Anybody knowing an editing program that works :-)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Einar Ritsmer
  • Start date Start date
E

Einar Ritsmer

I admit, that I am a dumb unknowing novice to video
editing.
I thought: I have some pictures and some AVI-clips fro
m travels and family occations - I might be able to make
small (2-3 minutes) videos from them.
Having Windows XP professional I of course started with
MM2. After having made two 3,5 and a 4,5 minutes videos i
made a status: It took 30 hours, which is quite Ok, if not
some 15 of the 30 hours were used on trying to improve- and
work around "funny things and errors".
Here many most heartfelt thanks to sir PapaJohn for his
great work to help us all to keep our MM2 up and running.
Now as I had to save and close and restart MM2 every time I
had made 2 splits (whereof one makes a lot in a video) I
had to leave MM2 - even if I think it is a VERY repeat VERY
good product - just too bad that there has not been
attention enough on it from MS for them to make any updates
for, let us say :), a very long time.
Then I read many reviews and downloaded the best programs 4
trials and tried them and decided for a, so I thought, good
product for (only) 99 US.
I transferred the money - well it became 124 US since the
not Danish company ment it should have 25% danish VAT, but
Ok, I needed very badly a program to make my videos.
Then I installed the program and what happened: playing the
28 secs test video I made under the trial the picture froze
after 2-3 secs just playing the video track. Shi.. (pardon
my french) then I wanted to make a new project, but every
time I opened the "get video" form the prog ate nearly 300
MB page file before I even clicked the AVI I wanted. After
a close and open the get video form it again ate some 300
MB doing nothing and so on until my 1 GB Ram plus 2 MB page
file were gone.
I am disappointed. I just want to edit some holiday and
family occation videos - not to become a computer expert
fiddling around with codecs, virtual memory and so on for
50% of the spare hobby time after work.

NOW, DEAR FOLKS: DO ANY OF YOU KNOW ABOUT A N Y VIDEO
PROGRAM THAT A DUMMY LIKE ME CAN USE - EDITING 10 HOURS OF
10 HOURS WITH NO COMPUTER FIDDLING - OR SHOULD I JUST GO
SURFING INSTRAD FORGETTING EVERYTHING ABOUT THAT DAR..
(PARDON MY...) VIDEO EDITING?
 
You've asked a good question. I've used all of the following with success but note comments:
Studio 7, 8, and now 9. If it works for you Studio is wonderful. But it doesn't work well for many people and if it doesn't work for you it can take forever getting it to work. Studio is moderately stable on my sytem but I still get random crashes. Best, in my opinion, user interface. Give story board or time line.
Sony's ScreenBlast Nice program for editing and capture. User interface not as good as studio's but provides more things to play with. Timeline only which can take getting used to. Easy to get audio and video unsynced. More stable than Studio on my system. Free full featured 30 day trial available.
Magix Movie Edit Pro 2004 (think European name is different). On my system this is the most stable of the 3. Timeline or storyboard editing. Lots of transitions and things to play with. Probably the most powerful (in terms of built in toys) of the 3. Crippled trial version may be available on Magix's German site. This is the most fun to play with of the 3 but the manual is not accurate.

I'd suggest you get Sony's free 30 day trial and see how it works for you. If you can get a trial of Matix's (There is a brand new German version that is not available here in the US yet), get it and see if it works.

There are other editors in the under $100 range, too. Most offer free trial versions, so I suggest you check them out too. (I haven't any personal experience with them)

Keep Movie Maker around because it can do some things easier than any other program.

Go to the web boards for these products and get an idea of what users think.

Good luck.
Les
www.video.ncsparks.com
 
Hi John

Yes and no - beeing a granddad like I understand that You
are (we have 3 ½ grandchildren) I have stopped surfing some
years ago and have started to sail a dinghy as we live 500
feet from the shore. I have a Walker Bay 10 feet with high
performance rig - and when the speed is too fast and I do
not take care, the little boat sails directly through a
wawe and down into the water. Now beeing a granddad one
have learned to take it calm and get the water out of the
boat and then sail on. The water here is now 15 centigrades
- quite Ok if one is not too skinny :-)
So much for surfing - ah - sailing.

The editing software issue really disturbs me - do You
think that the Vegas from Sony is in a state so that a
dummy like me can humbly edit videos and not use hours
keeping the software afloat - I am ready to pay almost
anything to get a "bulletproof" product i.e. when You use
Word or Excel You also do not have to fumble around in
registry or rename files etc etc to make letters or
spreadsheets - they just work - and I dream of such a
product for the video editing.
 
I agree with what Les said. As this is the newsgroup for Movie Maker, it's
probably better if you ask questions in the more general places like
microsoft.public.windowsxp.video.

Life is too short to become proficient in more than a couple video software
apps, unless you want to take up studying them as a goal instead of making
movies. I use a dozen different software apps... as high as Adobe Premiere
in complexity and price. But my core app of Movie Maker keeps me pretty
busy. I'd rather put the time into learning more about it than into
assessing other software.

I keep notes about such things.... here's what a couple books have to say:

====================
2003 - B&N publication - Digital Video for Windows and MAC in easy steps -
$9.95

Chapters

5 - Windows Movie Maker '...entry level digital video editing prgram that is
a good introduction to the basics of video editing...' '...as you develop
your editing skills you may find that you want a program with a bit more
power and versatility.'

6 - Apple iMovie '... award winning digital video editing software...'

7 - Editing Software '...general overview of the range and function of some
of the digital video editing programs....'

Roxio Movie Creator - '... entry-level program...' '... has the capability
for burning completed footage to CD and DVD..'

Ulead VideoStudio - '...versatile program that is easy to use and offers
good functionality.'

Roxio VideoWave - '... the next level of digital video editing...' '...
offers powerful editing features but it is still easy to use and is a good
way to cut your teeth on manual video editing.'

Pinnacle Studio - '... bridges the gap between entry-level programs and
professional ones such as Adobe Premiere.'

Adobe Premiere - '... the market leader in the professional-level video
image editing market.'

====================
2003 book by PC Magazine 'Guide to Digital Video' - Chapter 3 - Choosing
Your Video Editor

If needs are modest, use Movie Maker 2

As editing goals grow, move first into consumer editors like:
Pinnacle Studio
Ulead VideoStudio

And then to prosumer products like:
Adobe Premiere Pro
Pinnacle Edition
Sonic Foundry Vegas
Ulead MediaStudio Pro
===========================

Congrats on upcoming #4.... we're at 5 and holding for awhile.

Software like Word and Excel are pretty self-contained.... compared to all
the interfacing software and hardware that it takes to get video form
camcorder playing on a TV. No matter what software you end up using for the
editing part, there's lots of complexity to deal with..... and of course as
soon as it's running smoothly, something new comes along.

Lots of luck,

--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org

..
Hi John

Yes and no - beeing a granddad like I understand that You
are (we have 3 ½ grandchildren) I have stopped surfing some
years ago and have started to sail a dinghy as we live 500
feet from the shore. I have a Walker Bay 10 feet with high
performance rig - and when the speed is too fast and I do
not take care, the little boat sails directly through a
wawe and down into the water. Now beeing a granddad one
have learned to take it calm and get the water out of the
boat and then sail on. The water here is now 15 centigrades
- quite Ok if one is not too skinny :-)
So much for surfing - ah - sailing.

The editing software issue really disturbs me - do You
think that the Vegas from Sony is in a state so that a
dummy like me can humbly edit videos and not use hours
keeping the software afloat - I am ready to pay almost
anything to get a "bulletproof" product i.e. when You use
Word or Excel You also do not have to fumble around in
registry or rename files etc etc to make letters or
spreadsheets - they just work - and I dream of such a
product for the video editing.
 
Along with Papajohn's thoughts. One of the problems we have as pc users is
that we stuff so much on our machines and use so many different parts to
make our machines it is impossible to test everyting with everything else. I
have one which is just used for editing my video/photo's, and a few other
integrated apps for things like audio. All the parts were carefully picked
to try to stop any unwanted problems, and do you know what.......... after
spending more than £5k it still crashes now and then.
If you went to a mac, which were designed for this sort of work flow, you'd
get a machine with very few choices of parts, so they can be tested
properly, a smaller range of apps to do the work with, and do you know
what....... from all the web surfing I do, they also crash and cause
problems sometimes.
If you want a good editing pc then keep it lean and mean, many editing apps
interfer with each other and so decide on which one you want and stick to
it. Don't install and uninstall too many apps as the registry gets mucked up
and work slowly, purposefully and save often, so when it does crash, you
don't lose too much work

So, to answer your question, No I don't know one that works 100% of the time
on 100% of machines, I don't think there is :(

Graham
 
Einar Ritsmer said:
I admit, that I am a dumb unknowing novice to video
editing.
I thought: I have some pictures and some AVI-clips fro
m travels and family occations - I might be able to make
small (2-3 minutes) videos from them.
Having Windows XP professional I of course started with
MM2. After having made two 3,5 and a 4,5 minutes videos i
made a status: It took 30 hours, which is quite Ok, if not
some 15 of the 30 hours were used on trying to improve- and
work around "funny things and errors".
Here many most heartfelt thanks to sir PapaJohn for his
great work to help us all to keep our MM2 up and running.
Now as I had to save and close and restart MM2 every time I
had made 2 splits (whereof one makes a lot in a video) I
had to leave MM2 - even if I think it is a VERY repeat VERY
good product - just too bad that there has not been
attention enough on it from MS for them to make any updates
for, let us say :), a very long time.
Then I read many reviews and downloaded the best programs 4
trials and tried them and decided for a, so I thought, good
product for (only) 99 US.
I transferred the money - well it became 124 US since the
not Danish company ment it should have 25% danish VAT, but
Ok, I needed very badly a program to make my videos.
Then I installed the program and what happened: playing the
28 secs test video I made under the trial the picture froze
after 2-3 secs just playing the video track. Shi.. (pardon
my french) then I wanted to make a new project, but every
time I opened the "get video" form the prog ate nearly 300
MB page file before I even clicked the AVI I wanted. After
a close and open the get video form it again ate some 300
MB doing nothing and so on until my 1 GB Ram plus 2 MB page
file were gone.
I am disappointed. I just want to edit some holiday and
family occation videos - not to become a computer expert
fiddling around with codecs, virtual memory and so on for
50% of the spare hobby time after work.

NOW, DEAR FOLKS: DO ANY OF YOU KNOW ABOUT A N Y VIDEO
PROGRAM THAT A DUMMY LIKE ME CAN USE - EDITING 10 HOURS OF
10 HOURS WITH NO COMPUTER FIDDLING - OR SHOULD I JUST GO
SURFING INSTRAD FORGETTING EVERYTHING ABOUT THAT DAR..
(PARDON MY...) VIDEO EDITING?
Click to expand...

A Dane speaking French... I loved the Europeans in my travels. They all
speak at least two languages.

Einar, hang in there. I suspect you have a computer problem. 10 and 20
years I was considered a computer expert. Then I gave up building, testing
and fighting computers. I've been buying off the shelf computers and sell
my old ones off to family and friends usually for 5 or 10 cents with
lifetime money back guarantee in writing. My latest computer has been a
standard HP 2.66 GHz with LCD display and XP home operating system. I found
Movie Maker on the system, downloaded some AVI files from the net, was able
to edit, save etc. I was so happy I went out and bought a digital camcorder
and everything worked! I tried video 5 and 10 years ago with dismal
results.

I have tried a few other trial editors and they have all worked so far, so I
am still in the process of learning and deciding.

Perhaps a local computer expert could look at your system?

Good luck!
 
please go to search on the net... type the key word muvee techonogy... it is a video editting sofware that is very easy to use and fast.
 
Heartfelt THANKS to You all who took time to answer my
question. I dowloaded more trials and had more most
stunning surprises with how many ways programs can fail
(on my machine).
However I have now been editing a full day with SONY's
Movie Studios trial without one single even so little
glitch. Great. Gonna buy it. Then I also tried the Muvee
product - which also runs perfectly on my machine - and
which gave a (for me) fully new experience on making
videos without much editing :-). I am gonna buy that too.
Thanks again from Einar Ritsmer, Copenhagen, Denmark.

-----Original Message-----
You've asked a good question. I've used all of the
Click to expand...
following with success but note comments:
Studio 7, 8, and now 9. If it works for you Studio is
Click to expand...
wonderful. But it doesn't work well for many people and
if it doesn't work for you it can take forever getting it
to work. Studio is moderately stable on my sytem but I
still get random crashes. Best, in my opinion, user
interface. Give story board or time line.
Sony's ScreenBlast Nice program for editing and capture.
Click to expand...
User interface not as good as studio's but provides more
things to play with. Timeline only which can take
getting used to. Easy to get audio and video unsynced.
More stable than Studio on my system. Free full featured
30 day trial available.
Magix Movie Edit Pro 2004 (think European name is
Click to expand...
different). On my system this is the most stable of the
3. Timeline or storyboard editing. Lots of transitions
and things to play with. Probably the most powerful (in
terms of built in toys) of the 3. Crippled trial version
may be available on Magix's German site. This is the most
fun to play with of the 3 but the manual is not accurate.
I'd suggest you get Sony's free 30 day trial and see how
Click to expand...
it works for you. If you can get a trial of Matix's
(There is a brand new German version that is not
available here in the US yet), get it and see if it works.
There are other editors in the under $100 range, too.
Click to expand...
Most offer free trial versions, so I suggest you check
them out too. (I haven't any personal experience with
them)
 
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