Need Video editing software, what are my choices

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[City Builder]

I figure some of you have gotten into video editing and might be able to suggest video editing software, preferably under $100

I don't have a clue  about VE software, but I do know that I will need to be able to cut out parts of my home made digital videos, and splice back together the other parts to make the complete video again.

I'd also like to be able to super impose things like video of a game being played behind me while I'm doing a review of sorts of some games. (this is the sideline for my desire for VE software, my predominant need is that I'm video'ing my dog with cancer so that I have something that moves after he's gone and will put it as the background on my monitors so that even though he'll be physically gone, he'll still be here with me on my computer all the time.

But I'd (as mentioned) also like to try my hand at some video game reviews to post up on Youtube, kind of similar in style to that Angry Joe guy, or any of the other multitudes that also do some fun stuff like that.

Thanks

[crowebird]

Not too sure here.  With some kits you can get a greenscreen and then you could do all sorts of cool stuff.  Bue the one that comes the most highly recommended from all the guys that I have seen do flight sim videos is sony vegas.  And the videos they create are awesome.  I think what you would be looking for there is sony vegas movie studio 9 Platinum, which you can find for $85 on the main site (but you could probably find it cheaper elsewhere).

But again im recommending this on what I have seen other users create with it (but I also think they use vegas pro 9, which will cost you a few hundered more), and honestly have no idea if it is worth it, or if there is something better (so all in all, I am probably very unhelpful even in posting this, lol ).

[RhiannOn]

Hi CB

Don't know if  these programs are any good, but we use Virtual Dubb for editing here is the url
 http://www.free-codecs.com/download/VirtualDub.htm
It will  also string together numbered bmps to make an AVI movie.  You can edit out or add bmps if you don't want.  Cut the movie etc.  You can also add music this is best done once all the editing is finished.
I used Any Video convertor to convert the avi movie into a wmv which is a lot smaller than the raw avi.  Both programms are free. AVC  d/l is on the right side of the page of the above link

You can see our converted videos of our  HLDM server events   via these links on our page http://little-nz.com/web%20pages/VideoLinks.html that were made using these programmes.  We did a record ingame using the halflife engine which made a huge batch of bmps, which we then had to convert via virtual dub.

Virtual dub takes a bit of getting to understand and I only know the basics but is not too hard. Any video converter is a piece of cake

[City Builder]

Thank you, I'm going to check them out.  At the moment I'm using a trial version of Corel's VideoStudio X3 Pro, although it feels a bit too simplistic for what I have in mind later on, it's now working fine to get my videos of my dog in order.  I've video'd him laying around in the home office on the floor for about 80 minutes or so, he gets up once or twice to go get some water and then returns to lay down again in front of the camera.

My plan is to simply loop this video and play it as my computers desktop background with a small program I found last week to unlock the dreamscenes in Windows 7, so that I'll always have him laying around next to me while I'm working on my computer after he's gone.  The initial trial runs went good, now I've just got to get the finished video cleaned up a bit and I'll be ready to go when the time comes.

Later on down the road I've been thinking that I'd like to create short (under 10 minutes) video reviews/commentaries just for the hell of it.  I guess there really is some weird desire that people must feel to create their own reviews on places like Youtube which I never had any desire to do in the past but do now for some reason.

I have a feeling that Videostudio X3 Pro is not as simplistic as I think it is, but rather it's the operator behind the keyboard that is operating the program in a simplistic manner.

[desertjedi]

Yeah, I was a bit surprised by your comment about Corel being simplistic.   I use X2 Pro for editing gaming movies.   I got lucky and snagged it on sale for $39.  99 last year.   I don't do any green-screening but I know that functionality is there.   There's a video on Youtube of a special effect done with X2 Pro where a vehicle at night goes from the left of the screen to the right entering different vertical zones (like window blinds) with each one being a different "color".   I forgot what the name of that effect is but when I saw it I was blown away.   At that point, I knew that, as you said, a lot of what you do is limited by the dude behind the keyboard! Maybe the Corel product isn't quite as sophisticated as Sony Vegas (which, in turn is not as sophisticated as the Adobe product) but you can still do some mind-blowing stuff with it.   

Before I got "serious" about doing gaming videos, I used VirtualDub for editing and @Super for encoding/compression.   I only used VirtualDub for crude editing.   After using for quite some time, I never got the impression is was good for much more.   I suggest you go the Corel X3 Pro or Sony Vegas route if you're serious.   I really think one of these paid products is much more worthy of your time investment that VirtualDub. 

@Super is an awesome free encoder.   If I select container=MP4, output codec=MPEG-4, audio codec=AAC, I can get a 1280x720 video of about 1.  5 minutes under 20MB at a decent bit rate.   I remember the days when 20MB got you a tiny, pixelated mess of a video.   

But you if you intend to upload to Youtube, you can actually skip the encoding/compression step and upload the pure-quality video directly to Youtube.   The results are excellent - as you see in my video here:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/w5XxYQbXVRc&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/w5XxYQbXVRc&rel=1</a>

Sorry to hear about your dog.   I recently had to put my last (second) dog down.   

[desertjedi]

Wow, I can't get a properly formatted hyperlink to appear no matter what I do here.  This is a duplicate post.   

[City Builder]

You won't get a proper hyperlink until you have about 25 posts, it is to prevent the spammers that attack forums like ours with their links to all kinds of spam junk.  Uusually somebody will come along and post a correct link for you.

Well, yeah like I've fixed it above in your original post.

[City Builder]

I wish I had known about Super before, somebody suggested it to me a few days ago over at a video editing site (or maybe it was over at Corel's forum, yeah I think that was the place, and wow, what a great free program.

Thanks for the information, it is appreciated, I really just need to dig into Video Studio X3 Pro deeper to see what it's capable of, maybe I have it set to simpletons GUI or something or maybe I just need to RTFM as they say.

[Lengo]

I am using Sony Vegas Platinum 8. For the most part, I'm happy with it, but it will not encode h264 video. Perhaps SVP 9 does. I don't know. Sony Vegas Pro does, but it is much more expensive.

I suggest you stay away from the super-friendly video making software. These do not give you enough control over timing and other aspects, and don't allow enough streams. Pinnacle's software is a joke. Stay away from it and others like it. These are dumbed down and don't allow enough capability.

If I had my way I'd have Sony Vegas Pro. It allows h264 encoding and has unlimited number of channels. I'm sure you'll be very pleased with it, but the price tag is $500+. You can do most anything with it.

The Sony line (and others) offer extensibility. The add-on packs are non-essential, but they offer things like new transitions, masques, and other goodies. I am happy with the transitions that come with Sony Vegas Platinum 8, and the additional masks I have, I could have made myself.

I'm, sure you'll be happy with Sony Vegas Platinum 9, but I don't know if it encodes in h264. I don't know if it encodes in 16:9 aspect ratio either. This you'll have to investigate.

Another thing you should know. Video editing and compiling requires at least a dual core (though I'm getting by with a single core processor). A quad core is recommended. Encoding is very processor intensive, so the more cores you have, the faster the encoding. And yes, both the software and the encoders are multi-threaded.

Edit: I've just investigated pricing of Vegas Pro 8. I suggest you buy this instead of 9 Platinum. It is priced at about $200. If I was in want of upgrading my editor (Vegas Platinum 8), I'd go with this. It can do more that platinum 9.

[City Builder]

Desertjedi, I didn't mention it before, but hey, Nice Video!

Thanks Lengo, I don't know anything about the encodings, other than I had to download the h264 codec to use in the Corel Video Studio X3 Pro software even though the publishers swear up and down that the software installs that codec itself, which on my rig it didn't, but turned out that I needed to do so to make it work properly.