Home Video Editing

[Lazlo Toth]

I have used Pinnacle's Studio programs through nine editions now. But I'm taking a free trial look at Adobe Premiere Elements.

Have you ever used one or both? Have any opinions?

Premiere seems not to take so long to process things. Studio has gotten slow on my older computer. But I'm unfamiliar with the program so it takes me longer right now to use Premiere.

I suspect they both do pretty much the same stuff once you learn both programs.

And both are in the $100 range for price.

[Mr T]

Originally posted by Lazlo Toth:
I have used Pinnacle's Studio programs through nine editions now. But I'm taking a free trial look at Adobe Premiere Elements.

Have you ever used one or both? Have any opinions?

Premiere seems not to take so long to process things. Studio has gotten slow on my older computer. But I'm unfamiliar with the program so it takes me longer right now to use Premiere.

I suspect they both do pretty much the same stuff once you learn both programs.

And both are in the $100 range for price.I used Pinnacle for a few years. I tended to have a lot of trouble rendering videos without "burping." The program would also just close for no reason at all. The last straw was when I upgraded to Vista, and Pinnacle did not work at all.

I bought Sony Vegas. It costs about $527, but you can get a full working free version on their website. I think it works for about a month before it expires. It works SO much better. No burping, no random flash frames of video I didn't put on the timeline. No random closing of the program either. Try the trial version and see what you think.

I think Adobe is OK, but I've only poked around with it a bit, and I wasn't impressed.

[Lazlo Toth]

Thanks for your response. I'm afraid that's out of my price range. Most of my projects are volunteer jobs for church or some non profit organization for which my wife or I volunteer.

I've not had much trouble with Studio in later versions. But I just finished a 13 minute video for church that took about twice as long as necessary because I spent so much time after I dragged a shot to the timeline waiting for it to actually appear in a form that would allow me to work with it.

I've been playing with Premiere Elements a little and it responds much more quickly.

[ June 09, 2007, 10:48 AM: Message edited by: Lazlo Toth ]

[Diggin' Bear]

I highly recommend downloading the free, full version of Canopus' Edius version 4. Extremely easy to use, very intuitive and hugely powerful.

www.canopus.com (http://www.canopus.com)

[Lazlo Toth]

Originally posted by Diggin' Bear:
I highly recommend downloading the free, full version of Canopus' Edius version 4. Extremely easy to use, very intuitive and hugely powerful.

www.canopus.com (http://www.canopus.com)Thanks for the suggestion. I read the specs and I'm afraid my computer is not robust enough to handle that program. It also appears to be out of my price range.

[John M.]

I use Premiere Pro rather than Elements but if Elements has all the functions you need it should give you good results.

One thing I like about Adobe is that it uses AVI files, the Windows video format. I recently downloaded a couple of free backgrounds from Sony's site that were AVI files and I dropped them right into Premiere.

Avid offers a free version of its software you can download from its web site (http://www.avid.com/products/freedv/index.asp). Its functions are limited but you can't beat the price. However, Avid uses a proprietary video format.

[facts]

Thanks for the tip on Canopus.. I had no idea it was free.. that's cool.

[WalMartNation]

Originally posted by John M.:
However, Avid uses a proprietary video format.Sorry if I sound like a dummy, but what does proprietary video mean?

And also, how many versions are there of Sony Vegas? I saw a box in Costco that said it was the version that "does it all" and it was $50..

[portinfru]

I've used combinations of Avid Express DV, Premiere (w/After Effects), and Studio for any number of home and school projects... and which one I use depends a lot on the complexity of what I'm working on. Lately, Studio 10 handles all my home movies and stuff just fine, and my machine is 5 years old now.

Mr T... I imagine that with Vista being so new, a lot of software is going to have issues with it until the developers get all the kinks of the new operating system worked out. Watch for patches and updates. You may also want a RAM upgrade if your machine has room... pretty easy to install yourself for $40-$100 depending on the size and type of memory... that may help with your runtime "burps."

Feel free to PM me if you have other questions.