Here it is, the program everyone with a high definition camcorder has been waiting for! Now you can finally edit the ACVHD format and HDV just the same as you can edit other formats. Just in case you're new to editing and don't know, you can't edit HD footage in standard programs like movie maker because it just can't read it. Anyone familiar with movie maker though will be able to jump in Vegas within 10 minutes and you'll soon discover some of the powerful features that this program has.
Unlike basic editing programs where you can just fade in and out on this you can control the speed of the fade, the colour it fades to and other things. There are easily 100 transitions to use with variations of each, all the usual stuff is here and tons more including a very handy 5.1 surround sound tool so you can make your films more atmospheric even if you didn't film in surround. I'm glad this program finally lets you edit HD footage at a sensible price, up until now Vegas 8 has cost £300 and here's a version for a fraction of that price. What the differences are between this and the normal Vegas 8 I'm not sure but I can't see that it lacks any features that matter.
The drawback of HD editing as you'll find is the sheer amount of room it takes. Even at just 720p you're looking at 200 meg per 5 minutes up to 338 meg for fully blown 1080p with 5.1 surround sound. You also need a powerful pc to run it, minimum recommended is a 3Ghz PC with 512mb of ram and a 128mb graphics card. Even with a fast PC though expect it to take several hours to record a movie over an hour in length.
Until the day Sony bundles this software with their HD camcorders as I believe they should then why not drop this into your basket as well?