Which Video editing software to buy

[Jorx]

Hi. I'm going to buy a video editing program for my father. But I don't really know so much about the different programs. The price limit is somewhere around $300. It should be quite easy to use but way more powerful than Moviemaker. And it should produce good quality DVD's. That is one of the main reasons I want to pay for it. I have been using TMPGEnc before but I want something that's better, and included in the program that I buy. It's going to be used with a DV-camera.

Well, I've looked at some software, but I have no idea which is better.
For instance, which is better: Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9 OR Adobe Premiere Elements 7?

I heard something about a plugin for Premiere: Cinema craft or something. What about that?

Ok, there you've got something to think about

/Jörgen

[lordsmurf]

Cinema Craft is old, forget about it. Adobe and Sony Pictures software both come with MainConcept-based MPEG encoding now.

Adobe Premiere Elements and Vegas Movie Studio are more or less the same. I prefer Adobe Premiere Elements, the way it functions just makes more sense.

As long as you make intelligent choices in the software, Premiere Elements (or Vegas) will give nice looking DVDs from your DV camera sources.

[fitch.j]

I'd agree with lordsmurf, both perfectly good pieces of software, again my preference is with Premiere. I just prefer it as 90% of the software i use is Adobe.

Premiere will do everything you want it to.

And its nowhere near the $300 you had limited yourself.

[Jorx]

Thank you for the answers
It should also be possible to import video from other sources than the camera (i.e. video files). But of course, that isn't so very important as most of the jobs will be with footage from the camera.

What other programs would you suggest?

/Jörgen

[fitch.j]

Premiere should be able to handle most of the videos you want to import, and if not then there are a host of (free) ways to convert the video into something useable. The list of them is long and depends more specifically on the issue you have with a certain file-type.

[ron spencer]

EditStudio...is nice easy and fast

[poisondeathray]

Some people "hate" the GUI or workflow of certain editors.

They all have free trials; so I suggest you give them a shot

Vegas Movie Studio is ~1/2 the price of Premiere Elements, so that might be a consideration too

[pepegot1]

VideoStudio X2 Pro is worth consideration.

[ricardouk]

EditStudio...is nice easy and fast

i'll second EditStudio, easy, fast and "logical"