specs?

Vista 32 Bit
AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3200+ 2.20 GHz
2047 MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
500 Gig Seagate HD

My Dell XPS laptop has better specs. Is it possible to work on one machine, but let another computer on your network do the final render?

Any commercial (i.e. not the bundled stuff) video editing program will run about the same speed... they differ some in the rendering speeds, but the actual work will probably be the same.

You have to get into higher-end software (like Vegas Pro) to be able to use other computers on the network to do the rendering. Of course, you could install any software on both, work on one, and then move all the projects files and clips over manually, and kick off a render.

Here is a quick fix that will work, convert your HD files to .avi with an online video converter (avs4you.com) is one that I use, and then just use Windows Movie Maker if you just need to do some basic editing.

I know I will get slammed by some for saying this, but I happen to like Movie Maker, its free, its already on my PC and I just need basic editing features, so it works fine for my needs.

I have converted HD files to .avi to make them compatible with Movie Maker and saw no difference in the video quality.

Just an idea for a quick fix that will work on a slower/weak PC.

Cheers
Davyo

Thanks for the info, guys. If I do decide I need a more sophisticated editing program, is there one that's better than the rest when it comes to smart rendering?

Videostudio 11.5 plus has smart proxy functionality which allows you to edit a low resolution copy of your HD material. Then it renders the actual HD material (which would take a long time on your computer), but at least the editing would not lag. However, I have not heard whether this program works well. In theory it sounds great.