Hi, I'm a newbie...and completely overwhelmed right now. I worked for several hours on a project in movie maker only to discover MM doesn't support mpeg2 so I can't do anything with it. They really need to say, "Hey, you're using a file that we don't support..." or something. What a waste of time dor me.

I have a new camera: Sony DCR sr42 (hard disc). I called the Sony tech line...no help. Don't even want to go there. They were ABSOLUTELY clueless and were reading off scripts and had no idea what my problem was. But they did suggest I get Vegas.

I did. At least the trial version.

With Vegas I have converted my mpeg2 files into .avi, but it adds .slf on it so my video could not be used on youtube (which is where I'd like to put the video that is in limbo).
So I tried .mov but the rendered product was useless, (completely choppy, both video and audio) not even viewable.

I have also tried SUPER to convert the files but that program is not newbiw friendly. All the files converted but were the quality was diminished my 80%...they looked like the brightness was turned all the way and some had vertical lines.

...what are my options here? My intentions: to edit and make movies for burning and to post for friends and family on youtube. Do I have the wrong camera? Is mpeg2 the wrong format for doing this easily?

Oh, I also downloaded adobe premier and the quality was diminished to a pixilated mess too.

Thanks for any help.

...I've found the youtube tutorial and I do believe I've got it now.

BUT....every format that I render the video to is horrible quality. I did a test...wmv and it was the best I could get (and Vegas is probably too complicated for me, but it's the only one that will easily convert mpeg2 from hdd, I think):



YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

The original video (from cam to computer) has a lot of detail. Where does it go?