Which editor would you recommend?

[ingeborgdot]

We will be starting some video/audio editing classes in our school and we are starting from scratch. We have a budget to build computers, get video streaming equipment (tricaster for TV), camcorders, cameras, software, etc. Remember there is a budget so we have to be reasonable. Right now I am looking at different ones with cyberlink powerdirector ultimate suite and Sony Imagination Studio 4. What are peoples takes on the two? I use Vegas Pro 12 now but none of these kids are familiar with anything. Can anyone give me a push in the right direction? Pros and cons to both. I have looked but unless used it is too hard to tell so I am asking anyone that may have used both. Thanks.

[Brainiac]

Hi,

I'll be honest upfront: I have never used Sony Imagination Studio 4, but I have used PowerDirector. I can tell you, from my experience, that PowerDirector is not a good editor to start with. It is buggy, clunky and slow. Unless you are prepared to handle bugs, horrid customer support and a sluggish interface, I would avoid PowerDirector if I were you. As a matter of fact, I just uninstalled my copy and am looking to give it away for free to anyone brave enough to install it on their machine. You might want to take a look at their user forums.

I have also used Sony Movie Studio, which looks similar to Sony Imagination Studio. It rarely crashed and does it's job very well. The rendering is slow, but bearable. The customer support is great, too. I have used the support forum on two different occasions for the same issue to see if the answer to my problem was consistent, and it was.

So, I would recommend Sony over Cyberlink, especially for newbies. Software that is not full blown would be, in my opinion, a great place to start.

I looked at both software's sites to see if there were trials available. There is one for PowerDirector, but I could not find one for Imagination Studio. But there is a trial for Movie Studio. I would recommend downloading both trials and judging for yourself which one would be the best fit for your students. Just because PowerDirector didn't work for me doesn't mean it won't work for you.

Hope this helps,



Brainiac

[ingeborgdot]

Actually Imagination studio is a culmination of Movie Studio Platinum, and bunches of audio software and other software.

[ingeborgdot]

I have never used the Cyberlink editor but actual users are the best reviews I think. I do like my Vegas Pro best of anything tried also. I think Vegas Studio Platinum in the Imagination Studio 4 might be my best bet also.

[Cauptain]

My experience with Power Director (Based in versions 9.10 and 11)

- Easy learn curve
- Very responsive and stable
- Nice effects, transitions, texts ... All great.
- Various export outputs.
- MPEG2 capture quality is excellent.
- Support forum is very good
- Power tools help a lot with videos

For beginner, is the software that I recommend.




Claudio

[pandy]

Perhaps some free solution http://www.lwks.com/ ? or perhaps some open sourced editor (however mostly Linux environment focused)

[ingeborgdot]

The one thing to this point why I may choose Sony over the other is that I use Vegas Pro 12 so I am leaning toward that right now. I am looking at also getting a pretty great deal for the whole package. It's not a done deal yet but after Xmas I will be deciding. Just going to do some more research and checking before we purchase. Thanks.

[Hoser Rob]

I'd be looking at open source/linux solutions as well. If you're buying software you're probably dealing with multi user licensing agreements as well.

[ingeborgdot]

Yes, that is correct.