Originally posted this in the Photo/Video forum, but that place is like a ghost town.

Just got the ContourHD and shot my first footage this last weekend in 960 Tall. Some ok/decent material to work with, so I gave my first shot at editing. I tried a few programs and it seems Sony Vegas Platinum HD 9.0 (on Windows XP) met more than my needs and looked to be cheap (still using trial version).

If anyone just wants a cheap (free) tool to losslessly cut and merge HD video up to 5 minutes long, check out AVS Video Remake. It worked great to cut the size of some of the videos I had when I forgot to turn off the camera. Much easier to use than any other tool I tried, even the expensive ones. Probably pretty easy to add a soundtrack to that using some other free tool. I might just use this tool from here on out, if I can find a free way to do the audio editing (or just add a soundtrack).

The ContourHD Storyteller program is a POS. Clicking and dragging the timeline locks up the user interface with the 'hand' cursor.

Process:
1) move video files off the ContourHD and onto the hard drive
2) import each media file into the project
2) set markers for the beginning and end of each interesting segment
3) choose the order in which I wanted each segment
4) use the selection tool to copy between the markers
5) paste each segment into the 'video' stream (it appeared to also copy audio)
6) Overlap each segment by 1/2 second
7) add a transition to each overlap
8) add a 1/2 second fade out to the last segment
9) render video (Sony AVCHD mp4 internet, quality was 500kbps, I think?)

Questions:
1) Any tips or improvements to my editing process above?
2) How do most people render their HD footage in this program (what settings)?
3) Where do people get their music from so as to avoid problems with copyright?
4) Why does everything look so f'ing flat? Can I fix that?
5) How do you text overlays?

Also, for some reason, I have no audio. I also noticed no audio when rendering AVI previews. When I play the individual media files, I get audio. The 'Voice' stream appears to have audio tracks copied, but the line is flat - I assume that I should see the soundwave line. What did I do wrong?

Any suggestions/criticisms on the editing/shooting job would also be very helpful.

Todo list:
1) ask Ullr for more snow at Beaver Creek
2) tighten up my goggles and helmet to reduce some of the shakey-cam
3) make sure the recorder button is fully clicked into 'record' mode', so it doesn't stop recording in the middle of a line
4) do more line scoping so I can tape longer/more fluid segments
5) add music

Thanks!
Brian

Here's the output: