Video editing software

Ross,

Don't know much about video editing but I have found the following site useful when tinkering. Lots of free software and reviews.

Jack http://www.videohelp.com/

Ross

Before you can start any editing you need to get the analogue video into digital preferably DV format.

You can do this using a modest video capture card or you can pass it through a DV camera Many of the later DV cameras will convert an analogue signal to DV and pass it throgh for direct capture by a firewire card in a PC

For capture and editing you can use Adobe Premiere of other similar software. Having got the movie in the shape you like you then need to encode it into MPEG2 (assuming you want to burn it to DVD) and finally using some authoring software create some intro menu and burn the MPEG2 video and associated audio to DVD

My kit is a bit ancient but I hate to dump anything while it works but I use an old Matrox RT2500 on a dual P3 1 Ghz slot 1 machine 1999 vintage. I capture and edit using the Matrox and Premiere 6.5, I encode using MainConcept MPEG Encoder and Author and Burn using MyDVD and a Sony 500 DVD burner.

Surprisingly it works and works very well but there is a lot to learn. Encoding is quite time consuming but the MainConcept encoder is well worth the money speeded things up no end for me.

I'm sure things have moved on and you can probably do it in real time these days with a DVD recorder but then if you want to edit you are faced with some interaction.

Hope this is of some use.

eddie

quote:

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a basic yet functional product

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I'm assuming from the above you want life to be a simple as possible. If so Adobe Premiere is overkill for the non-enthusiast. I'd suggest Ulead Video Studio 8. It can capture, edit, add music, titles etc and burn to DVD (or whatever) and is easy to learn. There is a free trial from the website. http://www.ulead.com/vs/runme.htm

I'm using Pinnacle Studio 9 for the software, and it works quite well with my MiniDV camera. Getting your stuff into the computer requires an analog capture card, which can be had rather cheaply. I happen to have an ATI AIW 9700 Pro, which ain't so cheap.

-=> Mike Hanson <=-

Thanks guys

I was looking at a packaged Pinnacle product with a USB gizmo to link up the old Hi8 camcorder and the 9.0 software but its list price is £199! I'd be doing well to use about 5% of the functionality as I reckon all I'll end up doing is editing down hours of video rubbish to about 15 - 20 minutes of relatively acceptable stuff to entertain the kids and in-laws.

Thanks for your responses.

cheers

Ross

You could try this software:

pure motion edit studio

I think there's a 30 day trial and then there's a lite version for £20 and proper one for £60, and its British too.

I've used it quite a bit and it works well, its much more comprehensive than the most of the basice entry level products, seems robust too. One of the best things about it is the forum, when I had a couple of technical probs I posted a query and had a detailed reply from a bloke from the company within about 30 mins.

Phil

£199?!? That seems like a bit of a rip-off, as Pinnacle Studio 9 was only $99US. Just search the web for "video capture card", and you'll find about 8 billion hits. Here's one: http://www.videoguys.com/roundup.htm. Note the Pinnacle Studio AV/DV 9 for $89. I'm sure there must be similar deals wherever you happen to inhabit the planet.

-=> Mike Hanson <=-

If you buy a card you'll probably find something like Pinnacle or Ulead bundled with it. Or else, if you have Windows XP you already have Windows Movie Maker which will do the job once you've sorted the capture issue.

Matthew

I don't think Windows Movie maker can burn to DVD. Also the file types are very limited, so you would have to use additional software which might be more hassle than you want. Pinnacle is quite easy to use and powerful for a budget product, but allegedly buggy. I opted for Ulead.