I'd been using a combination of Pinnacle Studio 8 and Nero, it worked OK. But Pinnacle wasn't that reliable, if I tried to do some complex work with it, it got 'confused'.
So I've just bought Ulead Video Studio 8. Now, whilst this program seems more solid and reliable than Pinnacle I agree that it is actually quite confusing to learn, I'm still coming to terms with it. I just captured 5 epsisodes of 'Father Ted' from VCR and editing out the ad breaks is actually quite complex, it seems to me.
In ease of use, Pinnacle is so much easier to use, I didn't ever even have to consult the manual, unlike with Ulead's program.
Still, I'm going to stick with the Ulead software, steeper learning curve but it's probably better.
Or I may just re-install Pinnacle again and use both. Perhaps Pinnacle Studio V9.0 is better?
Of course, there's always Adobe Premiere, but that too has a steep learning curve and it's expensive.
I don't know of any other editing programs, but if you head over to the doom9.org website they have a load of freebie video stuff, maybe something there could help you.