No AVCHD, no quicktime h264 (i tried to fool it), and no Title tool in Lightworks free. me no likey Pro is 60$ per year. Actually the known issues for ver 11 pro says AVCHD with AC3 audio has problems to import

Works with .mts files from GH2, on 2 July will also come out a pro version for 64bit systems. I must say works very well with the files from the GH2, faster than mi previous PP CS4, the logic it´s hard to understand at the beginning but after this the editing work goes very fast. They also will maybe this year Release the source code, after this interesting things could be developed for it (I hope so). Had some limitations (when changing the speed of a clip do not automatically change the length of this and if you import a photo it makes it the project size, you couldn´t zoom in or out, could not import footage with different fps)

I was referring to the new Lightworks, i.e. version 11. Re-wrapping is exactly what I tried, but it's not fooled by the change of container, it actually checks the codec. And audio must be converted because it can't handle AC3, not even in the new Pro version. To keep using the free version, the solution I see for now is to re-encode perhaps in that Matrox MPEG2 all I-frames HD codec that LW let's you also export to. Or maybe some other codec. I'll have to try that later.

@WK Has GPU acceleration:

http://www.lwks.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24&Itemid=179

and:

http://www.lwks.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=182

read the line: Powerful, realtime effects

Another thing will be (in the near future) the first editor on Windows, Mac and Linux, like Gimp and the 3D program Blender (all two free). Since I already use the last two I can choose which operating system I want.

@Kihlian Looking forward to seeing what comes out of the realtime effects department. My initial experiences with file support a few months back kept me from spending much time with it.

Honestly, what @subco says about how much you can do with some of the inexpensive software is very true. Vegas Platinum is also cheap enough that my hands-on clients can buy it so that we can throw projects back and forth between our systems. That is simply not the case for the more expensive software (FCP, Premiere Pro, Vegas Pro, etc.) At the same time, if I train someone on Vegas Platinum, they can start using Vegas Pro right off the bat without any "that doesn't work anymore" caveats: just some feature additions. :)

i'm using kdenlive on a linux system. it's ok; considering the postings above, it's even more than that. i'm working with fullhd avchd (gf2) and mpegs (dslr). i have not been confronted with lots of problems, sometimes there are some stability issues and minor other problems. there is an integrated autosave / recover system, that works very well. all in all, i recommend kdenlive. http://www.kdenlive.org/

Final Cut Pro is the best editing software in the planet.

Let's try without all this flame.
Final Cut Pro has no relation to this topic, yep it is quite cheap now, but consider it banned in this specific topic.

@subco the word PRO means nothing - it is just a lable that has been wildly abused in technology to get attention. Its what and how you do with,it its just a tool. I happen to be equally interested in music and audio so i find this program not to be the best solution in multitrack audio recording/real time effects and I do not wish/need to work with another program on the side to do this. For example Vegas(again, sometimes Pro ; ) is part of Sony and they have been around much longer then mac os and in the PRO broadcast, media , audio etc business and seems to be much more suited for my needs. With one little problem, it doesn't run natively on mac os. So that's why i am really looking for another alternative solution for my needs. Lightworks seems to be a very promising start in the right direction and its also one that will try to put away once and for all the useless talk about various OS superiority. Just imagine you learn how to use one good tool that works well on all of the platforms. It is also supposed to be cheap and rather simple but powerful. This is also a democratic way to handle creativity which is not to be underestimated. Case closed.

@Vitaliy sorry,no more fcp rants.

11th the IIIrd Jr. ; ) not in the states and on mac :(

That's the point. Lightworks could be this one. I have learned most of them on pc. Now i am on mac. The core ideas are obviously the same, the way the programs deal with them - not so. I find most video fx/transitions cheesy and stay away from them(excluding color grading,noise reduction and other few needed things) My point is about audio tracks and real time rendering of much needed fx there to make things sound right - eq,compression, reverb - all simple but essential, if you do music/audio you would know that the lame few tracks just wont cut it,trust me. Of course if you use stock sounds/ music and just the stereo track of your interviews, they would suffice fine. So in this line of thought a real time processing is essential. Time is the most valuable asset we have and waiting for rendering screens is not very productive action either,is it?

@thepalalias

But some things are WAY easier to do in one program vs another.

That´s right, in Lightworks the difficult is that you have to learn from the beginning the short cuts, has some limitations (footage frame rate interpretation for ex.), but when you learn it you go very fast. The developers are trying to correct a little bit the program to user needs, for ex if you import a still image you do not longer need to create a black video.. It´s relatively new and of course needs some time to become improvements.

@Luxis They do long betas. The 32-bit OS X version was still in beta when I mastered Joanna St. Claire's album "Stream" in it. :)