[Jamesemt]

Following on from a previous post, I feel I've got a bit confused about what editing software I've actually trialed.

So...What about making a list of all the major players?

So far I've found:

Sony Vegas
Adobe Premiere
Pinnacle Studio/Avid Liquid
Magix
Power Director
Ulead Video Studio
DVD Movie Factory

Anyone care to add to the list? I realise there are loads around, but editing software varies so much - I'm struggling to find one which fits...Looking for ease of use but loads of features...lol

Is it possible to group similar software, ie very similar interfaces?

[redsox_mark]

That's a pretty complete list.... there is also Canopus Edius.

I'd say Vegas (Premiere Movie Studio), P Elements, Ulead Video Studio, and Pinnacle Studio are similar... but different.

DVD Movie factory is different in that it is more of a DVD authoring package with limited editing (but very easy to use).

I'm not as familiar with the others.

Best if you can download a few trials and see what looks easiest to you.

[redsox_mark]

One additional point, with some of the packages (Vegas and Premiere for example) they have both a "Pro" version, and one or more "non-Pro" versions. Adobe has Premiere Pro, and Premiere Elements (Elements is the affordable non-Pro one). Vegas has the newly named Vegas Pro (before was just called Vegas), and Vegas Movie Studio Platinum (which is the affordable one, similar in power to Premiere Elements).

[jaymac]

.Mark has pretty well covered it all I would just add check out the user forums for the software . I Mean dedicated forums Ie adobe's or magix etc', .There is a world of difference between some as to member support. Adobes ' as I use premiere and premiere elements I find their site is particularly good (though its off for update at present ) .Well worth a browse through to see what is available with them all

[felix2]

How about this list? (Oops, it didn't have Cyberlink Power Director on there!)

As Mark's said, the 'big 4' have 'pro' versions (like Canopus Edius is) - Sony Vegas Pro (ver 8 just out), Adobe Premiere, Pinnacle (Avid) Liquid (*see Senu's post below), and Ulead Media Studio Pro (although that's really a different program from Video Studio, rather than just a 'pro' version).

I'm a fan of Serif MoviePlus - which has excellent online support (forum + technical help) and I still think IMHO is the best balance of functionality and ease of use. Having said that it is now falling behind the competition (especially in terms of support for new formats especially high def, and its complete lack of 'smart rendering' which makes it less than ideal for MPEG (DVD) and again high def editing), and version 6 is eagerly awaited hopefully in the next couple of months, and hopefully with rafts of new features! It is also uncannily similar to Vegas (but with some pros and some cons versus Vegas Movie Studio Platinum) - so if version 6 isn't able to bring it back to the cutting edge of home video editing I might reluctantly have to resign myself to selling out to Sony!

Just for completeness, lucky Mac owners can of course use iLife iMovie or Final Cut.

PS (just seen your other thread): Serif is very good for dragging and dropping stuff (video clips, effects, transitions etc) where you want them, while the preview's playing, and making changes and seeing 'live' how they'll look - and you have to try pretty hard to make it crash (or put in too many quicktime movies!). But if you've rejected Vegas, even though I find Serif more intuitive than Vegas (maybe just because I read the manual for Serif but not for Vegas!), then you may not like it.

[Jamesemt]

Thanks for all the responses. I think I'm going to give each piece of software a few days trial (instead of ten mins...lol).

Serif sounds interesting, but would need High Def support (don't want to get used to one package, only having to ditch it in a couple of months). Yep definately going to go High Def very soon - my daughter is 9 months old, and she'll never be a baby again...

[jetinder]

I've used magix a lot only trouble is that if you cut out a lot of things Magix can be very very slow at converting stuff to DVD.

I dont know if this is related to the speed of your processor.

[Petert52]

Jamesmt
I also need to buy an editing software package for HD probably MPEG4 H264 so will be keen to hear how you get on.

[redsox_mark]

Rendering does very much depend on the speed of your processor, and also the format you are converting from and to; rendering to MPEG2 for DVD is slower than say DV. The speed of rendering and also the quality of the render varies between editors as well.

[senu]

Avid Liquid 7 ( Used to be Pinnacle Liquid 6) is a Pro version software from Pinnacle ( now owned by AVID)
Pinnacle Studio is a completely different software, not just a non "pro" version of Liquid.
The rendering engine and GUI are very different , and Knowing how to use Pinnacle Studio will not make using Liquid familiar or easy to use unlike the Sony and Adobe products which are more similar to their siblings

Apart from Serif Ive used/have all of them at one time or other and probably have still them installed on various computers some of which are dual/multi boot systems


They are all capable of allowing you reorganise raw video footage into something very watchable .. but have fairly different GUIs, System requirements and capabilities
You will find that it is finding the time taken to master and use them intuitively that costs more .. but if you are gennerally keen you might find it enjoyable. and get a buzz from the finished pruduct.. not to mention making others delighted
I assure you they are all "learnable" and although not as easy to get into as WMM, you can do a lot more with them in just as little time if you persist

To actually say what the pros and cons of each is far too unwieldy suffice to say that how easily you warm up to user interface is quite important as they all "feel" different in use