Tom Adams Posted July 3, 2008 Share Posted July 3, 2008 I have NO CLUE when it comes to video editing software so I'm looking for some recommendations or direction. I don't feel I need anything really powerful or complicated or (naturally) expensive. All I'm looking for is to put some text or maybe sound to some video and possibly be able to "splice" video portions in a different sequence (if that makes sense). I'd also prefer it to be simple to learn as I'm getting to be an old dog and you know what they say about teaching us new tricks. Oh - and I'll be using the software on an IBM based PC. I know, I know.......get a Mac. Listen......I'm trying, I'm trying. Thanks in advance. BTW - the video I'm gonna work with is some 8mm movies that I had transferred by MyMovieTransfer.com. Those folks did an awesome job. The movies were shot by my Dad and spanned when he was in Korea & the Phillipines around 1950 to family movies in the '70's. My folks are 87 now and my Mom's health is failing. They got to see the movies via DVD for the first time this past weekend and I thought they were gonna cry. If any of you have old 8mm or Super 8mm or whatever, please do your family a favor and get them digitally transferred (and you know who my recommendation is) before the film gets too bad to work with. One thing I learned was that it is BAD to keep those films in a sealed tight container as the film needs to breath. And yes, in a dark place. Again - thanks!! Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted July 3, 2008 Share Posted July 3, 2008 Probably Ulead or the cheapo Sony one. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 If you are using WinXP, Windows Movie Maker is actually a reasonable product, and it's free. I have Adobe Premiere, but as JJ says, one of the cheaper ones would suit your needs. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 My brother and I make movies in our spare time and enter them into competitions and all that shnazz. Although we have fancier and much more powerful programs available, we usually just end up using Windows Movie Maker for most of our movies. Just make sure you're using the latest version:http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Dr Who: It seems to me with your knowledge and expertise that you would use something much more complex than Movie Maker. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Dr Who: It seems to me with your knowledge and expertise that you would use something much more complex than Movie Maker. JJK I worked in tv news for 10 years and continue to do video editing on occasion. The learning curve can be a bit much on the more complex softare. For the most part, Tom's film transferred to tape/digital doesn't require the complexity. MM can get the job done with minimum fuss and headache. Adobe Premiere Pro and Apple's Final Cut are top notch programs. Sony's Vegas is really good too, although the interface is a little different. There are higher end programs, all of which is more money and not necessary. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 It seems to me with your knowledge and expertise that you would use something much more complex than Movie Maker. I guess we just prefer to be minimalist in our editing...very similar to how I try to be minimalist with my audio mixing too. I'm not saying I never use the "fancy" tools (in either medium), but it's interesting that all the movies we won awards for were done soley with MM... I bring it up just to point out that you really don't need thousands of dollars of software and equipment to produce something fun and creative. That said, there certainly is a point where the creativity gets hindered by the technical details. When you get to that point, the creativity leads the software and hardware decisions. Just to rant for a second...the creativity is lost when the final result is a collage of equipment features (though it's arguably an integral part of learning how the features work). But for home videos, this is probably all irrelevant, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 You are all correct. I just keep getting confused on all the upgrades that occurr about every 10 minutes, like stereo PCM, AC3, 5.1, 7.1, DTS, and that's just audio. Lets see, AVI-1, AVI-2, MP3, MPEG 1, MPEG2, HDV, AVCHD-Sony, AVCHD-Canon, AVCHD-Panasonic, WMV, WMV-HD, MP4, M2T, M2TS, MPT, JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, PSD, Bluray, HD-DVD, DVIX, and about 10K of others. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InnerTuber Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 My suggestion is read carefully before you plunk down your $$$. Some of the software requires firewire connections and often that isn't Windows compatible, until you add a firewire port. I'm doing something similar and learned the hard way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 Movie Maker can use files you already have. For $20 you can get a firewire card AND editing software. Win2K and newer will recognize the firewire card auto magically. The only one you may have trouble with is Vista. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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