This may be a totally newbie question and I apologize in advance.
We have a Sony DCR-SR40 HDD Handycam. It's a decent video camera, but we have problems doing basic editing and converting the video files to DVD.
I've tried the Sony software that came with the camcorder, but it's practically useless. We've tried NeroVision Express and Sonic with very mixed results. Nero has sound issues that cause playback audio to have popping and clipping during moderately loud and low frequency audio (such as a man's voice talking loudly on camera).
Question:
What is my best practice for creating DVDs from my Sony HDD camcorder?
We would like to edit, but nothing complex is required. We typically edit out bad scenes and then create a menu. We also merge many scenes into one longer video file.
I would be willing to try Pinnacle, but it looks pricey. I have an older version from a few years ago, I think it's 6 or 7, that I never even installed on our old Windows 98 machine. I'll have to check the exact version. Is the newer version the way to go?
My current pc is an HP 1510 with Athlon 64 3800+ CPU and 2GB of DDR2 RAM about on year old. It runs Windows Media Center. I believe graphics are integrated...(GeForce?).
Thanks for anyone's help,input and advice. Just want to make some simple decent dvds with good quality video (understanding the limitations with mpeg2 and the camcorder).
BTW, we also have a Sony Digital 8 (DCR TRV740) camcorder which is about 4 years old, but tagged as "questionable" for reliability. Which is why we use the new one with the Hard Disc Drive storage.
