PC utilities forum: What is the best movie-editing program for PC's?

While I think highly of CINELARRA http://heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra.php3 you may have meant to offer more details about what operating system you like to use.

If it's Windows then we have Sony Vegas and some film schools are stuck with AVID. I won't note all the addins for Vegas or Avid.

Bob

It works (sometimes?) but you really should try out better stuff like Sony Vegas.

Bob

What additional features does Sony Vegas have? And does it support Chroma Keying?

When you talk about Vegas, do you mean the Vegas here: http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/products/product.asp?pid=404 or is it more like this one: http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/products/product.asp?PID=408

Thanks for all the info!

I downloaded and checked out demos for a few different products. I ended up getting Vegas Studio + DVD Platinum. It's relatively inexpensive but provides what I want to do and did not have an inordinately steep learning curve.

Of course, it depends what you need to and want to do. This package would be fine for home use and I'm even going to use it to attempt to produce some training videos for my company. There are certainly more complex tasks that this version won't handle. You need to look at all of the versions and find the specific things that you are interested in and base your choice on that. Price may be a concern as well.

Look at the product comparisons and download and try the demos.

One additional word - I was very interested in being able to add a narration soundtrack to a video. Some of the cheaper software, including Adobe Premiere Elements, does not allow you to record a soundtrack while watching the video. This made timing horrendously difficult. Vegas Studio + DVD will play the video track while recording your narration.

I'm having a bit of a problem converting my Sony Hi8 that I transferred to my hard drive in copying to DVD-RAM. I may be doing something wrong, I'm new at this but the bundled software that comes with LG or MaD Dog do not work-I'm always asked to format and the recordings do not show on the disk when I finish.
Would Sony Vegas be good software to transfer to DVD-RAM with these two drives?
Thanks, Frank C.

Both the LG and the Mad Dog advertise on the box that they read and write to DVD-RAM.
I've read several evaluations of DVD-RAM where it has been tested as the best video recording medium. Ostensibly it is supposed to be the easiest medium to drag and drop and has one or two other features that escape me at the moment-its supposed to perform just like a hard drive or floppy disk.
To me all that seems to simplify what choice one should make.
Panasonic and others are sticking with DVD-RAM compatible set top recorders where you would almost completely be recording video. Since I have quite a few (40 or so) family VHS tapes and Hi-8 tapes video quality is important to me.
I do agree testing some of the others is a good idea and hopefully I will get a chance to do it. Some of the other software mentioned in the Top Ten do indicate they record to DVD-RAM.
Right now I uninstalled and reinstalled all my ATI software-All In Wonder 9600 XT. I'm having audio problems on the TV section at the moment and have a support ticket into ATI.
I'm mentioning this because my Roxio software that came with the Mad Dog has an Import feature and I got the bright idea that the reason Roxio is not copying correctly is because I did not use Roxio (through ATI)to import the Hi-8 tape to my hard drive, I just used the ATI directly.
Thanks, Frank C.

Hey guyzz,
Wht r d best video , audio and photo editin softwares available....

Its like i wanna make a short movie o my frends nd family im jus startin 2 make a movie and i dun noe anythin, ill learn usin d software....
I wanna create d best so i wanna do each part usin d best software in each....
I have a dual core pent4 , 80gb hdd nd 256 ram....
I also want a web site wher i can download music 2 insert em durin special scenes [emotinal]...
Ur help wud mean a lot 2 me....
I wan 2 gift my work 2 my near ones....

Plzzzz Help
THANK U

But how buggy is it? I have tried Pinnacle products over the last 4-5 years and all of them drove me crazy with bugs and crashes. Go with Adobe Premier Elements and your time will be well spent.

Make sure you are using the latest version of Pinnacle Plus 10.6
You have more FX, more Transitions and more Titles than any other similar programs without paying high price and without having to shift to high gear professional hardware.

I strongly recommend it if you are a serous amateur...

That all depends on your needs. For some people, using Windows Movie Maker software (free), and one of the many free softwares which can covert files to dvd format, can make movies that suit them just fine. If you want to to a little more than that, look at Ulead Studio, Pinnacle (can be pretty buggy on some systems), Adobe Premiere Elements, or Vegas Movie Studio. There are numorous others (see www.videohelp.com), but these are the main players. For semi-professional to professional level, you need to look at Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas 5 or 6, Avid, etc. It comes down to how much control do you want or need, and how much stuff do you want the software to automatically do for you. The higher end softwares, all have a very steep learning curve, and require hours of tutorials and playing, before you can ever think of making a decent movie. But if you want that, it is a lot of fun being able to have all that control and seeing a nice finished end dvd.

"What is the best movie-editing program for PC's?"

is the topic. Why put this here?

As to oscilloscopes, that's too vague. Tell more about the bandwidth and number of channels.

bob

The "film editor" sits there and shifts the video left and right until they get it right. If you were expecting the software to get it done for you then I see where you could be less than happy.

Bob

Just sat there and worked on it.

Bob

Actually the two cameras recorded two views of someone playing the piano. The separate digital audio track is critical - the two videos need to always be exactly synched to it. I would rather pay more for the right software than fight every scene transition to stay synched.
With over 90 minutes of play, I don't want to switch views just a few times. So I'd rather have something that can help me keep them synched once I start.
I was hoping someone made software (that wasn't priced in the stratosphere) where I could synch all three, then choose back & forth sections from each video, defining the transitions between them, without losing the synch to the audio.
Does this make sense?
Thanks.