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I have the trial version of VS11.5Plus and am working on a project to decide if I want to buy it. However, seeing that a v.12 is supposed to be coming out, I may wait. I have v.8, but never really used it. I've been using Roxio's Media Creator. I like it, but it crashes way too often. I like the stability with VS.

I trimmed a clip, but now want to use the entire clip. I can't figure out how to undo what I did a day or two ago. I know how to use the Undo arrow, but not to go way back to somewhere in the beginning of my work.

I went to Multi-trim and it shows the entire clip, but the part I trimmed is grayed out. I can't figure out how to "ungray" it

My second question is whether VS can show a gauge showing how much time is left for a DVD. In Roxio, it shows a timeline for a DVD, then shows the part that would be used with the current project. It can be changed for different qualities of burn. I find this very helpful in doing compilations from TV, where I put several different shows on one DVD, minus commercials.

I'm sorry if the answers are somewhere on the forum. I've spent a couple of hours searching and found lots of good tips, but not to my two questions. Thanks for any help you can give~

The hard one first.....

Item 12 are termed "Trim Handles" - simply drag them apart to "untrim" what you have trimmed!

Next the easy bit. Unless your completed video is going to be very, very long - then at this stage don't worry about things being able to fit. when you have completed your editing - if you follow My suggested workflow then you will create a DVD compliant MPEG2 file before moving onto the next stage - authoring a DVD. This is simply a matter of setting the appropriate bit rates so that it will fit.

Suggested bit rates

Thanks for your quick, easy-to-follow response! Out of dumb luck by pushing and pulling on everything I could find on the screen, I happened to discover the answer for my trimming problem just about the same time as I got the e-mail saying I had a response

I know you don't make the program, but it sure would be nice if the help file was a part of the demo. I wonder how many people don't buy the program because they have nothing to help guide them? Maybe they need to at least offer it as an option for those who want it. Anyway, thanks for being my Help File

For the 2nd question about size for disk....how do you know how much to put on the project if you don't know how it's filling up? I'm not sure I even understand what I just wrote......but I know that I don't want to take the time to edit six half-hour tv shows, get my beginning and ending that I put on all of my projects, plus whatever extras that I want to add and then find out it won't all fit except in very low quality.

Your flow chart is very clear and it's what I pretty much do. I guess I just got too used to having that nice little gauge on the bottom of my workspace on the other program I was using. I'm trying to give VS a fair shot, but I feel like my 30-day trial is ticking away faster than my brain can figure things out.

I really do appreciate your help!

If you click on Steve's link to suggested bit rates you will see that if you use 8000 kbps (high quality) you can get about an hours worth on a 4.7 GB DVD. At 4000 kbps (slightly better than VHS quality) you can get 90-120 minutes on a DVD.

So you can go about it a couple of ways. If quality is important to you then you know that your project cannot exceed 60 minutes. If fitting 6 thirty minute TV shows on 1 DVD is important, then your project can be about 180 minutes long, but you'll have to lower the bit rate when you burn, or use a compressor such as DVD Shrink.

You need to concentrate on the duration of the completed video not the file size - anything longer than "Ben Hur" and it will be boring!

You can then make it fit on either a single layer or dual layer DVD dependant upon your own personal preferences - you do so by setting the various bit rates as I mentioned above. Very Best Quality on a single layer DVD using standard definition video = 1 hour. Just like long play on a VHS tape player you can use lower bit rates and get 90 minutes, 2 hours - even 3 if your happy with the lower quality. (3 hours is however pushing it a bit!)

You can download a copy of the manual here:
Program Manuals
We also have a comprehensive Tutorials Forum

In particular you may find this one useful
From Camcorder to DVD with Video Studio

Thanks to both of you for your help. I have the manual saved. I tried to download it earlier today, but it hung up. Maybe not as much traffic tonight. Anyway, for a minute of download time I got what I've been wanting Thanks for the link!

Thanks also for ideas on how much to plan on per DVD. I've made more complicated ones before, in high quality, but for now I'm just trying to save some documentaries off of TV that are piling up on my various hard drives. Who knows if we'll ever watch them more than once? Quality isn't an issue....I just don't want a ton of DVDs laying around. I'll probably go for six half-hour shows per DVD, but that's really only about two hours of video once the commercials are deleted.

I'm trying to do enough playing around with menus, effects, etc. to see how I like VS and figured I might as well clean out some of the old recorded shows from the hard drives while I'm doing it. I need to figure out which video program I want to use, then learn to use it really well. I've gotten used to Roxio, but I don't like the crashing. I've really had no stability issues with VS11.5, but I think I'll probably end up waiting to see if version 12 is released soon.

Thanks again for your help!

To store TV programs for later viewing (once) and then deletion, rather than creating a DVD, you can transfer them onto the computer - cut the adverts out with VideoStudio and store them as plain video files - perhaps MPEG4.

If your TV is one of these modern flat screen jobs it will probably have a VGA plug so that it can double up as a computer monitor, plus a line in jack plug for sound. You can get very long VGA cables - I have one 15 feet long though the shop I bought it from also had some 50 foot long!

Now use your computer like a "Sky+" box or "Tivo" and simply watch the video on your TV straight off the computer. You can then delete it when you've finished. anything you want to keep you convert into a DVD disc.

No such luck of having a big screen....but we're too busy editing videos and photos (using PI) to watch TV anyway....hence, saved TV shows. I keep buying hard drives, but DVDs are cheaper and smaller

Most of what I'm saving are documentaries about San Diego and CA, other travel shows and history. Some of our friends/family might want to see parts of them or grandkids use them for school reports, so I want to keep them, but they don't need to be top-class.

This mainly gives me a chance to play around with the video program so I'll be ready to tackle all of our videocamera tapes

I do have a tv tuner card, so I save the shows onto the computer and programs that we don't want to keep, we watch on my monitor while eating lunch. and just fast forward through the commercials.

Thanks!