Video Editing Software

[Hi Ho]

I am in serach of a decent video editing program. I don't do a lot of editing but I would like something more powerful than Windows Movie Maker. I have installed the trial of Adobe Premiere Elements 9 and so far I am not too impressed.

This program is SLOOOOWWW. I am running a Core i7 860 with 8GB RAM and a Vertex 2 SSD and this program runs like it's on a 486. I am editing HD video but Movie Maker seems to handle this without an issue.

This program also crashes... a LOT. It crashed several times when I was putting together a test project. Now it won't render the video. It crashes at the same point every time.

I like the potential that Premiere offers but It seems to be an incredibly buggy piece of software and the performance is mine bogglingly bad.

What other video editing programs do you guys recommend? Prefferably one that is stable and runs at a normal speed.

Thanks

[Anomo]

You could try the full version of premier (Adobe CS5 Premier Pro) or Sony Vegas.

[glc]

If you have a legal copy of Nero (OEM or retail, doesn't matter) you can install Nero Vision.

[Hi Ho]

I downloaded the trial of Vegas 10. It is far superior. It was obvious right off the bat that it wasn't a bloated program due to its 138MB download vs Adobe's 1.4GB download. Vegas runs great and is intuitive and very powerful.

Here's the quick little Black Ops gameplay video I put together as a test.

YouTube - Tough Luck - Black Ops Gameplay (PC)

[glc]

Glad to hear that Vegas is now good software - a few years ago it was a pile of crap.

[David M]

Good video! YouTube seems to be streaming it too slow at times...I know that out of your control. The sound may have been recorded a little bit too loud where it sounds like it is distorting. I hope that helps.

[rwest]

i agree with Dave. Good video, but the sound is definitely distorted.

[Hi Ho]

That video was really a test project. The music came from Youtube. I believe it is distorted by design.

YouTube - Beat Music (Cowboy)

Finding a decent soundtrack that Youtube won't pull due to copyright violations is difficult.

I have uploaded some videos in the past of shows that I run sound for. I did a multitrack recording along with the video, mixed the audio, and combined it with the video. It was difficult to get it in sync in Movie Maker but somehow I did it. The direct audio recording was mixed with the sound from the camera to give a little ambience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-lFY5zN4M8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1Za2...el_video_title

There is definitely a difference in audio quality on Youtube when you switch from lower resolutions to HD resolutions.

[David M]

I think you have to be really careful with music in videos. I am probably not the only one but what music sounds good to one person can sound horrible to others. This has the potential of limiting the number of people who watch your video. The music you picked was fine. But sometimes I find myself turning the sound down on some videos because I find the music very objectionable to listen to or to not bother watching the video at all because of the music.

Also, sometimes people do informational videos where the background music becomes "foreground" music and you end up not full understanding what the person in the video is saying. There is also the potential problem with people as they get older where their brains start to have a harder time discerning conversation from background noise.

Thanks for the info Hi Ho. I have been wanting to do some videos of the work I do on the research boat, which I think many people might find interesting and to help promote what I do for different potential customers.