Video Editing Software

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

I want to toss up a question and hear some opinions on video editing software.

I am in the process of major PC upgrading for 2009, and want to move towards Vista 64 but currently have XP Pro. I just put together a powerful Quad 2.66 Ghz PC with 4 GB RAM and 3 TB (twin 1,500 GB SATA) of hard-drive space so the Vista 64 running on it is not an issue.

I like Adobe Premiere as I used a much older Premiere 6.5 but CS3 (or even CS4) looks like a good candidate. At $799 its pricey, and ONLY does the video editing, not much else.

I have seen Son'y Vegas Pro 8, and at about $500 you get the video editing capeability but with DVD authoring, sound editing, and other features in a "bundle". This option would take care of 3 "features" where as CS4 from Premiere would only take care of one (video) at a higher cost.

Also, I have not messed around with Vegas Pro, and wondering if anyone here can compare the pro's and con's of the two?

I have heard of other editors out there, such as Edius and Pinnacle, but I am not familiar with them ...

... Any input on these will be appreciated.

 

[Tony Laubach]

I can't speak for anything else besides Adobe Premiere, but I will say if you go that route, go with CS3 and avoid CS4. CS3 is stable and could probably be obtained at a much cheaper price than CS4. I've heard a lot of bad things about CS4 and the brief chance I had to sit down with it didn't thrill me too much.

 

[Steve Miller]

I have used Vegas Pro for at least 3 years for bigger projects that require splicing, outside graphics, outside sound and DVD titling and can say I have never had any issues with it at all. It is a memory hog as all pro-sumer editors are but 4gb RAM should be fine to run it at a decent clip.
There is a ton of support out there in the form of forums and "how-to" websites as well as some fairly friendly books, one of which is Vegas Pro 8 Editing Workshop.
For on the fly mobile editing I still use Premier Elements but that's the only "Premier" experience I have. I've never worked with Premier 6.5 so this is a one-sided opinion.

 

[Marc Remillard]

I have used Vegas for a long time, but I'm now using it only for small projects / trailers / short movies. When I want to work on a big project (such as our QCV dvd I am currently making), I use Adobe Premiere & After Effects. If you want to make a dvd of your chasing season, you only need Premiere, I used After Effects to animate some maps and stuff in the Intro.

I have a dual-core and 2GB RAM, and of course, an external HD of 500GB, very useful when you have tons of DV to bring into the computer, and I'm running it perfectly. I have premiere and after effects opened at the same time and I never get lags...

So overall, I think Vegas is quite good but the result may be less professionnal than a movie made with Premiere.

 

[J Kinkaid]

I am a huge fan of vegas pro since we started using it at work for audio and video production. It's pretty expensive but blows away programs like Pinnacle Studio 12 when it comes to speed and extras. Check the bargain sites like slickdeals and fatwallet cause a couple times of the year it does go on sale .

 

[Jason Blum]

I've used Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, and Pinnacle 12. I love Pinnacle 12 for general use. I haven't used Vegas (although I really should get around to trying it out, as I own a copy and have heard good things about it) but IMHO Pinnacle is extremely intuitive and fairly powerful. Clearly it doesn't compare to Adobe's products, but honestly I never use most of their more advanced features anyway, so they just kind of get in my way. Pinnacle 12 has a fantastic interface, and makes editing very easy (yet doesn't dumb it down to the point of sacrificing functionality). If I had to summarize why I like it the best, it would simply be: very easy, responsive, and intuitive interface.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I've been a Premiere user from the start, and traditionally had only stayed with it simply due to the cost of switching to another platform. However, CS3 has brought Premiere up to par IMO, it's been very stable, fast and capable on my quad-core desktop. I particularly like its complete input-output capabilities, able to import and export in just about any format at any resolution, including the newer HD codecs and Flash video. While I would have hesitated to recommend 1.5 or earlier, CS3 I can vouch for.

I have heard good and bad things about CS4. Other than the batch encode feature, I see no benefits in upgrading now.

 

[Walt VanRheen]

I am editing HD video using Vegas 8 Pro in 32 bit with 4gigs of RAM and a quad processor. My projects have tons of footage with extensive editing, cropping, graphics, sound overlays.... I have it all. I am burning blu-ray disc and my video card supports dual monitors. Vegas 8 handles everything with ease. This season we are going to do some multi-cam work as well. It can be found from legetimate venders for sub $500.
I am planning on upgrading to 64bit and increasing to 8gig RAM this summer.

One thing, for everyone reading this, max out your memory. Memory is so cheap and is so critical to your computers performance. 32 bit Windows is limited to 3.5g of ram. Many newer (18 month or so) do support 8gb of RAM if you have a 64bit OS. Last year when I built this editing computer, I had some issues with drivers, but now a days 64bit is more mainstream, so it is time to change.