What is the best inespensive video editing software. I have tried Ulead and it seems ok other than being slow. Has anyone used Power Director? Is it good? I found this software review http://video-editing-software-review.com/ and they rate Power Director as the best. Agree???

The best for me is not neccessarily the best for you.
It is ok. It did not crash. I have Power Director 3. I do not know if it really creates DVD's and had decided that what I really should have gotten was PowerDVD and I tried the trial version. They just released a newer version, PowerDVD 6. This was the first package I had successfully gone from transferring .AVI from my camcorder, edit the video, create a DVD with menus and play the DVD's on four different standalone DVD players.
It may be the best in what they tested, but they did not test Sony Vegas Movie Studio + DVD. Which I have used and considered it better for me than Power Director.


Sony Vegas Movie Studio + DVD It has a free trial download.

I ended up buying the more expensive package "Vegas+DVD Production Suite".

You might want to read through:

Video Editing Software

Rich

I second Rich's rec. for Vegas. It is a superb program that you can get started with quickly and grow with as you mature as a video editor.

Good luck and let us know what you decide.

Dennis

Are you talking about the inexpensive, Vegas 4.0 or the expensive, 5.0?

I consider the "Best DV Editing Software Under $100" to be "Sony Vegas Movie Studio + DVD"

Sony Vegas Movie Studio used to be called Screenblaster.

Vegas 5 is a greatly updated version of Vegas 4.



Rich

Rich,
Is Sony Vegas 5.0 different than Sony Movie Studio +DVD? I'm am also looking for a capture, edit, burn to DVD package for a newbie. I downloaded Pinnacle 9 and Vegas 5.0 trial versions, but have not installed them yet to see what I like. I'll download the Movie Studio + DVD as well. Thanks for your thoughts.

Sony Vegas 5.0 is just an editor and much more expensive. "Vegas 5 + DVD suite" includes the DVD authoring program.

"Sony Movie Studio +DVD" is quite different than the above (especially price). It use to be called Screenblaster.
There is a comparison chart on the Vegas web site. One of the threads said you could order Movie Studio for $80 from Costco.

I tried the Vegas Movie Studio Demo but before I got around to burning the DVD stage my 30 days was near so I decided to try the Vegas 5 demo, then went ahead an bought the Vegas 5 + DVD suite.

For a beginner I think "Sony Movie Studio +DVD" is a good deal.


Rich

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.c...&FeatureID=7790

Good luck.

Dennis

hello,

after reading this thread a few days ago, i did a lot of reading on both packages. it seems that both are all inclusive, meaning that i can capture, edit and make menu driven dvd's.

i haven't tried the trial version of either package, but it seems like the majority of people here favor vegas movie studio, so i'm curious to know why that is. does it have a better interface, more useful features, easier to use or something else?

any help would be greatly appreciated.
thank you.
indera

If you're talking about doing simple editing and burning a DVD, you can do it on Windows Movie Maker. If you want to do some cool stuff including effects, PIP, etc., the best on the market is Adobe Premiere Elements. Right now, this is the program with the most bang for the buck.

I just bought PowerDirector 6.0 and found it only supports rendering in 4:3 aspect ratio - which was confirmed by their support group.
So, as all the AVI's I have shot so far are in 16:9, I've not played around too much with the burning side of things. I did jump in an play with it and it is easy to use, the CUT feature isn't really that intuitive but the rest works as advertized.

I waited for two working days for a response from their on-line support, which isn't too bad.

JGS

sail978,

maybe 5 or 6 months ago, i tried using movie maker to edit someone's video. i needed to lighten some of the scenes up, but movie maker didn't do well in this area.

i have never checked out the adobe products. do you think it's a ton better than sony vegas <the $100 version>? i will check out premier.

thank you.
indera

Quote:

Originally Posted by sail978 If you're talking about doing simple editing and burning a DVD, you can do it on Windows Movie Maker. If you want to do some cool stuff including effects, PIP, etc., the best on the market is Adobe Premiere Elements. Right now, this is the program with the most bang for the buck.

I haven't used Sony Vegas but from what I see over on the Adobe Premiere Elements forum, PE can do more video editing than any other sub $100. program. It's only weakness is its authoring and problems with mpeg. I have used Power Director and have liked it a lot. Pe has a lot more options for video and transition effects.

I would try the free downloads on the programs that I'm interested in and find which best suits my needs.

What does "more video editing" mean?What kind of mpeg weakness does PE have?

Good luck.

Dennis

I've had great luck with
Roxio Easy Media Creator 7. It has a pretty good
Video Editor and I set up some nice menues
and burnt a DVD without any trouble.