Suggest A Good Video Editing Software

[Jedi5]

Finally looking to upgrade from WMM to a better program out there to create
my DVDs. Not looking for anything fancy, mostly home movies.

Someone suggest a good product I should look at? Most of the files I work with
are WMV and MPEG. I just recently started fiddling with VOBs as well.
So I want something that will handle all three if possible.

From the little research I've done, the names that keep coming up are Pinnacle, Sony Vegas, and Adobe Elements. I saw this site that reviewed some programs.

Any thoughts? Trying to stay under $100 if possible, or not that much over.

Thanks.

[edDV]

Add to that list ULead Video Studio 11.

WMV is best edited in WMM although some others may import WMV.

MPEG can be losslessly edited in Womble and Virtual VCR for cuts only. ULead Video Studio also does lossless "smart-render" cuts so long as clip resolutions and bit rates match exactly.

VOBs are usually supported as MPEG camcorder imports but not necessarilly for DVD VOBs. You may need the "premium" versions of these programs for camcorder VOB and AC3 import. Check the specs.

My ranking for your needs would be

ULead Video Studio
Sony Vegas Movie Studio
Adobe Premiere Elements (forcused more to DV/HDV format editing)
Pinnacle Anything (known for chronic instability and other problems)

For MPEG cuts editing check out Womble products and VirtualVCR.

ULead Video Studio also works well with computer tuners and includes the Mainconcept real-time MPEG encoder module (lacking in Vegas and Premiere).

[tomk]

Hi,

I would add "magix video deluxe" to your list.
I edit my homevideos (avis from Cam) and Mpegs with it.
Its very stable and easy to use.

HTH
Tom

[PuzZLeR]

MPEG can be losslessly edited in Womble and Virtual VCR for cuts only. ULead Video Studio also does lossless "smart-render" cuts so long as clip resolutions and bit rates match exactly.

I agree with Womble and Virtual VCR for cuts only and I can add VideoRedo and TMPGEnc MPEG Editor 2 (version 3 out this month) to that list as well for near-lossless edits.

I have to comment on Ulead though. As much as I loved that application for several years, unfortunately their "Smart Render" is rather buggy for MPEG video especially when you include some transitions etc. At a consumer level, if you just want to export this for simple DvD playback you should have no problem. But further processing of these streams in a 3rd party app would reveal many instabilities. They come out "broken on the inside". Re-encoding with Ulead is solid though, especially since they use the MainConcept engine.

I've never tried WMM, but I haven't found one editing app that can import and/or export WMV without re-encoding it.

And as for VOBs, be careful - don't just "load" them into the app since they can be tricky, particularly those that contain segmentation. You may need to properly convert them to .mpg first (lossless) or import them into the app before working with them (TMPGEnc's source wizard does this). Most apps that edit VOBs convert them to .mpg first regardless.

[edDV]

MPEG can be losslessly edited in Womble and Virtual VCR for cuts only. ULead Video Studio also does lossless "smart-render" cuts so long as clip resolutions and bit rates match exactly.

I agree with Womble and Virtual VCR for cuts only and I can add VideoRedo and TMPGEnc MPEG Editor 2 (version 3 out this month) to that list as well for near-lossless edits.

I have to comment on Ulead though. As much as I loved that application for several years, unfortunately their "Smart Render" is rather buggy for MPEG video especially when you include some transitions etc. At a consumer level, if you just want to export this for simple DvD playback you should have no problem. But further processing of these streams in a 3rd party app would reveal many instabilities. They come out "broken on the inside". Re-encoding with Ulead is solid though, especially since they use the MainConcept engine.

I've never tried WMM, but I haven't found one editing app that can import and/or export WMV without re-encoding it.

...

So far as I've seen the ULead inplementation of "Smartrender" only works when clips of similar spec (e.g. size, bitrate, etc.) are cut together. Typical use would be for camcorder material. Mismatched clips and processing (e.g. transitions, filters) force a recode between I frames and I'm sure this is true for Womble products as well.

I agree wmv edits are recoded in most apps but additional loss comes from rescale (e.g. 640x480 to 720x480) when wmv's are imported to a DV or other non-square pixel timeline. WMM appears to convert everything to square pixels for processing. This hurts DV but better fits wmv. If nothing is processed (i.e. cuts only), WMM passes DV frames to the output without recode.

[PuzZLeR]

So far as I've seen the ULead inplementation of "Smartrender" only works when clips of similar spec (e.g. size, bitrate, etc.) are cut together. Typical use would be for camcorder material. Mismatched clips and processing (e.g. transitions, filters) force a recode between I frames and I'm sure this is true for Womble products as well.

Hi edDV. Try this:

Load a sample MPEG-2 clip into VideoStudio (5 minutes should do)
Do several cuts with Muti-trim
Export in Smart Render

Now take this exported clip and feed it to some of these apps:
Nero Recode - encode it to AVC
or use TMPGEnc MPEG Editor - do some more edits with it
or encode it to DivX using either DivX Converter, or Dr.DivX (maybe VirtualDub, etc.)

What you should notice is A/V sync issues exactly where you made cuts previously with VideoStudio. It's as if there's residual "seams" left behind in the video that makes processing apps trip over it. Sometimes the video can get real quirky, or jerky, depending on where you may have put transitions.

This is what I meant by the video being "broken on the inside". If you want to just burn it to disc no problem, but the video will have problems if you want to do further processing with it. The only way for me to get proper MPEG-2 video out of VideoStudio is to have it encoded on the way out to avoid this unfortunately.

I have yet to find this with Womble's or TMPGEnc's exports. Even the few frames around the cuts are "soldered" correctly.

It's sad for me. I truly loved VideoStudio and its Multi-task and the jog wheel. I hope their Dev team gets it right next edition.

[edDV]

So far as I've seen the ULead inplementation of "Smartrender" only works when clips of similar spec (e.g. size, bitrate, etc.) are cut together. Typical use would be for camcorder material. Mismatched clips and processing (e.g. transitions, filters) force a recode between I frames and I'm sure this is true for Womble products as well.

Hi edDV. Try this:

Load a sample MPEG-2 clip into VideoStudio (5 minutes should do)
Do several cuts with Muti-trim
Export in Smart Render

Now take this exported clip and feed it to some of these apps:
Nero Recode - encode it to AVC
or use TMPGEnc MPEG Editor - do some more edits with it
or encode it to DivX using either DivX Converter, or Dr.DivX (maybe VirtualDub, etc.)

What you should notice is A/V sync issues exactly where you made cuts previously with VideoStudio. It's as if there's residual "seams" left behind in the video that makes processing apps trip over it. Sometimes the video can get real quirky, or jerky, depending on where you may have put transitions.

This is what I meant by the video being "broken on the inside". If you want to just burn it to disc no problem, but the video will have problems if you want to do further processing with it. The only way for me to get proper MPEG-2 video out of VideoStudio is to have it encoded on the way out to avoid this unfortunately.

I have yet to find this with Womble's or TMPGEnc's exports. Even the few frames around the cuts are "soldered" correctly.

It's sad for me. I truly loved VideoStudio and its Multi-task and the jog wheel. I hope their Dev team gets it right next edition.

So it is an audio sync issue. I'll check. Transistions are a no no. How can you do a non-cut transition without recode? Especially if the transition crosses I frames.

[Amoreno]

All the video editors listed on previous are great.
If they offer a trial version I recommend using that first.
I use Pinnacle ver10
as well as WinAvi ver8
and Tmpgenc DVD Author

[ricardouk]

I've been using Editstudio for some years now, i havent tested version 6 but previous 4 and 5 versions worked well for me.

http://www.mediachance.com/video/index.html

[PuzZLeR]

So it is an audio sync issue. I'll check. Transistions are a no no. How can you do a non-cut transition without recode? Especially if the transition crosses I frames.

The sync issues don't reveal themselves on playback or on the DvDs. Only when further processing. I'm just suggesting be careful when using UVS's smart render. However, re-encoding with UVS corrects the problem 100%.

If you're interested, I addressed this problem in their forums a little while back here. Unfortunately for UVS, one member recommended Womble in that thread. Haven't used UVS much since...

[dun4cheap]

Frys has pinnacle studio 11 ultimate for $39.99 today.

http://shop1.frys.com/product/5238837;jsessionid=Tz2yIvEMBi3VW6dfE46PRQ**.node1?site=s...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG