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Video Editing Software?


JayB

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There must be some other folks out there who shoot their own video and edit it on their computers - so this is probably as good a place as any on the site to ask if anyone has found a decent video editing package out there for a reasonable price.

 

I'm using QuicktimePro at the moment, and it's easy enough to cut and paste clips, and add sound, but I'd like to find something that's just as intuitive, but has a few more features. Another problem is that in order to use the program I have to convert the files from the format that the camera records them (.asf) in to the .mov format, whichy takes about 10 seconds per second of video on our computer (1.66GHz or thereabouts), then I do the editing in QuicktimePro, then if I want to share the video I have to run the thing through the file converter again and change the output file to something that'll reduce the size and be compatible with most media players. Surely there's a program out there that will let you do all of these things to the video files, and let you do some other stuff like adjust the color balance, slow-mow, rewind, add/remove sound tracks, add titles, etc.

 

Chime in if you've got something that you like that'll do some of this stuff and is relatively easy to use and (big if) doesn't cost a fortune.

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I have used both Adobe Premier and Windows Movie Maker (which came on my laptop with all my microsoft programs). Most computers have Windows Movie Maker. I didn't even know i had it until my friend made me a movie and told me i probably had it too! You can add titles, music, speed/slow down the clips, add pictures in, basically everything you need! It's awesome! Adobe Premier is just more expensive and has a few more fancy tricks.

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Hey:

 

Thanks for the input. I tried using the Windows Movie Maker software but for whatever reason just about ended up pulling my hair out trying to use the thing just to crop/splice video segments together, but maybe the defect is with me and not with the software.

 

While I was looking into this, I discovered a hack that will give you pretty much unlimited control over playback speed using Quicktime Pro.

 

1. Open the source video that you want to work with.

2. Use the cropping tool to define the length of video that you want to speed up or slow down and note how long the segment that you've defined takes to playback.

 

3. Use a sound editing program like "Audacity" (free on the web) to create an empty/silent sound file and save it in a format that will work with Quicktime. If you want to playback the video clip that you've selected at one half speed, create a sound file that's twice as long as the video segment. If you want to create a fast-forward effect and play the video back twice as fast, create a sound file that's one half the length of your video clip.

4. Open the sound file in Quicktime Pro.

5. Copy the segment of video that you want to speed up or slow down and paste it into the empty sound file using the "Paste and Scale to feature" command in the edit menu.

 

Adds a lot of function to a $30 editing program.

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Jay, if you are using a PC, then Studio 10.5 Plus through Pinnacle Systems kicks ass. It is waaaay more user friendly than Premier and just as powerful. One of the best features is incorporating photos, and animating them. Also the music editing software is fantastic.

Estimate an hour of work per minute of footage if youre lucky with any program.

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Thanks for the rec. Sounds like it has some cool features, but how has it been in terms of reliability? Online-review forums might self-select against people who are neutral, but even allowing for that, there seem to be a lot of folks who have had some trouble with the program chiming in here:

 

http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/001454.html

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