Which video editing software should I get?

[Dan98]

I apologize if this has been covered elsewhere, but I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out which video editing software I should get. Every time I decide on what I'm getting I read a negative review and change my mind. Here's my situation:

This is purely for home use - family videos and such, so I don't need a high end product. However my projects can sometimes get rather long (> 1 hour). I will be putting together photos and HD videos, adding music, effects, transitions, etc.. I have done this in the past using Adobe Premiere Elements 7, but it can no longer handle the HD content (nor could my old computer). I was more or less happy with Elements except that it crashed a lot. A lot of this was probably due to my system, but I've read other people having issues with this as well, even with systems more powerful than what I had.

I'm in the process of building a more powerful system: i7 3770k processor, 16 GB Ram, GeForce GTX 660 2GB, 512 GB solid state HD, 1 TB regular HD, Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.

I'm considering all the latest versions of the usual suspects: Premiere Elements, Cyberlink Power Director, Sony Movie Studio, Corel Video Studio, etc.

So here's what's important to me - in order:

1. Stability. I'm sick of the crashes. From the reviews I've read this seems to be common with all of them. Is there one that is considered the least likely to crash with long projects?

2. Can handle as many types of HD video formats as possible. I tend to replace my cameras relatively regularly, and seems like they all have different formats.

3. Has a decent mix of effects and transitions to spice up my projects. Just fun stuff - I'm not likely to color correct or make the project "perfect."

4. The faster the better. Not critical, but who wants to wait?

5. Easy to use. Not that important - reviews said that Elements was not that user friendly, but I had no problem with it.

Needless to say it needs to work on the above listed system, and can burn to DVD and Blu Ray.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

[lordsmurf]

Premiere, Sony (Vegas/MS), or Final Cut -- everything else pretty much sucks.
FC is Mac only. That leaves Premiere and Vegas/MS for Windows users.
Premiere crashing is generally an issue with the hardware, not the software itself.
Speed is completely based on your CPU.
Actual burning should be done in ImgBurn anyway.
Your new system should handle the current version of Premiere just fine.

[Dan98]

Thanks for the help. Think I'll stick with Elements then since I'm already familiar with it.

Just out of curiosity, do you know what's up with the "http://video-editing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/" site? It raves about Power Director. Is it just a shill?

Also, what's the advantage of burning with ImgBurn as opposed to the built-in burning software? Better quality? Is it really a discernible difference?

Thanks again-

[Cornucopia]

re: review website - May not be a shill, but PD, while having improved a good deal and having a number of cool features, is still at heart a thoroughly consumer-oriented app and doesn't hold a candle to the Big Boys (AVIC MC, Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas, Apple FCP, Canopus Edius) and in terms of editor-friendly capability probably still isn't as good as the little brother/consumer versions of the above (Pinnacle, Elements, SVMS, FCPX). So it might just as well be a shill. Of course, it all depends on what/how you intend to do with your editing.

re: ImgBurn - It's burning engine has more features and is of better quality that almost ALL payware alternatives. It's that good!

Scott

[tin2tin]

Try the free Lightworks. It's simple and fast to edit in when you get the hang of it. Use EyeFrame Converter to convert your files before importing them into Lightworks. Then watch the official getting started videos on the bottom of lwks.com. You'll be ready to edit in less than hour.

[lordsmurf]

Tvideo-editing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/" site? It raves about Power Director. Is it just a shill?

It's a fake "review" site. They only recommend products with high commissions.
The product with the highest payout gets the highest review rankings.

Power Director blows monkey chunks.

[Brainiac]

With regards to PowerDirector, I am in complete agreement with all that has been said. It is clunky, slow and buggy. Do not waste your money on this product. I actually had to call customer support because the program would not load without crashing. They never called me back with a solution, and I had to pay for the support call. I had to figure out the solution myself.

Brainiac

[Dan98]

Good to know. I suspected something of the sort about the "top ten reviews" site, but couldn't find any objective info about it.

I was going back and forth between Premiere Elements and Power Director - thanks for your help, sounds like it's a no-brainer.

[Hoser Rob]

Anything with "toptenreviews" in the name is pure marketing disguided as a blog.

[budwzr]

What's a monkey chunk? Yukk! Sounds gross.

[lordsmurf]

What's a monkey chunk? Yukk! Sounds gross.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=blow%20monkey%20chunks

No idea. Just an expression.

Not too different from "BFE" having no real meaning:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=BFE

I use that one, too.

[suelaine]

I use Corel Video Studio X4 and like it very much. It does not crash and seems to handle whatever type of video files I attempt to manage with it. I find it easier to use than other products.

I also use Pinnacle 16. I don't think it is as user friendly as Corel, but it is not bad and from your description, you won't have trouble understanding how to use it if you choose this. It crashes quite a lot but I keep using it because I like the options and effects it includes.

I have recently found I have the best luck if I do more complex edits with effects or filters, it is best to only edit a smaller portion of video at one time and then export the file in the format you will want the entire video in (for me, that is AVCHD 1920x1080 so I can put them on AVCHD or Blue ray disks). So I do this with Pinnacle, and then merge the completed files back together with Final Mate so that I do not lose any quality rendering.

Since I'm also an amateur hobbyist, I don't want to spend a lot of money for this stuff. I was hesitant to spend the money for Final Mate but I'm glad I did because it increases the quality of my final videos by far. If I used Pinnacle for an hour long video with lots of transitions and effects, I got a terrible amount of crashing and questionable quality in the final video. If I used Pinnacle for shorter segments and then merged these segments with Pinnacle itself, it appears to re-compress every time, which means some loss of quality with every render. I think that Corel is better at "smart rendering" so when you are not changing parts of the video, it is not recompressed.

Anyway, I am fairly satisfied with the combination of these three products. I do not really think I can find one product that would really do everything I wanted and includes all the transitions and effects I like to use, so I will stick with the combination of products.

Going back and reading what you wrote, your computer sounds similar to mine, and I have few crashing problems with Corel. I think it actually should meet your requirements fairly well.

[budwzr]

The more features, the better.

If you buy a simpleton NLE, you will never be exposed to much more than drag and drop templates so you will not advance much.

It doesn't matter if you just do home video. You want to do great home video, right?

Take a second look at Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum, and HitFilm 2 Ultimate.

[suelaine]

I doesn't matter if you just do home video. You want to do great home video,
right?

Take a second look at Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum,

You talked me into downloading the trial and trying it out, but based on what it says on the website, I don't see that it does anything that my current "simpleton" applications don't do fairly well. HitFilm 2 appears to be about $400.00 and I'm not willing to spend that for the type of work/play I do with this.

[budwzr]

That's because you're a noob, and can't "see" anything yet. Just get Vegas Studio then, forget HitFilm.


Koik Out

[Cauptain]

1. Stability. I'm sick of the crashes. From the reviews I've read this seems to be common with all of them. Is there one that is considered the least likely to crash with long projects?

2. Can handle as many types of HD video formats as possible. I tend to replace my cameras relatively regularly, and seems like they all have different formats.

3. Has a decent mix of effects and transitions to spice up my projects. Just fun stuff - I'm not likely to color correct or make the project "perfect."

4. The faster the better. Not critical, but who wants to wait?

5. Easy to use. Not that important - reviews said that Elements was not that user friendly, but I had no problem with it.

Based on my machine:

1 - Power Director or Vegas studio (never crash PD 10 and 11, Vegas 11, 12)
2 - Vegas Studio
3 - Power Director or Vegas studio
4 - Power Director
5 - Power Director

Try both.




Claudio

[wrathofbod]

i like sony vegas movie studio 11(was cheap £21 ebuyer) but im playing with hit film too.

[Dan98]

Thank you for all your responses.

Actually, I'll settle for good, not great, if it's going to cost me an extra several hundred dollars. My audience consists of my immediate family, and honestly they just want to see the family photos and videos, and don't really care how fancy it is. I have fun spiffing it up a little, but I'm not trying to win any awards.

Sue - I used to do the same thing with Premiere Elements 7. It worked, but it was time consuming, and I figured I was losing some quality in the process. I was hoping with a newer more powerful system and the latest software I could skip this process. Maybe not.

So I guess it was unrealistic of me to think there would be some kind of consensus as to the best software. As soon as I decide on one product, I hear something negative about it, or someone speaks real highly of something else, and I change my mind. I was hoping to avoid this, but I suppose the best option is to download the trial version of 2 or 3 and see how I like them.

Thanks again

[tin2tin]

My audience consists of my immediate family, and honestly they just want to see the family photos and videos, and don't really care how fancy it is. I have fun spiffing it up a little, but I'm not trying to win any awards.

If you're after a simple way to do this you could try DVD slideshow GUI which lets you use photos and video and spiff it up a little. If your videos aren't avi then select all files in the file selector before importing the videos.

[vkmast]

As soon as I decide on one product, I hear something negative about it, or someone speaks real highly of something else, and I change my mind. I was hoping to avoid this, but I suppose the best option is to download the trial version of 2 or 3 and see how I like them.

Absolutely.

signed,
a satisfied SVMSP user