I bought a DV cam on boxing day (Panasonic PV-GS13), and then went on a week-long snowboarding trip to the mountains. I now have three hours of footage (some of the mountains, but most is a bunch of drunk guys (us) chasing women).

Now I want to:
1) Edit the footage to cut out the crap, group the related scenes together, add music, etc.
2) Create a DVD with the completed product, including menus, bonus features, commentary, etc.

Since I just got the camera now, I have no experience with it yet... therefore I'm not sure which software would complete these tasks the best. Can any of you offer a recommendation?

Thanks.

I found that Pinnacle Studio was the easist to pick up on without reading the directions!

Adobe Premier and Vegas video are good too, so you may want to start out with those three and see which you like best. Then you can post the video of the naked women in the Catwalk section!

Although this is software related, it's specific to this forum - hence, I moved it.

As for your question - Pinnacle Studio is too buggy for my blood - Studio 9 is much better than Studio 8, but it's still buggy.

Adobe Premiere Elements on the otherhand has the stability and reliability of Premiere Pro without the learning curve. You can't do as much, but the stuff you'll want to do, you can - including create a DVD.

Holy crap... I think I ate a dumb-cake.
I was just assuming that Premiere Elements was an addition to Premiere Pro.
As in, if you have Premiere Pro, get Premiere Elements to add functionality, etc, to Premiere Pro.

I guess it's a stand-alone program, eh?
Jeez... guess I should do more research next time.

(Still new to the world of video editing).

Pinnacle is the simplest to catch on but if you already have camera it means you will be doing some shooting so it worth learning a little more advanced software.
Adobe premiere and encore [for dvd creation] should serve you for long time.

ditto sproutme really...as you've spent some decent bucks on a camera learning premiere, even in its cut down elements form will definately give you a better grounding than other entry level editing packages.

encores a nice dvd creation program and opens up lots of the dvd design spec. it might be a bit of a leap in the dark to someone new to dvd tho so getting a simple drag and drop program might get you up and running quicker. or if you want to dabble in DVD creation then getting a trial of DVDlab would be my number one recommendation.

Awai.

Thank for all the help, guys!
I currently have Premiere Pro, Premiere Elements, Encore DVD, and Adobe Audition.
Having some fun dabbling with these for now...