Video Editing - Adobe Elements or . . . ?

[imcarthur]

I have to edit a video for work. Low budget training video. I know nothing. What software (for PC Windoze XP) is easy to learn & use? Doesn't have to be freeware since I can expense a reasonable amount. We will film next week in Montreal.

Ideas?

Ian

[fxeditor]

Adobe Premier is a good program but may I suggest Pinnacle Studio by Avid Video editing software - Pinnacle Studio - The #1 selling digital video editing software I think you'll find it easy to use and does a pretty good job of making any format of video you can think of.

Good luck,
Michael

[slodave]

I use a free version from Avid...

Free video editing software download lets you edit and upload your movies for free - VideoSpin - Create your own movie clips in minutes!

I'm not sure how the UI looks compared to the full version, but you can give it a try....

Dave

[porsche4life]

W/e you get make sure it works with the video format you will be using... I like iMovie on my buddies Mac... It handles Mpeg4 which most others wont... But its out of the question for you...

[rnln]

In 2 nights searching the net for free software, I found a bunch. Each has the weak points. My cam manufacture disc (Sony) come with one. Nero9 can do it too. I think the adobe premier is the best I know. Most of the profs I know use it.

[slodave]

True, on the Windows side of things, Premiere Pro is.... But soooo expensive..

[imcarthur]

Thanks guys. Avid's Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Collection sounds like it might do the trick. I can d/l for $129.

I must admit, I don't know how we are filming, camera type etc. I was just informed that I get the joy of editing whatever we do. Just an in-house training for use & setup of a new Airport Express streaming audio type of product.

Ian

[AFC-911]

You can't go wrong with AVID. It's what I've been using whenever I have a gig at local TV stations.

I was going to suggest it last night, but I knew the edit suites I'm using were expensive versions.

[Christien]

The last version of Premiere I used was several years ago, but it was awesome for being very simply and easy to use for basic stuff (chopping clips, crossfades and other effects, adding various audio tracks) but had the capabilities for much more advanced stuff if you wanted it. There's a reason it's industry standard, though price might be a bit high for what you want. If you want to use my old version, you're welcome to it.

[rcecale]

Cool thread! I'm actually at work right now, using Premiere Elements to create some DVDs for a jury research exercise we have coming up next week. This is one of the more enjoyable parts of my job!

Been using Elements for almost 2 years now. I found it to be pretty intuitive, and easy to use. (My own $.02)

Randy

[imcarthur]

Well I d/l the Adobe Elements 8.0 trial & messed with it a bit. It seemed to be relatively easy. I created an flv & an mpg. And I crashed it 3 times trying to voice over. I am deleting the trial as I type this. Hmm. Maybe Pinnacle Studio . . .

Ian

[john70t]

Any limits on file sizes when making full-length dvds? That used to be a problem with Windows.

[Oracle]

If you've never done it then try Movie Maker, it comes with Windows XP and Vista for Free!
Before you spend the money see if you can do it as it takes good patience to do video editing.
For home use/family videos Movie Maker is more than you'll ever need.

[rcecale]

Originally Posted by john70t

Any limits on file sizes when making full-length dvds? That used to be a problem with Windows.

A file in a FAT32 file system is limited to 4 Gb. If you use NTFS, the max file size is up to 2 TB.

Randy

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by john70t

Any limits on file sizes when making full-length dvds? That used to be a problem with Windows.

That's more a limit of the media and data rate. If your combined audio/video rate is higher than 8mbs the probability of failure is higher.