Code Crunching

Well, I bought a small Sony Handycam (HDR-SR5E), with a 40 GB hard drive and Full HD resolution. It is a nice video camera, though I am wondering a few things... First, isn't Full HD supposed to be 1920x1080 pixels, so why do all software applications coming with it give me a maximum resolution of 1440x1080 pixels? Would someone enlighten me, please? Next, speaking of the software - why does Sony advertise it is Vista compatible, yet nowhere they tell you, that they only support the 32 bit version of Vista (and Windows XP). You cannot even install it on Vista 64 bit. Well, you can install it, if you wish to trash your Vista installation, since you better have a backup to boot Vista 64 bit again. Honestly, the software can be installed on a Vista x64 machine, it just will not boot again, and yes, I had a clean Vista installation, only 7zip and Adobe Acrobat Reader installed so far...

So, the software they give you lacks most important features, does not run as advertised nad has a lousy MPEG-conversion. So who can name a few good low- to medium-priced software packages to edit AVCHD videos and create full featured DVDs, later Blu-Ray/HD DVD, which currently is not quiet as important, though.

Thanks in advance!