I picked up Final Cut Pro on eBay for $499. It was actually version 1.2.5 and an upgrade to 4, so the install process was a bit bizarre, but I saved $500, so no complaints.
I would recommend Macs for video editing, as that is what I use, and have been very happy with them.
rummages around on Avid’s site…Ah-ha!. Looks like they have a free version that you can download, it’s hard to tell from the screens, but it looks like it’s the same basic format as the Express DV that I use. Like I said before, if you’ve never done any video editing, you can start by playing around with Movie Maker, or that free download I linked above. Once you learn about transition, overlaying text and audio, and some other basic effects, then all you really have to do is figure out how to do that in a new program. I will say that Avid has been one of the more difficult programs I’ve worked with as far as intuitive understanding. I’d suggest investing in a commercial end-user “beginner’s” type of book. It will help you get started, and explain the basics.
One thing on your hardware, and the memory in your computer. Most things can be upgraded without costing you more than the price of the upgrade. The exception to that is your RAM. See how many sockets you have available, so that you know what kind of memory to buy. It won’t help you at all if you only have two sockets each with a 500MB chip in them and you want to upgrade to 2 Gig. In that situation, you’d have to basically pitch your existing memory, and totally replace it. Where if you pay a little more, and buy one 1GB chip to start with, you can easily expand to 2Gig by using the other slot.
And just to add to the confusion a bit. Don’t forget there’s the as-yet-unexplored world of video codec’s. Try and figure in your mind exactly how you’re going to be broadcasing, and how the method might change in the near-term future. For instance, instead of broadcasting from a DVD that you’ve created, you may buy a second computer (doesn’t have to be nearly as powerfull), hook it up to your broadcasting equipment, and run your edited clips straight from the computer. This will give you and advantage in that you can encode your video with a differnt codex, and create a video with a much smaller file size. For instance Divx can encode an one hour program at a 740x680 ratio (near DVD quality) in a 300MB file size. This will make your archival and storage a lot easier. As you work in your video production, you’ll find that having a “library” of clips and previouse work that you can snip bits and pieces out of to re-use will reduce your production times. Same with Audio. And while you might need an audio mixing board, nowadays there is so much software out there that can help you do these same tasks, it’s not even funny. Audacity is one that we use here at work. It’s not professional grade by any means, but it gives us a lot of flexability working with about as many tracks as we’d want to. You may want to look into something like Sound Forge which is a more professional grade program. It just depends on how in depth you’re going to get with your audio mixing and editing. And just like Avid, expect a steep learning curve at first. Once you get into it, you’ll find them easy to use, but it takes a while to get the feel of the program.