I'm looking to put together some poser animations, add some music, titles, etc. and write to dvd. I'm looking for suggestions at or under $200.00

Under $200? Well, you might try looking into Virtual Dub, which is free. I think it can do pretty much what you need via some plugins (also free).

EDIT: to say, I'm not sure how VD handles multiple tracks, never used it for that. Editing is fairly easy though, and you can add logos, etc. to the video. It outputs to a variety of formats too. Probably the best one out there for free.

windows movie maker is also free and will do this for you...video impression is also able to do this I have a version from my digital camera and it is good for the price that it is http://www.arcsoft.com/en/products/videoimpression/buy.asp it is $50.00 granted it is not adobe but it is usable ;)

Attached Link: http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/Products/showproduct.asp?PID=932&FeatureID=7786

Being a former employee of Sonic Foundry, who was purchased by Sony Media Software, I can't say enough about their products. They are very good - well, excellent, actually. They have a high-end video editing/dvd creator called Vegas+ DVD. It's pricey and well above the price you are looking at. HOWEVER, there is an entry-level version of Vegas called Vegas Movie Studio, that I think you will probably be really happy with. The specs and info are at the URL here, and it's only $99.95 retail.

I've been happy with a basic product called PowerDirector by CyberLink (www.gocyberlink.com). Suits my hobbyist needs just fine. Been a while but I think I paid about 70 bucks as a first time buyer. Basic, but easy to use. Has quite a few effects, transitions, title options and the such. Separate tracks for voice and music. Even has 'picture-in-picture' which I confess to never having used, but it's there. Has a nice free demo that's fully functional for 30 days if I remember right. It's one of those 'neat n clean' apps that you can pick up very quickly. Short learning curve, hence, pleasant to use.

I've recently bought Adobe Premiere Elements. It's got most of the functionality of the pro edition, and has a "one stop shop" function for outputting a high quality mpeg2 DVDs at the end of the edit, including intro screens, scene selection, etc. There's a full range of special effects, including compositing and most of the photoshop fx, too.

Mine was 70 UK pounds, I've seen it on the net for about 150 US dollars.

VirtualDub is great for cleaning/processing video and removing glitches and noise. It's also lightning fast. However, it is a bit limited for actual editing.

ABC Video Roll is a free .avi editor, lurking somewhere out on the net. It's a bit more ambitious than Microsoft Movie Maker.

Zwei-Stein Video compositor (thugsatbay.com) is a free, multi-track editing/compositing system, IF you can stand the ugly, clunky workspace. Same can be said for Wax, free from debugmode.com (who make a very good free morphing prog). Jahshaka is another open-source compositor that looks like it might be v. good one day, but is still too buggy for practical use.

TMPGenc is an .avi to mpeg2 converter, and apparently does one of the smoothest-looking compressions around. It's 30-day shareware, but a wizard takes you straight through the process in minutes. So if you're on a low budget, DL the prog and don't install till you need to burn your masterpiece.

Don't waste the DL time with AVID DV. It's stripped almost naked, and can't import .avi files.

Having tested out Premiere Elements, I'd say it's great value for money. It's better to have an app with too many toys than too few! Plus, it's widely available at computer stores, so you get proper disks and a manual, too.

I think i need to put in music, FX, and voice tracts. can preimere elements do 3 audio tracts?

Tyger, while you're waiting for the answer to that, I forgot to mention that you can download a demo version of Vegas DVD Studio at the link I gave above. VegasDVD Studio does have 3 video and 3 audio tracks.

Yup, Haven't opened it yet, but i have it downloaded (along with several others mentioned). Thus far Vegas looks like the best for what i am looking for. or at least from what i have seen it covers everthing i think i need. a couple of others look like they might work, but i can't tell yet because their websites aren't clear enough on the features i am looking at.

You might want to check Ebay for a copy of Adobe Audition for your sound needs. You have just about any audio file read capability, 128 discrete channels (and one of the channels can be video, so you can synch effects with the video). There's a demo you can check out, and with careful shopping you can snag it for between $90 and $149 (that's an unregistered, unopened version. Be sure that is advertised). It's definitely overkill, but you never know. Might give you some fresh ideas (Audition comes with a second CD of music clips; between that, and something like Magix DVD Soundpool 2005...one of the best music clip values I've ever seen, you can turn out some nice sounding background music).

Attached Link: http://avid.com/products/tryout.html

Avid Free DV "Avid Free DV is feature-streamlined, standalone software which includes basic video and audio editing capabilities, up to two streams of real-time effects and support for both Windows XP and Macintosh OS X platforms" (AVID) In my hope opinion it's very useful package. And it's free.

damn forgot about freeDV I downloaded that a couple of months ago then promptly forgot about it LOL.

Yes, Premiere will do multiple video and audio tracks. But Avid DV won't take .avi files or anything except DV camera footage.