Editing Software for hfs100?

[Sparkee]

Stored the analog tape hi8 away forever as it was too difficult to transfer files and I never used it so I finally saved up enough and bought an hf s100 and am loving it. Now I need some suggestions for editing software. I am new to digital editing and need all the help I can get.
Directions to good learning sites would be appreciated also


Just upgraded my rig to 6 gb of ram and a 3.2 ghz quad phenom so I have plenty of horsepower. I may go to a 64 bit os soon, I have tried windows 7 and like it but right now I am running xp 32. I can continue to run the 64 bit beta so I might just buy 64 bit software and use it on win7 as dual boot.
Now for my big question:


Which is best -- and is the learning curve on the apps hard?

Pinnacle 12 - Vegas 9 - Premiere ?

or would something simpler like magix movie maker pro be better to start with?

[Milnoc]

What I like about Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum:

- It's cheaper than all the pro-priced editors (about $100, but you're limited to four audio tracks and four video tracks).
- It doesn't alter in any way your existing source material.
- It can work with Canon's MTS files along with a ton of other file formats, both standard definition and high definition.
- You can install it on more than one machine in your household without encountering any licensing issues (the EULA covers this).
- It works perfectly under Windows XP and Windows 7 (won't install under Windows 2000 and below).
- It doesn't require a super computer to work properly (although your high definition source material may have other ideas).

[Rainer]

Just another vote for VMSP. I can edit my HSF10 footage natively on my Pentium 4 (although render times are painful, but this won't be a problem on your quad). As well Milnoc's above points, I especially like that the VMSP interface isn't dumbed down, it looks like the pro version, making it easy to switch between the two if later you feel you have to upgrade.

[Milnoc]

I forgot one more shortcoming about the Platinum Edition that MIGHT be critical depending on what you're doing: it only supports audio formats up to 48 KHz and 16 bits. It won't support 96/24. However, I do believe the Pro edition does.

Also, it won't render mp3 audio tracks above 56 kbps. But I found an easy workaround for that. I first encode in raw audio, then use VirtualDub to re-encode the audio track to whichever mp3 bitrate I choose using the LAME encoder.

I tried to use LAME in Vegas, but it kept crashing the render at start-up. It's a bit strange considering Vegas has no trouble using the independent XviD encoder, or any of the ffdshow encoders at my disposal. I never did get around to resolving the audio problem since the extra step takes so little time to complete.