Alright, first off I hope im in the right section to start. Im trying to decide on what program would be best for editing...
Since this is my first time in this forum I guess Ill just give a rundown on what I have and what im trying to do. Were making a 15-20 movie about whatever, not some home videos. I just need basic editing, music, sounds effects, some video effects in Adobe AE (really just for muzzle flashes). Im not a super pro or anything, Ive done editing on an oldschool iMac using iMovie and FinalCut, which seemed to be infintely more simple and less frustrating than what im running into now..

Im shooting with a JVC Everio GZ-HD7 camcorder. I need to find a program that can (smoothly!) import, edit and export while hopefully keeping at least 1280x720 reso. I mean why even shoot in HD if I cant keep it that quality. I can live with lesser quality for burning to DVD, but Id like to keep the master film or w/e in HD so I can upload to vimeo first off, and then if I ever get a HDDVD burner in the future I can throw it on that.

I have Premiere CS3 3.0 and After Effects, best case scenario id like to be able to use that. I like the timeline and tools Premiere gives me, I find it easy to navigate and it seems professional but pretty straight forward at the same time. First problem is my HD7 gives me TOD files which Premiere does not support. I have to convert these to AVI first off using Ulead 11.5 or WinAVI. Ulead sucks for editing, cutting clips and stuff. And it seems hard to organize all my clips.
Next problem, when I import my converted AVI into Premiere, for some reason theres no HDV project options, I can only do NTSC/PAL DV which messes with my reso. I mean the folder thing for HDV is there, but there arent any presets in it, and custom wont let me go higher than 720x480. And when I do try to edit in a DV project, its soooo slow. I throw my clips in scene preview and the audio plays in realtime but I get like 1 new frame every 5 seconds. Funny thing is Ulead plays my whole clip fine, barely any snags. If Ulead had a nice workspace like Premiere i could live with it.

I dont think its my computer, I just bought a brand new Gateway laptop. Its Intel Core2 Duo, with 4gb ram and ATI HD 2600 gfx card at 512mb. Heres the specs.. Gateway Official Site: Shop - Notebooks - M-6864 FX Laptop Product Details

I feel my only solution is 'getting a mac' which im kind of kicking myself for not doing in the first place. Thats really all i can think of right now, and since this post is getting way too long i guess ill leave it at that. If you have any ideas why something might not be working with whatever or suggestions to point me in the right direction id really appreciate it!

I'd be inclined to use PowerDirector, which it's supplied with and I have to use to help out a friend of my wife who regularly also has problems with incompatibility on a JVC HDD cam, but hers is not HD so don't know if this will help. There's always been talk that the file format is really .mpg, but renamed for copyright reasons, so sometimes just renaming the files works apparently, but it didn't for me as I ended up with all the vertical lines turning into zig zags. So to overcome her problem I searched around on videohelp.com and found this which seems to work:

-Turn on pc
-Connect Everio to pc with USB cable
-Turn on Everio
-See 2 choices on Everio screen, click 'Playback on PC'
-Close any programs that will open automatically on your pc (I think PowerCinema, another program that comes with the Everio, opens but close this)
-On pc open Power Director (PD) software that came with Everio
-In PD, Click on the folder button (turns yellow on mouse over) in upper left corner of screen directly under 'Capture' button.
-See dropdown menu click 'open media folder'
-Look for drive that says EVERIO_HDD (K and open it
-I guess it will depend on what you are doing and what you are uploading (either video or stills, file format, etc may be in various folders your Everio instruction manual can help you with this) but you can start by trying SD_VIDEO then PRG001 for vids and click 'OK' and that should get you going
-Allow computer time to convert files and then you will see your files populate in the media viewer

From here you can use PowerDirector to edit video. However, if you would like to edit video in another program such as Premiere do the following to store them in a folder in Windows:

-In PD drag any files you want to transfer to the timeline then click the 'Produce' button at top of PD screen
-A produce window opens with a number of options
-To specify the folder you want to send the files to, see the button 'Output to' near lower left of window
-On the right see 'Step 1' and 4 boxes, click the 'Create a File' box and click the green arrow below
-Step 2 opens and choose file type, you can start with DV-AVI (select .avi) and click green arrow
-Step 3 opens and click the green check mark at bottom
-Allow the computer time to produce the movie and click the green check mark again after it is done.
-Open the folder you have saved your files to see the files
-Then open your video editing software such as Premiere and import the files

Credit for this needs to go to 'pschlob' from USA on that forum. It's a helluva fuss, JVC shot themselves in the foot on that one.

On the CS3 problem, I take it you are starting a new project, and are you saying you can't select the HD project options? Beacuse the way it reads your importing then trying to select the options, which you can't do, you can only set the project from the get go.

I think I read through that thread you quoted there earlier..
I dont think PowerDirector will work. I still have to convert to AVI to get it to import my clips (it hangs at 5% when i try to import the straight TOD file).

And youre right, I think TOD is MPG but with 4 extra bytes of info per frame or something...
But my Premiere still wont import MPG :/
It only seems to import AVI or Quicktime video, and WAV audio (not even MP3)

And for the CS3 think, yea before even importing, I fire up Premiere, go New Project and I cant choose the HD option at all. Im forced to choose DV, so when I throw my HD footage into the timeline, it doesnt fit into the box.
But I mean I cant even watch my footage in Premiere because its so choppy...

So Ulead and PD play it fine but dont have the editing tools
Premiere has the editing tools but wont play my footage...

Edit: The lag in Premiere is only when I use my HD footage though. I took some low quality shots from my Sony Netcam and i can edit and everything and it runs really smooth...

It's odd, but it seems like the computer isn't man enough to deal with the processing, which doesn't make sense considering the comps spec. I guess you're using the internal HDD on the comp.

I wonder if there's a missing codec, hence why the program is not letting you use the HD option is settings. I've had something disapear before now because a program I installed overwrote the codec with an inferior one, but can't recall what that was all about at the mo. All I can say is that re-installing the effected program cured it.

One to sleep on I think.

I grabbed Edius v4.0
It works flawlessly

Directly imports my MPG/TOD and plays them back perfectly

I guess Adobe is garbage?

dose Edius work with TOD in real time?
which setting do you chose for edit TOD files in Edius?

It looks as if it your camera might be AVCHD I see the camera does 1920x1080, if this is the case Premiere needs Mainconcept MPEG Pro plugin. if it is AVCHD then the files are probably MTS or M2TS files you could try renaming them. if you are having trouble editing with Ulead have you got smart proxy swithed on, and have you found the extra 6 overlay tracks it has.

i work with edius.avid liquid.final cut pro and as our friend said TOD files
works well with Edius.i want to know if it works in real time?

OP said - " I guess Adobe is garbage? "

Well frankly no - it is avchd that is crap.

Hi Mark, AVCHD......Not a problem as long as you keep to XP and stay away from Apple, it's just at the stage DV avi was until Premiere 6 came out, at the moment programs are laging behind.