If you're serious about video editing then you might want to consider getting familiar with the Avid products along with Final Cut Pro 3 and Media 100. All of which have become industry standards by major tv and film production studios (eg. CNN, NBC, Lucas Films, ect... None of which use Premiere.)
 
The only product you may not be able to run is Final Cut Pro 3 as it is MacOS native. But it's the only one that can do "real time" transition effects without re-rendering the entire workspace with exception to enhanced hardware (Matrox RealTime card for PC using Premiere.)
 
Hope that helps.

Thanks, that at least gives me an ave to drive down.

Hmm dcxman I know for fact that Lucas Films don't use MacOS they use LinuxOS or SunOS.
Take look at this Sonic Foundry Vegas Video 3.0

Lucas gave a personal demo of what he was using Final Cut Pro 3 for in Episode 2.
 
Not to offend SHS, but you can see it for yourself in the stream from Apple's site, this past Mac World Expo, in Steve Jobs Keynote speech. Proof is right there from the horses mouth (George).
 
I've used Vegas Video 2 but I haven't used 3 yet so I don't know what the new features are. But from what I found in 3 I found it very limited even compared to Premiere (not as many filters and transitions along with other features).
 
Again no offence. I am just voicing what I've read, heard and viewed.

Here's the direct link for the stream:
 
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/mwsf01/
 
I am really not a fan of Apples but I was quite interested with Final Cut Pro in what it could do to the media world and how much business it stole from it's two main competitors.