What is the BEST video editing s/ware????? (from own exp)

[ReeN]

Hi.. I'm quiet new in video editing & looking for the best s/ware to be used... would be glad to get your comments /experience on finding the right sofware...

fyi, I have an old analog vcam & my video file is in mpeg format (vid. capture card encode to mpeg).. I'm looking for s/w that can read mpeg file format...

MY EXPERIENCE SO FAR:
*Pinnacle Studio 7 & 8
*Ulead Video Studio 6
*VideoWave
*Data Becker
*Adobe Premiere 6.5

All of the above s/w can read .mpg file except Pinnacle Studio 7 (so this is out of my list)..

MY COMMENTS:
Pinnacle 8: I like the layout and the feature especially it has a lot of transition & can do slow motion. Trimming video is easy -click & drag beginning or ending of movie... Split clip is easy too.. just right click mouse & choose split clip...
But I have a prob. that it always hang during editing & rendering... I'm trying to figure out why...

Ulead VStudio 6: Like the layout too - quite similar to Pinnacle (trimming & splitting is easy), but less feature compare to Pinnacle 8 (less effect & no slow motion)..

VideoWave: 8) Require higher resolution (1000+ times 800) than my desktop (800x600).. So the screen would big & difficult to use (always have to drag the screen up & down, left to right to see all the button)... Quite easy to use & have pre-set theme (like wedding, b'day party & etc).. it will propose appropriate intro & ending... and the transition will be done for you too...
I dont really like the video trimming/splitting part...

Data Becker: Have just look through a bit... but don't really like the layout... not sure about the function wheter there is a lot or not...

Adobe Premiere 6.5: Have just look through a bit... but the layout seems a bit complicated & not sure about the function...

From all of the above programs, I prefer Pinnacle 8 (minus the hang prob)... Have you ever used above/any other s/w and feel that it is better than Pinnacle???

[BJ_M]

try out vegas video 3.0 or there is a cheaper version also called video factory -- great program

[cushman]

from experience of using most of the programs you listed, including vegas video; adobe premiere has been my favorite.

It has its disadvantages like sometimes crashing..but just put on the 'save every x amount of minutes' on in preferences and you wont be screaming if it crashes in the middle of something.

It has a lot of advantages though, as its very powerful and do pretty much anything you want.

Adobe Premiere 6.5 has a much better layout for making titles and such as well, so I would suggest trying that one.

Overall though, I don't see why people have a hard time figuring it out; sure its not cookie-cutter simple but I never read the manual or anything, just screwing around with it helps a ton.

Hope this helps your decision in choosing the one you want.

[Venomshocker]

What exactly do you mean by the"hang problem" in Pinnacle studio 8?

[ReeN]

Cushman & BJ_M... thank you very much for your suggestion.... really appreciate that since I'm already fed-up with buying & trying...

sure its not cookie-cutter simple but I never read the manual or anything, just screwing around with it helps a ton.

Cushman... I'll try to explore Adobe Premiere 6.5 & sure it'll worth my time...
Actually I'm that type of person too.. but for the beginning, I would like to use something simple (& good) & do not want to spend a lot of time on exploring.... but I guess there is no easy way.... b'cause the easy one does not meet my requirement....

Venomshocker.... the problem is during rendering, it always stop at certain point (I even leave it overnight)... I always have to cancel halfway & the mpeg output file will be untill that point only... I can never get my full video done....
2ndly the playback does not play smoothly, but the halfly-rendered-mpeg file is okay...

Helpp!! what is wrong?? is it the s/w or my comp?? I don't have this problem using Ulead VStudio 6... I already changed my graphic card to GForce 4, 440MX, 64MB... & my comp is PentiumIII, 800 mhz... 256RAM..

Someone suggested me to use VirtualDubb... Any comment on this s/ware??

[dvfan]

Like you said the playback does not play smoothly but the finished file does, so stick with the finished product for results

[ReeN]

so stick with the finished product for results

Okay.. that part I dont really mind... but how about the rendering part that never finish processing??

[Venomshocker]

That "hang problem" sounds too me like its either a bug in the software or a memory problem. Make sure you have no other programs running, and make sure ur system tray is completely empty. This may help or not. Just a suggestion. Since you have Pinnacle Studio 8, can you tell me if you can capture in widescreen/16:9? Thanks.

[bapski]

Vegas Video will be the way to go if you intend to go beyond just putting your clips on a timeline and be contented with ready-made transistions...

[snowmoon]

Someone suggested me to use VirtualDubb... Any comment on this s/ware??

VirtualDub is good for the most basic tasks ( really handy I use it daily ).

It can do simple filtering ( to the whole stream ) it can cut + splice + append aother .avi's ( have to be identical in format ). I use it for edditing commercials out of TV programs and noise reduction before I mpeg encode.

One MAJOR feature is that it can frameserve ( no saving huge intermediate file ) anything you do in Vdub can be opened by a majority of other programs through a psudeoAVI that servers up the video directly from the vdub timeline.

Like I said very basic but very handy. And it's freeware!