Video editing software

[Chris Hayes]

Now that I've got 9 tornados on digital tape I was thinking about editing my video and creating a highlights DVD. I was wondering what software everybody uses to edit their videos. Also how much hard drive space do you reccomend having? I was hoping to do some time lapse with the editing software. Thanks.

 

[Melissa Moon]

Hey Chris!

I don't really know how to do video editing, but I have seen Adobe Premiere used before by others, and just based on what I saw, it looked like a very straightforward program to figure out how to use. So, I reckon that Premiere is perhaps an option for you.

 

[mikegeukes]

Adove Premiere is considered the standard by some folks.

Adobe Premiere:
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/main.html

Others I heard of Pinnacle and Ulead

Pinnacle Systems:
http://www.pinnaclesys.com

Ulead:
http://www.ulead.com/runme_ns.htm

Edited to include links to:
Avid:
http://www.avid.com/index_fl.asp

Vegas:
http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/prod...vegasfamily.asp

Mike

 

[fplowman]

Well Chris..AVID, Premier, VEGAS and Pinnacle these are the regular industry standard Editing solutions. With editing software we have somewhat of a learning curve. You will also find that with many of these solutions an additional investment in hardware is needed.

I assure you unless you already use Adobe products extensively you will be lost with Adobe premiere.. I edit all the time and videography is my business.

I want to recommend to you a program that is steady as a rock, Has somehwat of a learning curve but is much more intuitive. Also audio is one of the most important aspect of video editing. Try watching your favorite DVD with no sound.. You of course will not be able to bare it all the way through let alone 5 minutes.

The program I speak of is called VEGAS. Its audio applications are unsurpassed by any other application. With Premier you will need to invest in additional hardware and an audio application (additional costs).

you should go to the sony vegas site. and look into their software ..better yet.. Videoguys.com will sell it to you for about 6 or 7 hundred dollars.. make sure you get the VEGAS + DVD so you can make your DVDs for distribution.

In the forum on the sony site you will also find a CULT following. Why ?? again rock solid, excellent support, best damn app out there for editing in my humble opinion. Never once has it crashed on me! Ask anyone who uses premier or Avid or any other high end apps. Again a Cult following ..The forum there is made up of a close tight knit group kind of like here.. post your question and within an hour or two a half a dozen folks have already replied.. Very helpfull.. Try that kind of scenario with pinnacle.

I dont work for these folks..I am a convert and I am sold nothing can sway me.. day is day and night is night.

 

[Mike Umscheid]

I am a big fan of Pinnacle Studio digital video editing hardward/software. I have been using it for almost two years now and have loved it. It is simple, and you can do as much with Pinnacle Studio as you can with Adobe Premiere I would imagine... for the novice editor like myself. You can capture, edit with ease on a timeline, and save as .avi, mpeg, mpeg2, output to tape, to DVD or a .rm or .wmv stream. See some stream examples on my website: www.underthemeso.com

The latest version 9, which I don't have yet but will probably upgrade... I currently use version 8. The WCM at my office (DDC) also uses Pinnacle Studio for his video editing for his spotter presentations.

Mike U
www.underthemeso.com

 

[Jeff Wear]

Also how much hard drive space do you reccomend having? I was hoping to do some time lapse with the editing software. Thanks.

5 minutes of footage is equal to about 1 gigabyte, so if you wanted to do a one hour highlight video then that would take up about 12 gigabytes. If you have time lapse shots in your video then an hour of video may take up even more space as video files for the most part remain the same in size no matter how much you speed them up....there are ways you can get around that though although the quality won't be as good. Depending on how much hard drive space you have and how much video editing you want to do it might be a good idea to have an external hard drive if you don't have one already.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I've used Pinnacle Studio 8 now for over a year and it has worked fine. It is a good option for those who can't afford the more pricey editors. It has all the basics you need to put together nice productions.

Pinnacle used to be very buggy and crash-prone, but the latest patches have improved this significantly. I still occasionally run into problems with Pinnacle when I'm assembling a long video with many clips, transitions, titles and soundtracks - but this can be worked around mainly by saving frequently so you can backtrack to the action that caused the problem. Also, doing your video in multiple ten-minute chapters, rendered and edited separately (rather than doing the entire hour-long production in one big file), helps cut down on the errors and crashes. Once you're done, you just assemble the finished 'chapters' and do the final render from there.

I bought a 60GB hard drive and have come to discover that this isn't sufficient for a full-length (60 minute) video when I did my 2003 chase highlights video. I had to delete many source captures so that the final DVD would render, meaning that I couldn't go back and re-edit once I had the final movie done. I like to keep frequently-used captures (lightning, floods, tornadoes, etc.) archived for easy access and for backup, and these are currently using 30GB of space as it is. I definately won't have room for the 2004 chase highlight video with the space I have now.

You may need at least an 80GB drive if you're going to do any serious video work, the more the better. I'm going to have to get a new drive as soon as I can afford it, hopefully a firewire drive that I can use on both my laptop and desktop.

 

[David Drummond]

Fred, that stuff you sent me was pretty darn good! Was it done in VEGAS software?

Also, do you know if they have a trial version available. If I am going to drop that kind of money on software I would at least like to try it out a little and see if I like it.

 

[Tony Laubach]

I use a mix of Adobe Premiere and After Effects.. After Effects allows me to create the digital "cartoons" that I may overlay on my videos.. from there, I can import them into Premiere and render out the entire movie..

Although I have tried DVD, I have yet to create one that works with my DVD players (computers fine, but not my television)... right now, I am sticking with VHS as I can export from computer to VCR w/o much trouble..

 

[David Drummond]

I am running 200 gigs to play with currently on my main machine. I have 80 gigs on my main drive and a second 120 gig drive which is used EXCLUSIVELY for video stuff. The trick is to not "chain" your two drives on the same IDE cable, but rather have one on IDE1 and the other on IDE2 that way system software etc is not clogging up the pipe so to speak with both drive working. Of course all that gets more complicated when you start adding in CDROM/DVD drives etc. It's worked well for me so far letting that second drive solely handle the video.

 

[fplowman]

Yes Dave you can.. Thank you for the compliment..

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/prod...uct.asp?PID=912 <--- 30 day free trial

Also guys try the Sony ACID pro to make your bumper music.. go to the sony website choose the loops you want for the feel your looking for drop the loop in acid and make music.. Somewhat easy for intuitive folks..

They have a trial version of the newest software. I havent used it as i use 4.0 but 5.0 of course will have some newer features .. Like Bezier masking.. With this tool you can blur the surroundings of someone making them your point of focus.. this is called depth of field. With Film the depth of field is shallow and brings the viewers eyes on the subject.. whereas with video you see all things equally you can read the clock on the wall behind the subject for instance.

VEGAS will render in 24 frames which is film like as opposed to video like (news - soap opera)

Of course my focus is to make my videos look like film like as opposed to
Video llike.. Im making a documentary so higher end equipment is a must.

In reference to Adobe After Effects.. for your average user that baby is on a learning curve that is un atainable for someone who has a life outside of video editing.. And at $700 it out of reach too.. Vegas has a new 3 D modeler that will do the same thing now.. Also if you wanna make kick ass 3d stuff like you see on Monday night football etc.. you need Zaxwerx software its almost $600 now i believe.. Will After Effects do this?? yes but.. a learning curve makes it unattractive..

Again I dont work for these guys but I have had tremendous success with their products.. My system has never crashed once using Vegas (very important)... There isnt a Premier user or Avid user nor especially a Pinnacle user that can claim that.. I assure you..
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[fplowman]

Good advice Dave yes each hour of video footage is 13 gig of space.
Each mini DV casette (aprox.)
If you are starting with DV footage, you need 13GB per hour of video.
This means a 2 hour DVD is 2 x 13 = 26GB of footage.
Add in the extra unused footage and it's more like 3 x 13 = 39GB.
Figure that you'll be adding some extra graphics and audio tracks. Let's say another 2GB for these.
Now you need room for the MPEG2 footage for the DVD, that's 4.7GB more.
If you plan on creating the DVD in a folder first that's another 4.7GB.
Add it all up and it comes to over 50GB of high speed video storage to make a 2 hour DVD!!
If you plan really getting into this and adding DVD production to your video editing projects
I recommend a minimum of 100 gig HD if your really serious about editing..

 

[Sheila_Ward]

I use Adobe Premiere Pro but I've only gotten into video editing in the past few months. I'm going to check out Vegas. I haven't been using Adobe long enough to be religous about it :lol:

Good info in this thread.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Having to use to work in TV and did a lot of editing, I always preferred having control over what I was editing and all the advanced featuers. Since I don't have a MAC and can't have Final Cut Pro, I'll stick with Adobe Premiere, I love it!

 

[Bobby Lang]

Personally, I have just started using the Vegas software. All I'm going to say is I love it & fplowman said it best.