GOPRO HIGH DEF HERO!

I picked up the new GoPro High Definition Hero helmet cam. This thing is amazing. The cam itself is waterproof (in its case) to 100 feet, and shock resistant like the other Go Pros. The best thing about this puppy is it shoots in WVGA, 720P (30 and 60 FPS), 960P (30FPS), and 1080P (30 FPS). For such a small piece of hardware, that is amazing in my opinion.
The HD Hero now has a rechargable battery, which is good when it comes to longevity, but questionable when it comes to ease of use in the field. Where I was once able to carry a couple extra AAA's in my pack or in my truck, I now have to carry a laptop or buy a DC car charger for it. The rechargeables are supposed to last 2.5 hours, so we shall see.
I have had a real hard time finding a lot of decent info on editing the HD GoPro format for some of us Windows users, it seems most of it is geared towards Mac.
Additionally, I am on a budget, and I can't afford $500 for video editing software, but I still want my video to look good and flashy like the big dollar programs.
For $100 (or less), you can have everything you need to edit HD video at least at 720p at 60 FPS on your Wal-Mart bought E-Machines running Vista like me! LOL I haven't yet tried this with 1080p, but I am sure the results would be similar.
It should be noted I am running an EMachines $340 system, which is running a 1.6G Celeron, 1 gig of RAM, Vista SP2. Not a cutting edge combo, but about average for a 2 year old system.
The raw GPHD files play pretty choppy on my system, but not so bad I can't watch them. My main goal is sharing, so I don't care if I can watch them on the PC all that well.

I started off upgrading Quick Time7 to PRO for $30. I use this editor because it is the simplest way to trim and clip the files and save them without any loss to original image quality. I'll go through all the footage I have taken for the day, then trim out the unnecessary parts and save them in a folder in chronological order. No need to use the lousy trimming tool QT7 Pro uses. I think you can even get this for free off some sites on the web. Or even on Limewire.
As soon as all the videos are saved, I use PROSHOW GOLD. http://www.photodex.com/store/products/proshow/gold. I selected this program because it isn't just good for video, but it also works best for slideshows and has a verrry cool Facebook and Youtube uploader that allows you to easily export to these and more with one click. Talk about EASY! You just log in to your account via Proshow, and select the output format and quality and it renders and uploads it for you.
The only downfall, is the video trimmer on ProShow is poor and not user-friendly (actually, I think it's non-existent), hence that is why I have QT7 Pro and also use an ancient Roxio program for AVI and MPEG files if I want to use those from my standard def GoPro.
ProShow has excellent transitions, music and audio editing, and great slide and video effects you can work in to the show. Sure, it isn't like a $500 program, but what do you want for $70?
Here are the end results on Youtube:

This is a quick sample video, but at least it gives you an idea of what this combo can do. And it doesn't take a lot of time to edit this stuff either. I cranked out the sample video in about 3 minutes, not counting upload times.
Like I said, this is mainly intended for those of you who have recently bought a GoPro HD and have been having a bear of a time finding good editing programs to use. Also for you guys with weak computers like mine and can't afford to shell out a load of cash for software that works. I have seen some people recommend free programs online like AnyVideo Converter, which is an outstanding piece of freeware, but these programs destroy the quality of the final product! Especially because you're working with HD.
I am looking forward to seeing all this cam can do. It has an awesome "time lapse" feature, which will allow me to make some really cool videos in time-lapse style.
Next purchase is going to be a car charger so I can have this thing hooked up when I drive across country later this year.