Searching for a Video Edit program

[Ray Darr]

I am looking for a program to edit movies, similar to Microsoft's Windows Movie Maker 2. I find MM2 buggy - it locks up "Not Responding" far too many times to make it worth using. (My system isn't the reason for the lock-ups. I have a newer computer with plenty of RAM, speed, etc.) Add to that the proprietary format you must save the output in makes MM2 a no-go.

I would like to take movies of any format, import them from an existing file (.AVI, etc) into (insert recommended program here!) so it lays out each scene which then can be easily drag-n-dropped onto a time-line, manipulated, edited, and saved in whatever format I would like to (JPEG, AVI, etc).

It would be nice to have a program that lets me capture from a digital vid-cam (soon to own) and maybe do the rip-from-DVD trick, but the main objective right now is importing from existing video files.

I have scoured the Internet for reviews, but the results are out of date or of sub-standard programs. I have searched extensively through this (great!) forum also, but came up empty (even though I found lots of video-helpful related links!).

Any suggestions?

Cheers,
~R.D.

[spannersatcx]

Pinnacle studio, ulead dvd, adobe premier.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Ray Darr,

M$ MM2 should do all you want. (Not sure why it is buggy though.)

If you want a third party program, I would recommend:

Pinnacle Studio Version 9 (http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPage_n.asp?Product_ID=1501&Langue_ID=7)

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/images/ProductImages/ss_02B_Studio9_07.jpg

They are the leader. (Note: Excluding all editing software that would create a huge smoking hole in your wallet.) ;)

Take Care,

Richard

[DeepC]

I use Adobe Premier for splicing movies. Fairly user friendly and very powerful.

DeepC

[Ray Darr]

Hi Richard, DeepC, spanner....

As long as these programs split the original video into scenes and not just one long track I have to break apart manually (read: excruciatingly slow...) then I will check them all out.

Thanks for the recommendations.

Cheers,
~R.D.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Ray Darr,

Do not forget to post a trailer for one of your theatrical masterpieces for us to see. ;)

Take Care,

Richard

[Ray Darr]

No, Richard, nothing for a while, alas.

My first project is a long-overdue cut-and-re-paste of Top Gun to shed every non-flying scene (need I EXPLAIN?!) :p ...just to practice using the programs suggested.

One day I might try posting a trailer here when I have something worth posting.

:ok:
Cheers,
~R.D.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Ray Darr,

Mrs. R.D. might want you to cut all the flying scenes and just loop the volleyball scene. :D

Take Care,

Richard

[Ray Darr]

...you obviously didn't read between the lines, Richard!! That's exactly what I was referring to in the "need I EXPLAIN!" part! :yuk:

And yes, that's exaclty where those deleted scenes - both beach AND shower-room - would likely be destined: Mrs. R.D.'s personal stash. :p :p

Cheers,
~R.D

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Ray Darr,

I just figured that would be your second project.

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. It was a miracle that they even finished that movie. They could not keep Tom Cruise's head out of a sick sack long enough to get the shoots needed to make flying scenes for the movie. :yuk:

[Windle Poons]

Ray Darr, there is another option to those already mentioned above, and that is Movie Edit Pro 2004. Retails at approx £50, and has 16 channels that you can put anything into (audio, video, stills etc.). The interface is not as easy as Pinnacle Studio, which I also use, but it does have some nifty tricks up its sleeves. It has blue/green/white and black screen capability which allows you loads of picture in picture options, and 16 channels means you could have 16 videos in your production without having to do too much cutting. It also has quite a good DVD authoring section with intro movies, sound and animated menus.

As I say it is not as easy to use as Pinnacle, but gives several more options and tools, and is nowhere near as expensive as Premiere, which seems to do it all.

WP.

[Ray Darr]

Thanks, VP. I'll have a look at M E Pro 2004. Appreciate the user-knowledge info!

Cheers,
~R.D.

[Ray Darr]

After revisiting Windows Movie Maker 2, I found it to be buggy.

The possible reason it was crashing on me the first time around was I had been putting too many scene-clips from the scene library onto the time-line, which it uses to generate the movie output. I restricted the amount of scenes I copied to the time-line, and saved the project every time it copied each scene grouping. (Even with 512 megs of RAM, I was surprised that this was such a slow process, also!)

The end result of WMM2? Many scenes had the audio unsynchronized to the video. Most of the result was pretty good, but overall, a definite THUMBS DOWN.

I will have a close look at three other programs: Pinnacle Studio 9 (thanks, Richard), Movie Edit Pro 2004 (thanks, Windle), and Sony Vegas 5 + DVD Architect Pro Media Suite. I might look at Adobe Premier, too (thanks, DeepC).

I'll post my results once I work through them.

Cheers,
Ray Darr

[Raw Data]

I have just been trialling Pinnacle 9, and had a few problems with it - mainly that it seems to needa lot of hard drive space to render the project. If you run out, it just stops - no warning, error messages, nothing.

What is worse, though, is that Pinnacle will not support the trial version (they won't even answer emails), and you can't patch it. Even if you could get support, it apparently costs you about GBP4.00 per event! So here we have a product that seems to have several problems (judging by their knowledge base), but which will cost you money for every support call you make (apart from the first one!). Oh, and their minimum promised time to deal with your problem is two days!!!

I think that is pretty crappy support myself, and it is certainly the worst support setup I have ever seen.

Compare that to Macromedia Dreamweaver, which I also recently tried. I emailed them a few times about the trial, and always had a reply in less than 4 hours. I also phoned a couple of times, whenn I needed urgent hand-holding, and was always able to get through within a minute or so.

Pinnacle might be a good product, but I will never buy it, purely on the basis of their awful support setup. If I need help, I expect to get it, and quickly. Their refusal to support the trial in any way is incredibly short-sighted, IMHO...

Discuss... ;)

[Oggin Aviator]

Hi all,

Will any of the above programs strip the audio track from the video such that it (the audio track) can be edited before being put back with the video? Or will they all do this?

i.e. can I alter the audio track associated with an existing MPEG file without screwing up the video track.

Cheers

Oggin

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Raw Data,

Sorry to hear that. I do hope you find something that will work well for you.

Take Care,

Richard

[Raw Data]

Well I probably will - I hope - but it is the support (or lack thereof) that really irks me.

In most other areas of human endeavour, when you sell something, you warranty it. OK, software is inherently difficult in this regard, as it tends to be the case that no two PCs are the same. However, some companies go the extra yard for their customers, as I described. Others just leave you to it, or do what Pinnacle do, charge you every time you have an issue with their software - and in many cases it is the software that is the problem - read here (http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/t238354.html) for another view on it.

I find that attitude to one's customers unforgivable... or is it just me...???

Even Microsoft have a free helpline... or they did last year when I was in the UK...

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Raw Data,

VideoHelp.com is a great website. :ok:

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. You cannot use M$ and free in the same sentence. ;)

[Bern Oulli]

I use "Video Explosion Deluxe" by Nova Development Corp. Amazon have it at a bargain price at the moment and it is IMHO the mutt's nuts. Edit the sound-track separately from the video, oceans of wipes, fades, cuts etc. I was even able to do an animated title sequence using Flash, save as an AVI and stick it into the video. Worked perfectly. I run Windows ME and it even stitches together the finished product when the file is bigger than 4 Gb.

[bonvol]

I'm new to all this but purchased this gadget recently. AVerMedia DVD EZMaker USB2.0

www.aver.com

It just plugs into the USB 2 with my VHS recorder as the input with standard old RCA plugs and works fine.

Cost $98 Aussie Dollars.

[Ray Darr]

Anyone have experience first-hand with Sony Vegas 5?