If you have access to a Mac, the hand's down best software out there for the price is Final Cut Pro. Also, quicktime pro (which is like 24.95) will allow you to change format.

If you MUST use a Windoze box, it comes down to how much you want to do with the program.

Premiere isn't that expensive and works really well. You will probably spend more on hardware to make any of these things work (TONS of RAM, good processor)

As far as compression goes, the hands down best compression for the Internet is Sorenson with Variable Bit Rate encoding. This is what the big studios use to compress thier movie trailers.

If you have other questions, feel free to email me. I used to do this for a living...and still do it for fun. I compressed the original trailer for The Matrix, and helped to do the first Star Wars trailer (I wanted to edit Jar Jar Binks out, but Lucas carries more weight than I do.)

It might be cheaper for you to pay someone to do this than to invest in the equipment and software to do this well...the continual cost of staying reasonably current is daunting if you don't have a good revenue stream.

Eric

blix at optonline.net