Video Editing Software (Windows Based)

[Danecho1967]

Since it has been about 4 years since there was an active thread on the subject, I decided to start a new one.

Many years ago, I worked in the Television ministry at a local church and got the opportunity to play with their video editing software a little.  I enjoyed it so much, I've always wanted to do it for fun.  I have been wanting for some time to take the dozens of VHS home movies my father shot in the 80's and make a DVD with the good parts edited to look good and be (hopefully) interesting to watch.  I have a lot of ideas, but I need good software for the editing.

I've been looking into Corel VideoStudio Pro x4.  It seems to have tons of features and doesn't look too hard to learn.  I've even been thinking that I could even use it to bring some professionalism to my Rifftrax reauthors.  I figured I would start small and learn the features before hitting my big project.

Has anyone had any experience with this product, or perhaps have advice on a good software package, $100 or under?

[Prince of Space 5049]

I have been using AVSVideo editor for about the last three years.  I got it for around $100.00 then.  Not sure what it goes for now.  Extremely user friendly, with lots of cool effects.  I had tons of old VHS home movies that I was able to edit down to great DVD's.

[Smith Dr John Smith]

The last time I got a piece of video editing software it just had hookups for a VCR and I had to record any video I wanted to edit.  Well times have changed and now all my family videos are taken on a digital camera.  Does any of this video editing software let the user just take a video off of an SD card and edit it down before burning it to a DvD?

[Danecho1967]

The last time I got a piece of video editing software it just had hookups for a VCR and I had to record any video I wanted to edit.  Well times have changed and now all my family videos are taken on a digital camera.  Does any of this video editing software let the user just take a video off of an SD card and edit it down before burning it to a DvD?

Yeah, just about any of the newer software can do that.

[Smith Dr John Smith]

The last time I got a piece of video editing software it just had hookups for a VCR and I had to record any video I wanted to edit.  Well times have changed and now all my family videos are taken on a digital camera.  Does any of this video editing software let the user just take a video off of an SD card and edit it down before burning it to a DvD?

Yeah, just about any of the newer software can do that.

Great.  I have been putting off upgrading because I wasn't sure and I didn't want to get stuck with something that wouldn't work for me.

Thanks for your help.

[Danecho1967]

I have been using AVSVideo editor for about the last three years.  I got it for around $100.00 then.  Not sure what it goes for now.  Extremely user friendly, with lots of cool effects.  I had tons of old VHS home movies that I was able to edit down to great DVD's.

I've been doing so research on this one and it looks like a great program.  Almost all of the effects that the Corel I was looking at has, and it's $39.99, which is $10 less than the Corel.  I'm definitely at "research a lot before I buy" kind of guy, but this is definitely on the short list of candidates.

[Sideswipe]

Windows movie maker!

[Danecho1967]

Windows movie maker!

I've played with it, quite a bit, really.  It doesn't do what I need it to do.  My ideas (especially for Rifftrax reauthors) require closer to professional-level editing capabilities.  It doesn't support 6 channel audio, does it?

[Sideswipe]

I don't think so.  The Windows 7 version might.  I just have XP.

[Danecho1967]

So, after much research, I went with Cyberlink Powerdirector 10 (Deluxe Version).  The "Ultra" version's only real difference was that it handled 3D videos, and I have no need for that in the foreseeable future.

Amazing program, by the way.  I created my first film clip last night (I was up till 4 am).  It was about 30 seconds long, and wasn't really very impressive other than I was able to do what I wanted.  I'm planning to just do a lot of playing at this point and learning the features.  I did find out that my collection of media (pictures, videos and sounds) is pathetic.  I'm thinking of buying an external hard drive for storing the elements I will eventually need for some of my ideas.

I think I just found a new hobby.  I have a couple of fun ideas for how I can share it.

[Prince of Space 5049]

So, after much research, I went with Cyberlink Powerdirector 10 (Deluxe Version).  The "Ultra" version's only real difference was that it handled 3D videos, and I have no need for that in the foreseeable future.

Amazing program, by the way.  I created my first film clip last night (I was up till 4 am).  It was about 30 seconds long, and wasn't really very impressive other than I was able to do what I wanted.  I'm planning to just do a lot of playing at this point and learning the features.  I did find out that my collection of media (pictures, videos and sounds) is pathetic.  I'm thinking of buying an external hard drive for storing the elements I will eventually need for some of my ideas.

I think I just found a new hobby.  I have a couple of fun ideas for how I can share it.

If I may ask, what did you pay for it?  Please keep me (us) informed on the features you like and what you are able to do with it.  Ya know, what's cool, what's not, is it user friendly etc.  Thanx.
P.S. Oh yeah, how long is the process time?  If I process a half hour clip in AVSVideo Editor, it takes forever.  It's one of the few things I hate about it.

[Danecho1967]

It's not very hard to use.  The controls are actually very intuitive.  I've had some problems with transitions, especially when doing a transition to a film rather than just pictures.  I'm having a lot of fun learning how to use it.  I worked on this one today:

It's 2 minutes long and took 3 minutes to encode at high quality MP4.  I'd say it's pretty slow, but I tend to chalk that up to the computer I'm using.

[Raefire]

Vegas Video.

Relatively cheap, professional, you can open practically any file type with it (I've got projects with FLAC audio, .mp4 and .avi video all in the same timeline, with no conflicts) and it can render to a whole lot of file types, too... Easily the best Windows-based editor out there.

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Vegas-Studio-Platinum-Production/dp/B0051M6IPI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327822457&sr=8-1

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegassoftware

[RVR II]

I've been using Pinnacle Studio version 9.4 for years..
I use a ATI All In Wonder on a Windows XP Pro computer as my capture device.
You can edit your captured VHS, camcorder videos, etc. and either convert them to burn on DVD or to MPEG-4 for uploads to YouTube
It even works great converting captured movies and adding a RiffTrax mp3 into one DVD for the ultimate MST3K experience

I've tried using newer versions (Studio 10-14) and they don't like my ATI AIW and want you to get their Pinnacle capture card but the reviews have not sold me on upgrading yet..

[Danecho1967]

If I may ask, what did you pay for it?  

I meant to answer this one before.  I downloaded it from the manufacturer.  $69.99 base price, but I went for the two upgrades.  One allows you to download it again any time for the next two years (In case of hard drive crash) and I went ahead and asked for it on disk as well, because if it's as good as the reviews, I shouldn't need anything new for a few years at least.  Total price was about $90.

I ended up getting Powerdirector because it had such fantastic reviews.  It was the best rated in it's class (under $100) on every review site I looked at.  The only cons that the reviewers gave was that there were so many options, it could be a little hard to learn what all the software can do.  I can understand that from a reviewer's perspective, since they have a limited time to use the software before reviewing it.  A user can keep learning the features over time.