Posted on 06/16/2011 8:12:00 PM PDT by RedCell
Greetings, fellow FReepers. I have a need for some video editing software. Currently running Windows 7 64-bit / AMD Phenom II X4 965 / 8 GB RAM / Radeon HD 6870 1 GB.
I'm trying to edit some video from my son's little league season. Dub out some of the more colorful language caught from over-zealous parents, add some music, transitions, simple effects. I have some experience with some basic software but I'm looking to get something that is intuitive while not breaking my bank (i.e. around $100 or less if at all possible).
My concern is that I've had hit-and-miss luck with the reliability of reviews and don't know if I have the patience to deal with demo versions since this is a bit of a time-sensitive project.
Any advice from you folks would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Same here (Studio Pro).
> my son likes the windows movie maker... i prefer the final cut pro tools... i hear adobe is good... with a lot of tools that interact.
You’re correct just about anything you’d ever want to do can be done with it, and it’s free.
The biggest problem with it is that it will only use a few video formats. Get FormatFactory (also free) convert whatever you have into something movie maker compatible then you can pretty much do anything you want with video editing.
I use Windows Live Photo Photo Gallery and Windows Love Movie Maker with Windows 7. Editing of videos takes a little practice but overall free and relatively easy to use.
Windows 7 includes a simple movie maker, not a lot of features but lets you make movies.
If you’re looking for something more powerful Adobe Premier Elements. Its a cut down version of the best software Adobe Premier and is only $ 99.
A really good product. A little pricey but the upgrades make it affordable.
I have 9.0. Does an excellent job of creating HD movies.
Thanks for all your speedy replies.
I’ve downloaded a demo of Vegas to give it a spin. I’ve had pinnacle before and I found it to be rather cumbersome (albeit running on my last system which was a LOT slower).
Take care!
It's free, and it might be all you need.
Also, you need to size the video and audio so that it will fit on a DVD. Size is set by the bit rate times the duration. And you don't want to exceed 8Mb/sec. Some players will choke on higher bit rates.
Audio: choices are PCM and Dolby Digital. With DD you get more compression and more space for the Video. More space for the video means higher video bit rate. DD also requires a measurement of the RMS value of the audio in order to center the audio within the profile properly. Probably best to stick with PCM.
A nice feature with DD is 5.1 surround sound. Yes, you can actually create your own multi-channel audio.
Try burning to a DVD-rw first. Burning will take long but you won't waste DVDs.
Good luck!
My son has one of the lower-end Vegas programs with a few add-ons, and he’s been happy with it, except he has a crappy laptop and it takes forever to process his stuff.
I’m about to get an I-5 processor to see if it will speed him up.
Yup. Rendering MPEG2 takes time. Twice as long if you chose two pass VBR. VBR (variable bit rate) applies higher bit rate for scenes that need it. Thus, better quality video.
CBR (constant bit rate) is single pass and renders faster.
You might want to check these settings.
Either way, it takes time.
Upgraded from Video Vegas Pro 5 to 10 to get HD capability—got the early bird special upgrade for 150 USD. Very happy with it, I can watch smooth running previews at 1080p on my 1920X1080 monitor. This from 1080P Quicktime files (MP4) Using this proc: Intel i7 2.8GHz.
Sometimes you can find an old version real cheap. Get it, use it, then get the next early bird special when Vegas Pro 11 comes out.
Thanks, again, for the all the replies. dhs, I’m not sure I understood a quarter of what you said but I’ll google it to figure it out. Looks/feels like an “A” wrt sound advice.
Anyway, I’m about 7 minutes into my video and it’s coming along great. Need to hit the sack so take care all.
http://www.lightworksbeta.com/
Wow, that is really, really cool. Add that to Blender for 3D and node compositing, GIMP for photo manipulation, Audacity for audio editing...you have a fairly complete tool kit there!
I wonder if there’s a good, high quality (and FREE) DVD authoring program a la Adobe Encore out there....?
I learned most of it from trial and error. And there are tons of things you can do with Vegas. It has a very powerful audio section and video control is excellent.
It has the fun stuff too like making the video look old (which I don't use). Lots of transitions, etc.
Also, Vegas is only the front end. You'll need the back end DVD mastering software, too. Actually, you can use pretty much any mastering/burner software once the video is in a generic MPEG2 format.
Curious to find out what you get with the demo — do you get the mpeg2 renderer (Main Concept)? You can render to wmv and mov (Windows media and Apple Quicktime) and the various Ipod formats. The new versions will allow you to render HD MPEG2 and H.264 and burn to a blueray disk. Looks nice on an HD TV.
Other features:
1. you can render over the network (across multiple PCs). Rendering takes a lot of PC horsepower and being able to split the work across multiple PCs will reduce the time.
2. you can create animated backgrounds and thumbnails in the DVD.
Sorry... going on a bit.
My goal is to import everything I think would look good and then whittle it down from there so it doesn't take forever to render. My goal is about a 10-15 minute video. I'm using Sony PBR to create by DVD’s and so far it's working out OK.
If anything else comes up, I'll ping you. Thanks, again.
Take care.
There might be something here for you. http://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/08/featured/6-best-free-dvd-authoring-freeware-to-create-dvds-from-home-movies.html
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