As an example.....With 20 minutes of HD footage from a HV20 and using Vegas Movie Studio 7 or something similar how much time would be involved from importing to burning a DVD? Lets say there are six scenes and I want to add some transitions between the different scenes along with music. I would like to know more about the editing process as it pertains to how much time is involved to produce a nice simple DVD.
Jake

Eight grand kids to get on HD

That depends completely how complicated your timeline is and how powerful your machine is. My timelines are HDV and usually about 50 minutes long. A non complicated timeline (1/2 dozen transtions, a few title overlays, maybe a pic in pic) will take about 2.5 hours to render and another 20 to 30 minutes to burn (Plus the 50 minutes needed for capture and your edit time). But I have had 50 minute timelines go on rendering for as long as 6 full days.... a lot of complicated effects and filters will do that. (I should point out that this is with Vegas 7 and not vegas movie studio)

So the bottom line is that it can not REALLY be answered with any accuracy... there are a whole host of variables that will totally change completion times.

That depends completely how complicated your timeline is and how powerful your machine is. My timelines are HDV and usually about 50 minutes long. A non complicated timeline (1/2 dozen transtions, a few title overlays, maybe a pic in pic) will take about 2.5 hours to render and another 20 to 30 minutes to burn (Plus the 50 minutes needed for capture and your edit time). But I have had 50 minute timelines go on rendering for as long as 6 full days.... a lot of complicated effects and filters will do that. (I should point out that this is with Vegas 7 and not vegas movie studio)

So the bottom line is that it can not REALLY be answered with any accuracy... there are a whole host of variables that will totally change completion times.



Thanks for your reply blackbill I appreciate it. I had no idea that HD editing was so labor intensive, you folks must have a lot of patience. I'm still going to get a HD camcorder but won't let the editing software deter me. When you purchase a HD camcorder does the manufacturer include any beginner editing software?
Thanks
Jake

Again, it all depends on how complicated you want to get... you can pop something onto a disk inside of a couple of hours if you really want. But timelines can get pretty complicated. I had one that I just finished which took about 1.5 months to do... and now I have to render it!

This one should be pretty good though... it's a multi shoot edit that involves a cartoonizer filter... it's a filter that takes video and redraws it in terms of a painted or penciled form... pretty neat!!

On the supplied software side... most often NOT... and if they do supply... don't expect much!

My Sony HDR-SR1 just came with software called Picture Motion Browser (weird name IMO).

It is not really an editing program, but it will let you do several things:
-trim clips
-convert to mpeg 2 for use in other programs that you might have on your PC already like Windows Movie Maker
-create standard and HD DVD's with selected clips
-export what you want back to your camera

It's definitely not a powerful editing suite, but at least it's a (small) start.
I used it to export video for my son's school project into WMM, where I edited it and added some stuff, then burnt a DVD to play in class on a regular TV.

I will be purchasing Sony Vegas 7 for real editing once they prove that they are providing AVCHD support and it is out "this spring." :rolleyes: