Working with AVI's?

I have an old version of Home Studio that I use for very basic midi stuff and vocal recording and it's time to upgrade.

I saw that the new version offers avi scoring. How extensive is this? Has anyone used it a lot?

For editing video (mini-dv short films) I use Canopus Let's Edit It's a good real-time editor with very good video control but THERE ARE NO AUDIO WAVE FORMS!!! Trying to synch music to video cues and folly in sounds is next to impossible without being able to see the waveforms.

I was hoping that new version of HS would help with this. I would love to take my exported avi files and use all the HS tools for the audio. The sweetening, the pan controls, etc.

And what is the size limit of avi's in HS? Does it support reference avi's or am I limited to the avi size limit (9 mins I think)

If anyone knows I would appreciate their insite. I realize that I'm going to have to move to either Premiere or Vegas in the not too distant future but I can't justify the cost right now and I have to get a new version of HS anyhow...