What Editing Software do You Use?

[Marksnet]

I have been using Avid's Pinnacle Ultimate Studio 14 and it is ok. With the seemingly endless number of selections for around the 100dollar mark on home editing software nothing seems to be standing out in the crowd these days. Is there a software that is a "little" higher than the 100-150 mark price point in the market today that would give a nice bang for the buck?

Say something around 300 bones or???

If you would be so kind to list your favorite editing software and why. Also the whole deinterlacing your video debate. Avid does not deinterlace my AvChd footage so I may not know what I am missing.

Thanks for everyone in advance who puts time into this post! I just found this forum today so hopefully I will be of some help also.

Thanks
Mark

[Marksnet]

Hi, if this thread is still alive.

If we import AVCHD into our computer via a deinterlacing program would we then have full control over the clips to edit and not lose quality?

[chowmein]

Have a look at Magix Movie Edit Pro 16 Plus - best "bang for buck" NLE suite out there IMO...?

[classfour]

TDA3 - haven't upgraded to ver 4, went from 1.6 to 3 because of Vista

[redwudz]

All my AVCHD video is progressive, not interlaced. Interlacing (Or not) isn't really the problem. The main problem with AVCHD editing (Usually H.264 codec) is the keyframe spacing. Same with Divx, XviD and a few other highly compressed formats. Divx uses about 300 frames default keyframe spacing. Without some re-encoding, you can't cut just anywhere or you risk sync problems and video breakup. And if you only cut on the keyframes, your editing may be jumpy most times. That's why I suggested an intermediate format if you play to do extensive editing.

If you are also asking about AVCHD video converted to DVD format, you also have to resize and likely change the framerate besides.

[Marksnet]

Okay, thanks for that. Right now it looks like I have chosen the wrong camcorder for the future but, for right now I dont want to hassle with reselling and buying another but, i may based on what I find here

ARe there any workarounds for me. I have an hf21 not an hfs21 from Canon. It is avchd format and I have the option for:
Frame Rates
60i
pf30
pf24

also have the option of
MXP-24Mbps
FXP-Mbps
XP+12
STANDARD 7
LP 5Mbps

I am guessing the latter has to do with compression and the first is frame rate. Does this help in editing at all.


I am probably completely off base or maybe not but, if you can help me with a workaround that would be great.
Computer is not an issue
Camera is what it is
I currently have pinnacle ultimate studio 14 but, will look into.

Redwudz. the programs you linked to above. I have not looked at them yet but, I am on my way now to do so. Thank you for your response. Please allow me to bug you so that you can educate me a bit! Thanks

[Marksnet]

I should also say that if I can avoid buying another cam at this point that would be great. I will also spend a decent amount on a software package that will allow me to edit with ease if I dont have a good enough one now. Please suggest a program (paid) for me.

Also, if my camera is crap, for lack of a better word. Can you suggest an hd camcorder that I should look into -1000.00 shelf price not retail? I can always ebay my Canon HF21 and start over but, I dont want to buy another anchor. haha

Thanks for any suggestions everyone!

[Marksnet]

Hey guys and gals.

I need all of your help as well. Let me tell you what I have and hopefullly I will give you all my info so that it may assist you in everything.

I have a canon hf-21 not and hf-s21
Format avchd

Editing Software
Camera supplied which I have not used
and
Pinnacle Ultimate Studio Collection 14

Computer
18Gb Tri Channel Ram
i7 processor
1.5Tb Hrd Drive
and a 1gig some or another video card

Saying all of that leads me to this dreadful fear of a response. (I bought the wrong camera)

If i did no biggy (thers always ebay!)

However, if there is a reasonable work around for my editing solution beyond what I have in pinnacle. What would that be?

Is deinterlacing software and asset?
Is there another (paid) high quality software editing deal out there that I need or is pinnacle about tit for tat compared to the others?

I know I am asking a lot of questions but, my old computer would not chew up the format to produce a movie when I started adding transistions and stills so my computer (the one above) will be here on 9-30-10 so I dont really know what I have just yet?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[redwudz]

Most all HD camcorders use similar setups, so I wouldn't fault the camera. If you are used to the ease of editing SD DV-AVI, then HD is a whole new world. Take a look at Neo Scene. It's pricey, but makes editing much easier.

[Baldrick]

I have moved ALL your posts to one THREAD. It is much easier to follow than go through other threads.

[Marksnet]

I thought I might get more opinions to help my knowledge. I don't think that replying to existing threads that are days old qualifies for spamming your forum. 2 threads reply and one new post really?

[poisondeathray]

most of your questions have been answered many , many times already. If you search you can find answers to all your questions

editing is more of a software/graphics card integration issue. You can get great performance from edius or (edius neo booster) or premiere pro cs5 . You can edit 1 stream with your system smoothly, but the same system can get 3-4x performance if you have a cuda enabled nvidia card and better software. CS5 is expensive, but download the neo booster trial and you will see even older computers can handle avchd without problems

deinterlacing degrades quality; you wouldn't deinterlace unless you had to (e.g. for a progressive display format like web delivery, youtube etc...); otherwise it's usually better to deinterlace on playback. Blu-ray and avchd handle interlaced content without issues.

if you had to deinterlace, the best quality deinterlacers are avisynth based (e.g. tempgaussmc_beta2), but very slow to process. Most retail software are garbage in terms of deinterlacing qualityu. Again this has been covered in dozens of other threads, even instructions and comparisions

[Marksnet]

most of your questions have been answered many , many times already. If you search you can find answers to all your questions

editing is more of a software/graphics card integration issue. You can get great performance from edius or (edius neo booster) or premiere pro cs5 . You can edit 1 stream with your system smoothly, but the same system can get 3-4x performance if you have a cuda enabled nvidia card and better software. CS5 is expensive, but download the neo booster trial and you will see even older computers can handle avchd without problems

deinterlacing degrades quality; you wouldn't deinterlace unless you had to (e.g. for a progressive display format like web delivery, youtube etc...); otherwise it's usually better to deinterlace on playback. Blu-ray and avchd handle interlaced content without issues.

if you had to deinterlace, the best quality deinterlacers are avisynth based (e.g. tempgaussmc_beta2), but very slow to process. Most retail software are garbage in terms of deinterlacing qualityu. Again this has been covered in dozens of other threads, even instructions and comparisions

Thanks today is my first day here sorry for being a nube. Your information is appreciated and I will restrain from asking again.

[poisondeathray]

If you need clarification or can't find something after using [search] , then don't hesitate to ask

If you think Pinnacle Studio 14 does everything ok for you, and it meets your needs, then there is no reason to change or waste any more money. A dissolove transition is a dissolve transition, no matter what editor you use. A more expensive program won't give you a better "dissove"

Most people would complain how difficult it is to edit avchd natively (slow performance on the timeline), and the answer to that is to either use optimized software (as mentioned above) , use a digital intermediate (as mentioned earlier, like cineform) or use proxy editing

[hiptune]

Many people would say a desolve is not always a desolve.

Many would suggest Sony Vegas for a good low cost PC based NLE system. They have a lower level version, lower cost too that mnay love.

I am using Vegas 5 which is about four years (or more) out of date. I love it and have it on two systems. Very easy one to grasp, low cost and fewer crashss than most.

When I got ready to move up, I bought a Mac G5 with Final Cut Pro rather than spend more cash on PC based software. I really enjoy having both PC and Macs each doing different things.

I use Nero 6 for burning, Procoder 1.5 for encoding, so I am out of date a bit, but for standard def DVDs, it is all I ever needed and my stuff looks amazing in quality.

For HDV I'd just rather use FCP with Prores on HDV footage and be done with it.

[budwzr]

There are two ways to go.

You can get something that has a learning curve, but gives you greater flexibility and creativity, or you can get something that's drag and drop and full of "wizzards" so you never have to learn anything.

Sony Vegas (PC) and Final Cut Pro (Mac) represent both ends of that spectrum, and Adobe Premier (PC) is somewhere in the middle.

[MJPollard]

There are two ways to go.

You can get something that has a learning curve, but gives you greater flexibility and creativity, or you can get something that's drag and drop and full of "wizzards" so you never have to learn anything.

Sony Vegas (PC) and Final Cut Pro (Mac) represent both ends of that spectrum, and Adobe Premier (PC) is somewhere in the middle.

This.

Personally, I've been using Vegas Pro for years (ever since version 4.0, when it was still a Sonic Foundry product), and though I probably don't use most of its whiz-bang features, I like knowing that they're there if/when I need them in the future. Sony also has a "stripped-down" version, Vegas Movie Studio, that's much cheaper but, IIRC, still includes the features that are used the most (including HD editing).