Stable video editor that you can buy an instruction book with?

[vidds]

I've been looking around for a video editor and can't seem to find anything that people are happy with. I was thinking of getting premiere elements 8 and some books on it but the ratings are horrible on amazon and no one makes any books on sony vegas studio. Any ideas?

[budwzr]

That's because people are not happy with software in general, unless it's something that is so highly automated that a monkey could do it, but they get to take credit as if they did it themselves from scratch.

[dragonkeeper]

That's because people are not happy with software in general, unless it's something that is so highly automated that a monkey could do it, but they get to take credit as if they did it themselves from scratch.

Budwzr is correct. Video editing is a process a very tedious and time consuming process, most people who want to do video are not interested in learning the intricacies of video editing the only interested in the end product. Hence the there are few books that detail the art of video editing.

What i can tell you is the virtualdub along with avisynth (as a frameserver only) is hands down my tool of choice for video editing. I can even do most of the more advance things when scripting avisynth. You can find tons of guides for both tools . You can use Adobe reader to export the guide to pdf to have a soft copy which you can then print if you so desire.

Learning the basics of these tools will give you a feel for the features you want in NLE, which you can then compare against tools like Vegas, Premiere, etc and make an more informed decesion on your final purchase. Me personally I have Vegas Pro, Ulead Studio, and Premiere. But the first tool i reach for when starting a project is Virtualdub.

[budwzr]

I bought a book last year titled "The Art And Science Of Digital Compositing", which is very good by the way, and it rarely even mentions any software, it's 500+ pages, and it's the most helpful book in my collection.

[zoobie]

not many specific books because they post free how-to's on youtube for every editor
I'd suggest sony vegas studio for starters

[lordsmurf]

I just read about 15 bad reviews for Adobe Premiere Elements 8 at Amazon.

As far as I can tell, most of those people are just stupid. Really, really stupid when it comes to video. I did not see one single valid complaint. My first impression was "What a bunch of crybabies!" As far as I'm concerned, those 100 one-star ratings are from 100 dumbasses that don't know how to read. Or don't know how to ask for help on the many video sites online.

When it comes to known-good products, most negative feedback at Amazon is a reflection of the person's intelligence or failings of their own cheapo/ancient computer setup. Rarely is the item itself really at fault.

It's a keyboard-chair interface problem. Or an ID-10-T error.

I taught a friend how to use Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 over the phone earlier this year. It's really not that hard.

[dragonkeeper]

I just read about 15 bad reviews for Adobe Premiere Elements 8 at Amazon.

As far as I can tell, most of those people are just stupid. Really, really stupid when it comes to video. I did not see one single valid complaint. My first impression was "What a bunch of crybabies!" As far as I'm concerned, those 100 one-star ratings are from 100 dumbasses that don't know how to read. Or don't know how to ask for help on the many video sites online.

When it comes to known-good products, most negative feedback at Amazon is a reflection of the person's intelligence or failings of their own cheapo/ancient computer setup. Rarely is the item itself really at fault.

It's a keyboard-chair interface problem. Or an ID-10-T error.

I taught a friend how to use Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 over the phone earlier this year. It's really not that hard.

For the most part i argee with Lordsmurf PEBKAC errors (Problem exist between keyboard and chair). But i'm not sure it's stupidity as much as expecting to be titty fed, they want something they can drag and drop and then push button and tadda they get everything the wanted. If it takes more than 5 minutes to do something they then proclaim its to hard.
[Warning: Sarcasm alert]
So if you think about it these people in actuality must be geniuses if they are accustom to learning something in such a short amount of time.