HOME Video Editing

[Willie D]

I just read the "Tell me everything about video editing" thread and have half a mind to learn Avid but that might be overkill.

I finally got a mini DV camera for my birthday and was wondering what software I needed to buy, borrow or steal to edit home movies on a PC. If I wanted to burn to dvd? Post on YouTube?

Anyone?
Thanks-

[slackerbot]

Adobe Premiere is overkill. even if you can get it for free, i would recommend not using it for what you're planning to do. however, i heard they have a "lite" version that doesn't have all the super advanced features of the Pro version. you might want to look into that instead.

Sony Vegas is good. i used it to edit and post that clip of Martin on the Tyra Banks show. it's not too complex and it's not watered down. i've seen a lot of places sell it for real cheap, and some have rebate deals. i'm sure you can find it on bit torrent also. you download a trial version from their website..

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/pro...egasfamily.asp

Ulead makes some ok software. their stuff is pretty simple. a little too simple for me. but i haven't tried their latest sofware so maybe it's better? they have free trial software on their site too..

http://www.ulead.com/

i think there are a couple of more big name software companies that make consumer oriented video editing software. i can't remember them right now.

[35ft6]

I've heard from very shady people who don't care about copyright laws that you can download a free copy of Avid DV Express from other criminal types.

If you're just doing simple editing, iMovie is fine. It's a great way to be introduced to the basics. But sounds like you don't have a Mac.

[joetron2030]

On WinXP I use Pinnacle Studio 9. Version 10 is out but I haven't seen a need to upgrade to it. I've been pretty happy with this particular software. Looks like they're owned by AVID so maybe it's AVID "super lite"?

[slackerbot]

ahh.. Pinnacle. that's the name i was trying to remember.

[joetron2030]

I picked it completely by chance while standing and staring at the many video editing packages at Micro Center (or was it Best Buy?).

I think I ended up avoiding Ulead because I tried a bundled copy that came with my Sony DVD burner and it seemed basically useless.

[ja.net]

I use the baby cheapie version of Premiere at home. Does more than enough. I use FinalCut at school and never really missed all the extras.

90% of the editing I do at home consists of hard cuts, fades to black, or crossfades, laying 1 or 2 tracks of sound (like 1 of music and maybe 1 of extra speech) under the image, a few titles, and that's it.

You can burn to DVD at full strength or compress for the web at a couple of different settings.

I have only very rarely wanted or needed to do anything more fancy, and each time I've tried, I've found there's a way to do it. I just have to poke around a bit to find the buttons.

[35ft6]

Unless you're going to do a lot of compositing, you don't need tons of video tracks. 2 will do -- 1 for video and the 2nd for titling. On iMovie, the titles are actually rendered to become a part of the video, so only 1 track is needed.

[mpyre]

If you're as an anal as me and love to control every part of the frame...try the excruciating task of editing a video in After Effects.

It's become another one of my favorite Adobe programs.

There's so many cool things you can do with it once you get the hang of it.

[sakuraba]

don't you usually edit in final cut or avid or something, and then composite in after effects?

[charlie bucket]

yeah. i wouldnt edit in AE

final cut is great

[35ft6]

Originally posted by sakuraba
don't you usually edit in final cut or avid or something, and then composite in after effects?

Guess I was thinking about reality TV, where a lot of compositing is done inside of Avid. Yeah, it's probably not necessary in most regular editing.

[Dr Jesus]

anyone know of any programs that are cheap & most importantly reliable for producing dvd's of your already edited videos? the 2 or three i have all aren't working & fortunately for me it appears their tech support has been discontinued also.

[xsk8teboyx]

mac or pc....if you have a mac you can use idvd.

[Dr Jesus]

PC