Best software on PC for web delivery content

[Grant Harrington]

I edit on a Mac with Final Cut Studio for my video business, but was asked at my day job to compress DV footage of hour long seminars on an existing PC for web delivery. In other words, they want to do it in house with the hardware they have, and it would be conflict of interest if my video company did it for them on my Macs at home. What software is available on the PC do this and to do so on the cheap? All my web content I generate is run through Compressor on the Mac. They have a 1 CCD Sony Handycam MiniDV w/Firewire and USB.

We are looking for single files (.wav, .mov, etc), not streaming video and want "watchable" quality.

Thanks,
Grant

EDIT: Hey, my 50th post!

[Ervin Farkas]

Windows Media Encoder is cheap enough (free) for both audio and video files, but I don't think it will work with .mov files. If you need editing, use Movie Maker (part of service pack 2).

For audio editing you can get the free Audacity, it will also encode to mp3.

[Grant Harrington]

Originally Posted by Ervin Farkas

Windows Media Encoder is cheap enough (free) for both audio and video files, but I don't think it will work with .mov files. If you need editing, use Movie Maker (part of service pack 2).

For audio editing you can get the free Audacity, it will also encode to mp3.

What do I use to get the video off the camera? With the Mac, I can import from FW using iMovie, QT Pro or Final Cut. I forgot that the XP machine I'll be using has no FW, what program do I use to get the footage off the camera using USB? Use Movie Maker?

Thanks,
Grant

[Ervin Farkas]

USB? I don't think so, except for hard drive camcorders, but that's another story (the video will be in mpeg format, on avi).

Option one: buy a firewire PCI card, they only cost 10-20 dollars.
Option two: capture using the MAC, then transfer the avi file to the PC.