Yes i would like to know the best editing program for Windows. I was planning on getting finalcutpro but that only works on macs. I would like something under 200dollars. Right now im in a tie between sony vegas platinam or Adobe Premeire Elements 4, they both run for about 150bucks, the other option i have noticed is Pinical Studios (sp?) Please offer me advice
note: i dont want noobs on here with the usual “d00d g3t w1nd0ws m0v13 m4k3r 1ts t3h sh1z d00d”
thanks
Ive always been satisfied with Adobe products and I use Adobe Premiere Pro 2 myself. Along with a lot of their other programs, but those aren’t for videos. I do use photoshop for some stuff and drag it into Premiere. =p
If I was you, id just find the torrent for each one, download it and try it out. Learn the stuff and see which one you like the best. Then after you have used and tried them out for yourself, go and make the purchase on what you experienced and which one worked the best for you and your videos.
Or you can be cheap and just not buy it after downloading it.
EDIT: A lot of stuff can be done on Windows movie maker though, and A lot of this videos posted on this site that get comments on their editing, can be replicated in WMM. The other products are superior to WMM and do make them worth it to have and learn.
I us WMM now, however, im not comfortable using torrents, thats just me, i think its because i dont understand them. Its kinda like how in my videos i only use music if i have the writers permission…
Oh, well skip the torrent idea. They are quite easy though. Go and download uTorrent, or any other torrent program. Go to a torrent site and search Whatever program you want, click on the .torrent file and select open. It downloads in a few seconds and opens into your torrent program, then you select a location for the things your downloading and then wait for it to finish.
Adobe has a 30-day trial on Premiere CS3, Vega also has a free trial, so you can still give those a test run before you decide which one you want to buy.
firewire question
allrighty, thats helpfull. I also have a question about a firewire port, if i have a post 06 computer i should have i firewire port right, if not is there anything i can do (pcmaslot adapter kinda thing)?
You should have a firewire port on your comp already. Just check in the back. You may not ahve one though.
You can go out and buy a PCI firewire card for around $20, and it will come with a firewire cord too. Thats what I had to do. One internal port and two external ports, which works fine for me.
jerrick, have u ever transferd video via usb…do you notice a improved quality via firewire, caus i may run up to walmart and pickup a cable (just checked and i do have the port, i thought it would be in the front but it was in the back)
I have used USB a few times, but thats only for getting stuff off my SD card and when I have my friends hard drive camera over. It takes a long time for me to get video off using a usb cord, specially when the files are 500megs or more.
For my camera though, its a MiniDV camera, so I really only have the choice to use firewire to capture from the DV tapes onto my hard drive. ID use firewire for all other things too if I could.
Im not too sure how the cord effects quality, I think its mainly just effects how fast you can move information from device to another. My preference is to use firewire.
Remember, it’s Firewire on Macs only, any other computers will call it “ie1394”, except for Sony who call it “iLink”. Same port, different names.
I’ve never done it, but capturing over USB would prolly be just as good quality as Firewire, USB2.0 is faster than Firewire 400, which is what I use on my Macbook for capturing video without a problem.
I’ve never used the newer Premier, but I used to 4.6 and it was awesome. I don’t like the Pinnacle programs I’ve seen so far. I’ve heard that Vegas is good, but not many people use it so it’s hard to get help from folks. Adobe is prolly the way to go unless you get a Mac 
Or get Ubuntu Studio and do it all in Linux 
Ya, NEVER use WMM. It’s the most glitchy program I’ve ever used, and it’s not worth trying to fix because of the lack of features/capability. I’ve heard good things about Song Vegas, but I’ve never personally used it.
What multimedia editors do you use under Linux? I’m still in search of a decent video editor.
Um… I, uh… cough… Haven’t tried any yet… I tried Kino many years ago, but it wasn’t ready then… I’ve been using iMovie recently… Kino is supposed to be much better now though! I should install that today… If I do, I’ll let you know… if it’s good enough, maybe I can ditch OSX on my Mac
I heard cinerella is the best linux video editer.
Well, I’ve made all my videos (more than 100 full length!) using WMM. While it can be “glitchy”, overall I’ve simply become spoiled with it because it is hands down VASTLY easier than any other program out there, and it does what I need it to do.
Currently I have a newer Vista Laptop, with the latest (and improved) version of WMM, which has many more features, and so I’m sticking with it for ease of use, and the fact that it’s already on my compy, so I don’t have to install/configure something else.
Especially if uploading to youtube, which I do exclusively and never use the gallery anymore (it’s always down anyway:() why spend a mint on a top-line camera and editing software, when the video quality you get on youtube is so limited anyway, no matter what you use. But, to each his own.
I have tried Cinelerra before, but I was getting a bunch of errors under Ubuntu 7.10. I read somewhere (after it was uninstalled) that it was due to the amount of memory it was allotted to use. I haven’t fussed with it since. Ignoring those errors, I found it to be a really decent editor.
What distro are you running, gk?
I use Adobe Premire Elements, I’m not sure what edition, but I got if for under $100, so it was probably an older edition. It is a good program, its fairly easy to use, but it also has a loot of good features you won’t find on Windows movie maker or imovie.
NEVER use USB tp capture video from mini DV. It drops a ton of frames. Invest in a firewire card if you don’t have one.