Video editing for fun is very expensive with this!

[arvin]

Hi people, I was thinking something about Video editing for fun. It looks that it is a very very expensive hobby. Do have program to capture DV, to edit it, to clean the sound from VHS tapes, to insert some 3D text or objects, picture to edit for cover page and to author and burn to DVD. So you have to have all this software just for do this I said and not to mention the very fast and strong computer you got to have in order to use all this.

If moderator agree with me, I want to ask all of you-do you do this for fun, and for how much money minimum you can buy those programs below?
This is what I am using, but just a little for home video

Thanks

PS. To take a chance and to say that this is the best site about editing and stuff, people very fast answer to my questions, thanks to all, just keep it going that way.






Adobe premiere 6.5
3D Studio Max 5.0
Maya 4.5
Ulead Media Studio pro 6.5
Sonic Foundry Vegas Video 3
Sonic Foundry Video Factory 2.0 De luxe
Avid Xpert DV 3.0
Adobe Photoshop
Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2
Ulead Photoimpact 8
Autodesk Autocad 2004
Audio Cleaning Lab 3.0

[fmctm1sw]

Umm, dude... You're losing me. I do a lot of the things you mention in your post with FREE stuff. Virtualdub, TMPG, so on. I am doing it on a Celeron 366 (@433). You don't have to spend a whole bunch of cash. Look under tools......

[VidGuy]

I've never used any one of those programs for this hobby....

I use:

DoItFast4U (Free)
TMpgEnc/CCE Basic (~ 120 for both)
DVDDecryptor (Free)
RecordNowMax (Free with Burner)
AviSynth (Free)
BitrateViewer (Free)
DVDPatcher (Free)
MPeg2VCR ($119)
VCDEasy (Free)
BeSweet (Free)
Subrip (Free)
IfoEdit (Free)
MenuEdit ($10 I think now)
IfoUpdate (Free)
Studio 7/8 for DV Editing (~100 - don't really remember what I paid)

THe only thing that might be more expensive is the DVD authoring program, although for really simple authoring you can use IFOEdit, and for moderate authoring there's DVD-Lab or TMPGEnc's new authoring program that are both moderately inexpensive. Complex authoring is another story.....

[Vejita-sama]

For every commerial product there exists a free alternative. However, the freeware programs often do not have the documentation or support as pay programs (as an aside some actually have better support).

For example, there are a ton of freeware programs to burn CDRs an DVDRs. I personally burn by DVD Videos by making an image file with IMGTools (freeware) then burn with DVD Decrypter (freeware).

Avisynth and VirtualDub are very powerful video editing programs, but unlke Ulead or Vegas Video you need to think ahead a bit more to use them. And the user interface isn't as nice (avisynth uses script files).

IMHO it's about time and money. In many ways this is just a hobby and I actually LIKE doing it the 'hard' way (with 4-6 different programs). But a lot of people perfer to have one program that does it all. Well that's going to cost you

[rob1]

Software has been cheap- it's the hardware that hurt!

I use:

Free:
DVIO,AVISYNTH,VDubMod,BeeSweet (or Softencode- NLA)

Bought:
CCE Basic ($60), DVDLab ($70), RecordNow DX (came with my DVD writer so not really free!)

Maybe want to buy:
CoolEdit Pro (for sound), Womble (for editing mpg2's)

I've got a copy of Vegas Video sitting on my hard drive that I never use. I actually prefer a lot of the freeware for simple VHS->DVD!

[tgpo]

On A Mac:

iMovie: Free
iDVD: Free
Forty-Two: Free
ffmpegX :Free
MissingMediaBurner: Free
[b]DVD2One[b]: $59.00
Toast: $89.00

These are the main tools I use on a regular basis. But the Mac has the advantage of numerous *nix ports.

[ktnwin]

Let me drop my two cents:

1) yes, video editing and authoring to DVD does cost money. You can spend more or less depending on what you do

2) the cheapest way is to buy the stand alone DVD recorder (around 370 US$ at this time) and just record like with a VCR (you have to pay about 1$ per blank DVD disc)

The second approach is quick and easy but the resulting DVD are boring to watch when it start. You cannot even place the chapter points where they should be, and the dumb menu list when it starts. That's why lot of folks go with the computer/DVD-writer path. If the stand-alone recorder can give you a better choice of custom menu, and accurate placement of chapter points, then very few will go the computer way.

Expensive: no, considering the values of all the video tapes most of us collect over the years. You can lose thousands dollars and somehow you can make them again but if you lose these home video tapes... adios, you can never get them back regardless the sum you are willing to pay.

[housepig]

it's as expensive as you want to make it.

just like building a computer - for the same specs a friend of mine spent $1,200 on, I built one from parts for $600. But I had less money and more willingness to expend the time to get the parts and build it. He has enough money that he didn't need to make the effort.

If you are willing to dig, you can find free tools to do almost everything. And some of the not-free tools are usually bundled with your burner. (I've never spent a dime on burning software, because I've had Nero bundled with a couple of burners, so I get the current version free as an upgrade).

Even non-linear editors exist as freeware - some are hard to find, but they are out there. The only software I've *had* to buy is an mpeg-2 encoder (TMPGenc) because of the license fees involved.

So if you are willing to work a little harder, you can get in for cheap. If you don't want to work that hard, prepare to open your checkbook.

of course, if you want me to edit stuff for you for a fee, I'm available... 8)