The Latest PC Editing Programs

Which Do I Need and Which Should I Buy?

Newcomers to digital video creation on PC really have two choices for software editing programs, 1. Go with the free built in Windows Movie Maker (or other free equivalent like pinnacle’s VideoSpin) 2. Purchase one of the many software packages that run around $100. This post addresses the most important question that arises from these two options: Do I need to pay for a program and if so, which should I buy?

The part of the question “Do I need to pay for a program?” can be answered by asking yourself if you feel limited by the capabilities of Movie Maker or whatever free software you use. There is nothing wrong with free as long as you don’t feel the need to do more than what the program offers. If you feel held back by the limitations, by all means spend the money and get a stand-alone editing program. I promise you will not regret the decision.

The answer to “Which should I buy?” used to be a convoluted one, but as of late, two programs, Pinnacle Studio 11 Ultimate and Adobe Premiere Elements 4, have emerged at the top of every list.

The reason Studio 11 and Elements fare so well is because of two very important concepts: Support and Cross-Compatibility. Other PC editors like Roxio Easy Media Creator, Corel Ulead VideoStudio, and Sony Vegas are created by companies whose main target is not video products. Sony is new to the video software marketplace and their editors, though not bad, require a lot of prior technical knowledge and don’t integrate all the video processes (capture, edit, export) very well. Corel is known for their Draw software, and again cannot compete within the video editing landscape that for so long has been dominated by Pinnacle and Adobe. Roxio makes CD burning software for God’s sake!

If you are serious about video-making, go with Adobe Elements 4 or Pinnacle Studio 11 Ultimate. It is worth the investment and the wonderful support, and frequent updates insure your software will not become outdated a few months after your purchase.

Another good reason to go with one of these two? MindBites will be providing feedback and instructional videos for these platforms to further your enablement as an author. You can already find two Premiere Elements videos (Beginners Guide, Intro to Animation), and one on Pinnacle Studio 11 is soon to come.

Tags: Corel, Peremiere Elements, Pinnacle Studio, Roxio, Studio 11, VideoSpin, Windows Movie Maker | Posted in Video Production and Publishing | 1 Comment »

VideoSpin: Free PC Video Editing by Pinnacle

Pinnacle Systems recently released a free PC editing program called VideoSpin, requiring only a 148-megabyte download from www.videospin.com. I decided to give the program a try to see what the implications were for MindBites users and those looking for cost-effective ways to edit on the PC. Unfortunately, my heart is not set on VideoSpin, and all-in-all it doesn’t change the landscape of free PC editing in any fundamental way.

I will start with what is good about VideoSpin and then mention my critiques. The program has almost no learning curve. Its interface is simple and linear. You have mainly two modes: Edit and Make Movie. All the editing, adding sound effects, transitions, titles, and so on is done in Edit mode, and then Make Movie is used to export your final product.

There is a nice volume bar that you can easily key-frame and move around, making fading audio in and out very simple. The program also renders transitions as you place them, which alleviates the problem of thinking you did something wrong when your un-rendered video plays choppy. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: DiVX, editing, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Studio 11, VideoSpin, Windows Movie Maker | Posted in Video Production and Publishing | 2 Comments »

Five Windows Editing Programs for under $100

While anyone with a PC and Windows XP or Vista can edit video using the built-in Windows Movie Maker software (Keith’s WMM analysis), it simply cannot compare with the features and options offered by the stand-alone editing programs on the market. WMM is free for a reason. It is designed to give beginners the easiest and most straightforward tools for cutting together media without confusing the user with more advanced tools. Luckily, PC users have a wide range of really great editing programs to choose from, many of which are less that $100. I would like to analyze five pieces of software that can be bought for under $100 and hopefully demonstrate that it is possible to achieve very professional looking editing jobs without the pricey and complicated professional editing packages.

The five programs are Ulead VideoStudio 11 by Corel ($89.99), Adobe Premiere Elements 4 ($99.99), Pinnacle Studio 11 ($99.99), Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8 ($99.99), and Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 ($79.99). So what can you do with these programs that you can’t do with WMM? More than one video and audio track, more efficient interfaces, advanced video and audio effects, and more powerful import/export capabilities.

Perhaps the most important feature of these products is the ability to add multiple audio and video tracks. What this means is if you were designing a MindBites training video on underwater basket weaving and you wanted to split the screen in half and on the top half show your hands twisting wicker and on the bottom show your friend’s hands twisting different wicker you could easily overlay the two videos on separate tracks. The same goes for audio. If you want the sound of the wicker twisting underneath “New York State of Mind” by Billy Joel, you can do so by placing the audio clips in different tracks. The usefulness of multiple tracks should not be overlooked even for beginners, and WMM does not offer more than one audio and one video track. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: DV, editing, music, PC, Pinnacle Studio, Roxio Easy Media Creator, Sony Vegas Movie Studio, Ulead VideoStudio, video effects, Windows Movie Maker | Posted in Video Production and Publishing | No Comments »

The MindBite Insight (Episode #3 - Editing Basics for Windows)

This week in the MindBite Insight, we offer a counterpart to last episode’s lesson on Editing Basics for Macs. We would be remiss if we did not provide a similar instructional for our PC patrons, so we now present to you EDITING BASICS (for Windows). Loaded with all the glorious goodies of last week’s Insight, this lesson explores the elements of Window’s Movie Maker, the free editing program that comes installed with all recent versions of Microsoft Windows.

Keith, in a bumbling yet mildly coherent manner, walks you through the steps of getting your footage into the computer, organizing it, editing it, and finally exporting the finished sequence into a format that is ready for its debut on the MindBites website. Geared toward novices, this tutorial is a quick introduction designed to put you into the throes of editing with all the essentials, but little of the fluff. We strongly encourage all beginners to spend an hour or two, after watching this lesson, perusing the program’s many intricacies and features. It doesn’t take much to get the hang of these highly intuitive programs, just the mindset and some determination, and you’ll be MindBiting your heart out in no time. Enjoy!

Tags: editing, MindBites Insight, PC, Webisode, Windows Movie Maker | Posted in MindBites News and Notes, Video Production and Publishing | No Comments »

My Dinner with Window’s Movie Maker (First Impressions)

We met apprehensively at first, both guarded and with trepidation. You see, I’ve been rooted for some time now in my Mac ways, and this PC program boasted a certain degree of change that

made me, initially, uncomfortable. But as much of the world still operates in a Windows dominated medium, I felt obliged to entertain my guest with a certain degree of objectivity. So, here are my first impressions of Movie Maker, the free PC editing platform that claims comparability with Mac’s iMovie.Well, I’ll say this: I was fairly impressed. My initial surprise came from how similar I found Movie Maker’s functionality with that of iMovie’s. I was able to operate the program with ease from the start, as if I were a seasoned pro at dealing with its operations. This should lift concerns users may have about switching from one platform to the other, for proficiency at one seems to indicate proficiency for both.And for those new to editing in general, the interface of the program is highly intuitive, and I found that each step of the process is easily accomplished even by the novice, due to Movie Maker’s clear and straightforward design. It essentially holds your hand through each maneuver. The only downside to this functionality is that advanced operations, like audio manipulation and visual effect creation, become difficult if not impossible to achieve. I found this to be the same with iMovie. These programs are geared towards beginners and therefore come with a multitude of plug-ins and tools that are designed solely for speed and ease of use. Therefore, the attributes are set in stone and manual manipulation is out of the question. Oh well. For the beginner the trade-off is well worth it. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Review, Windows Movie Maker | Posted in Video Production and Publishing | 2 Comments »