Recommend a video editor?

[MYoung]

I'm looking for a video editor and it's a pretty frusterating venture. Premiere Pro costs a fortune and I run Win2K, not WinXP. I hear that older versions of Premiere aren't very stable and don't allow custom resolutions, and I think I recall something about them not supporting progressive video, only interlaced? I looked up Avid video editors and they seem to cost a fortune too.

Just wondering if anyone can give me some suggestions to investigate. I'm looking to spend $150 to $200. I hope that I can buy SOMETHING halfway decent for that much. I think a decent 3rd party video editor is needed, just like DVDLab is smoking all the other crappy DVD authoring software that's out there. Thanks!

[gshelley61]

Basic Video Editors
https://www.videohelp.com/tools?s=8#8

Advanced Video Editors
https://www.videohelp.com/tools?s=17#17

[tag]

I hope that I can buy SOMETHING halfway decent for that much.

For that much (perhaps a few bucks more) you can get something more than just "halfway decent" on ebay...........do a search for "Sony Vegas".

[MYoung]

Hmm, EditStudio looks like it might be a good buy.

[BodaZoffa]

Two words..... "Vegas Video".


Boda

[Redd]

Two words..... "Vegas Video".

Ditto

[housepig]

add another voice to the chorus for Vegas.

[MYoung]

Hmm, I'm not finding Vegas Video 5 for $150 ~ $200. Though it sounds like a great program. I especially like the fact that, um, it sounds like it's hard to crash! Plus the real-time preview. Or maybe I should scour the land for the cheapest copy I can find.

I've been demoing EditStudio for a couple of days and I'm pretty impressed with it, except for the fact that it cannot do real-time preview. Though I'm thinking I could just make a directory with highly compressed versions of all videos of a project and work with those for playback and then rename the directories to get the uncompressed video versions when I build the project.

[tag]

Hmm, I'm not finding Vegas Video 5 for $150 ~ $200.

Nope, figure around $250 on ebay. However, you'll probably never regret exceeding your budget by 50 bucks if you buy the s/w.

Have you given the trial version a shot?:

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/download/step2.asp?DID=501

[hexxisoft]

theres also a chopped down version of Vegas called Screenblast, which my girlfriend uses, and it's not half bad.

[MrSpeed]

I would second the vote for Screenblast. It is considered "Vegas lite" but it is quite powerful. It simply does not crash.

[sacajaweeda]

VirtualDubMod

[BJ_M]

another vote for vegas or screenblast (vegas lite) if a budget crunch issue ..

[Marvingj]

Vegas is Great! Premiere 6.5 is pretty good but I like Vegas.

[byteguy]

I've been demoing EditStudio for a couple of days and I'm pretty impressed with it, except for the fact that it cannot do real-time preview.

Add my voice to EditStudio. Tons of power and great plug-ins available. Take a look at the wild stuff being done with the new General Expression and WAX modules (both free) or the very low-cost Rosa Negra utilities (like $5-10).

You can speed up the preview by closing the little film-strip at the top of the track window and making sure you are viewing in draft mode.

Ask any questions in their forums, you will get answers. The support is unbelievable.

Eric

[rgs_uk]

My vote goes to Vegas Video too. I'm still using v4. I used to be a Premiere 6.5 user and, as you said, had a lot of crash and stability problems.

[MYoung]

Thanks for all the suggestions! This forum rocks!