Bogley

goofball · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 7:10 pm Post subject: video editing software ?

can't remember if i asked here about this before. jr. wants more options for makign movies. being able to cherry pick the portion of the video he wants, as well as selective audio, w/out having to use the whole clip is a must. is adobe premioere elements a good choice ? it wasn't clear on that one specifically if audio/video could be cherry picked as the user saw fit to use. also can't spend hundreds, but gottta get him something much better than the free wmp on our machine.

thanks !

Sombeech · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 9:44 pm Post subject:

Everybody trashes it, but I STILL use Windows Movie Maker for a good portion of my stuff.

Now, I do use 4 different programs quite often, but WMM is free and easy. It does 80% of what I need to do.

If you need specifics, then start looking around. Camtasia is excellent, and they just gave out their "version before last" free. It can do screen capture, lots of helpful tricks and more.

I'll see if I can dig up the link. Oh, and a "movie in movie" mode, too.

blarson · Joined: 19 Jun 2005 Posts: 15

i like cyberlink powerdirector, it doens't freeze up and it's programmed really well so that it doesn't get slow or bog itself down, it's actually really fast at doing what you tell it to do, unlike alot of other programs i've tried.

Sombeech · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:21 pm Post subject:

blarson wrote: i like cyberlink powerdirector,

I've got that too, version 5.

James_B_Wads2000 · Joined: 18 Mar 2005 Posts: 957 Location: Salt Lake City, UT

Sombeech wrote: Everybody trashes it, but I STILL use Windows Movie Maker for a good portion of my stuff.

My biggest gripe with Movie Maker is the one file type output (unless I’m doing it wrong). My output files always seem grainy no matter what compression I use.

Plus WMM doesn’t accept .mov or .m4a’s, but that is the major problems I have found with all videos is the lack of a universally accepted neural format. I keep all my audio files as MP3’s because almost all programs/devices will play MP3’s (i.e. Ipod, Itunes, Windows Media Center and Media Player).

Is there a similar video format? If so I am too stupid to find it.

James

Sombeech · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:01 pm Post subject:

I will always use at least two programs to complete my projects, even if they're small. I like the way that Movie Maker cuts and splices the clips, and others for the captions and file formats.

goofball · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:23 pm Post subject:

my experience w/ windows movie maker is that there is no way to take just PART of the clip, its all or nothing. or am i missing something ?

Sombeech · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:24 pm Post subject:

goofball wrote: my experience w/ windows movie maker is that there is no way to take just PART of the clip, its all or nothing. or am i missing something ?

You mean cutting, trimming, and splitting? Yeah, that's a huge part you must be missing. The "split" icon is right under the preview window.

goofball · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:29 pm Post subject:

Sombeech wrote: goofball wrote: my experience w/ windows movie maker is that there is no way to take just PART of the clip, its all or nothing. or am i missing something ?

You mean cutting, trimming, and splitting? Yeah, that's a huge part you must be missing. The "split" icon is right under the preview window.

damn i stoopid. THAT was what we wnated to do ! thanks sombeech, i recommend you for a raise.

Sombeech · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:13 pm Post subject:

I think every video software out there has a trim option, but I like Movie Maker's the best. It's just more user friendly, easier to get the exact frame, and it's easy to blend two scenes into another for a transition.

Tumbleweed · Joined: 06 Nov 2006 Posts: 43 Location: Balad, Iraq

I've been using ULead's Media Studio Pro 7 for the past couple of years. It pretty much as all the options you could ever want. They have a newer version 8 out. Unfortunately, it doesn't work so well in Vista and Corel bought out ULead, so support might be an issue. I know other guys use Adobe Premier to make good vids, but I'm not sure what the Elements version can do. I'd be interested in hearing about that one also, if anyone knows!

Beau

Sombeech · Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 4:28 pm Post subject:

It really comes down to what you need to accomplish on the video.

Was the procedure easy to do? Does it give you the desired resolution?

Although I use Movie Maker to some extent on every project I make, here are several features I can't perform with it:

**Reverse play the footage, such as shooting a crash, reversing, and watching it again.
**Zooming in on a clip
**Exact placement of titles or text where you want on the frame

Those are just a few, that when I need them, I'll use other software. But I'll use WMM to do all of my final cuts.

Camtasia has some great features, especially the screen capture. Picture in Picture is also a goody, but I do not like their captions and text function. In fact, it really sucks. But for the choices of production formats, Camtasia wins.

For my captions, titles, and text tags, I'll use Power Director. But I don't like their cropping feature as well. They do add some nice color to the film and give a decent variety of formats to produce to.

RedMan · Joined: 08 Dec 2005 Posts: 417 Location: Colorado???

I have Final Cut Pro.
Its like owning an F16 when you could live with a Cesna.

WMM is great for making quick cuts and adding a bit of music.
On the Mac I use Imovie mostly.