I'm not going to waste time badmouthing the software. I've owned it for less than a week and here are some things I've observed and learned.

My machine: DELL INSPIRON 1525 2G (bought 200 . I bought the download version of PD9 and it took about 10 minutes to completely install.
The first 2 days were EXTREMELY buggy. Many many crashes, slow uploading. Then the Magic Music button stopped functioning completely. SOLUTIONS: Downloaded latest Apple Quicktime, downloaded latest Patch.' Program stopped crashing and now loads in less than 2 minutes. Magic music now functions without any hassle.

The next 2 days: EXTREMELY slow PRODUCING. I uploaded about 30 minutes of video from a Kodak zi8 and edited it down to 8 minutes. But when I tried to upload it to Youtube, it took OVER 8 hours just to get to 70% before crashing.

Today, I finally finished PRODUCING. SOLUTION: I own an Iomeg external desktop drive with 320Gb capacity that's hardly been used. I saved my movie to that INSTEAD of my 75% full C drive and the movie produced in about 3.5 hours. The only problem is that the file is 3.5gb which is more than youtube allows, but I can download the fix youtube has for that.

When this program works, it sings. I've used VideoSpirit, Windows Live Movie Maker and ArcSoft, but I have to admit that PD9 is easier in terms of file upload and having more options for titles, music, etc. If you're looking to spend less than $60, then these are the kinds of problems you may have to deal with, though I also think that the kind of machine you have might make a difference.

I am an amateur "how to" filmmaker, so this will be fine for now, but I do anticipate having to upgrade to a more expensive film editing software in the future, since any kind of crash or bug can really slow down editing time, which costs me time and money.

The forum community was very responsive to my problems so I greatly appreciate that. Hope this helps in your decision making process.