I am getting a digital camcorder. I want to be able to take that digital video and put it on my computer so that I can edit it and all kinds of neat transitions, be able to do news stories, but text, make it look like a news program, or a movie with all kinds of special or transition effects. What computer program is the best? Which do you recommend?
Most people only use one so unless they hate it they are going to recommend it. I use Vegas Video and have no hesitation in recommending it. There are many other programs out there many are cheaper and many are more expensive. They will pretty much all do everything you have listed there (I know Vegas can, but that's all basic stuff so I am assuming that the cheaper ones can also do this). Decide if you want to do anything else make a list and get the program that does as many of them as you can afford.
fraid not but there's plenth of stuff on the web http://www.creativecow.net/articles/vegasvideo.html http://www.creativecow.net/articles/vegasvideo.html http://www.creativecow.net/articles/vegas_veggies.html http://www.vegasusers.com/ for starters
the standard appears to be Adobe premier. thou there are many others. (cassablanca, combustion?, et al)
For anyone looking to do serious editing, I HIGHLY recommend Final Cut Pro. There is no finer non-linear editor in my opinion. However, it is an expensive option (especially if you don't own a Mac), so my next recommendation would be Adobe Premiere. I don't know what you need out of an editor, but it can probably meet all your needs and more. It has a wonderful interface, and I've been very happy with the new version 7. I hear a lot of decent things about Vegas or Pinnacle, but have no persion experience with them. So if you wan't to put the money into it, I really do recommend Premiere. A small note, even if you're feeling especially rich, I would stay far, far away from Avid's line of desktop editors. While they are in many regards a professional standard, I have found Avid's interface to be one of the most hostile, unintuitive, and non-use friendly pieces of software. Bryan and PS, someone mentioned combustion and casablanca. Note that combustion is not an editor, but rather a compositor similar to abobe after effects, and I googled cacablanca to find that its not software, but rather its own machine. don't know much more than that.
I have used Premiere Pro 6.5 and I recently upgraded to Premiere Pro (7). The software is excellent and full of features. Everything you need is in one package, Capturing, Editing, Conversion and Export to DVD or file. I would recommend buying a good book though, the software is easier to use after a bit of reading through a guide.
I´ve editing video for a few years and i have tried many programs, in my opinion the best are: For pc: Vegas 5 For Mac: final cut pro i know the best in the world is Discreet´w smoke but that is a complete post production tool, not an non linear editing software.
Personally I prefer to use AviSynth, but most people wouldn't care for it, especially for the kind of transitions you're talking about. For a normal NLE I highly recommend Vegas Video. I only used it a couple of times to help a friend figure it out, but I found it to be very powerful with an intuitive user interface. To answer your specific question, there is no generic best. It all depends on what features you need, how much money you have to spend, and what interface is the easiest for you. See the first line of my post for details on that. _X_X_X_X_X_[small]Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a night. Set him on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life Backup A DVD With DVD Rebuilder & CCE Basic: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/dvd_rebuilder_tutorial.cfm[/small]
hi.. I am very new to this forum and found the informatiom really interesting. I have to convert my movies from Digital video camera to PC and then to burn DVD or SVCD. I use firwire 1394 to connect my camcorder to PC. My movies on my camcorder are recorded in LP mode. I have certain questions: 1. Is there any impact of any software while transferring video from camcorder to PC in .avi format? I understand .avi is same (in size & quality) if i use Windows movie maker or pinnacle studio 8 SE, roxio or sonic. Please confirm me? 2. Which is the best software to edit this video (.avi) first? as i have to trim this video or add some titles, effects etc. 3. Which step should be first: encoding .avi to mpeg2 or video editing in .avi format itself and then rendering the video? 4. What's de-interlacing? How could i achieve this? 5. What are the best softwares for all these steps... I have studio SE and roxio but i couldn't find best trimming software... please help to choose the right software and also the site from where i can download it.. Thanks for your help..
amour, 1. It doesn't make any difference because it's just a data transfer. However, if you're including the output from editing programs you may still see decoder differences. More information on this: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33526 2. See all previous responses. 3. Encoding to MPEG should always be the last step. 4. See this link for a pretty good overview: http://www.100fps.com/ 5. If all you need to do is trim, you can use VirtualDub or VirtualDubMod. Look in the Afterdawn Software area.
thanks for your reply.. I followed your link and found that for de-interlacing I need (virtualDub, avisynth and Divx codec) I already have divx codec but i think they are V3 as when i tried to install virtualdub it gave me a warning. - from where can i download the right DivX codec and what's the right version? - which version of avisynth should i download as there are many versions on www.avisynth.org Also I have question regarding .AVI file that I get after transferring my video from camcorded to PC. VirtualDub is not able to open this .AVI file while it can open some standard .AVI file provided in Pinnacle Studio CD (it gave some codec error, I don't remember exactly). Is there any difference between .AVI files tranaferred using Pinnacle or Roxio, for example. Infact I have expreinced this problem earlier too that I can't render .AVI files transferred using Roxio using Pinnacle studio... why so??? I don't know if there is something wrong with my configuration or I am missing some basic infromation about these formats.. thanks !!
The versions of VirtualDub I've used didn't have an installer, and BTW VirtualDub is capable of deinterlacing by itself. It's not nearly as good as AviSynth for the job, but as a trade off it's easier. I still recommend AviSynth for anyone who's willing to do a little homework, but it's not for everyone. As for the version, you should always get the most recent release, which is 2.54 right now. You can get it here at Afterdawn in the software section. I'd also recommend going to the Guides page and checking out the AviSynth guide (http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/avisynth_tutorial.cfm) which is intended for beginners to the program and uses an editor you can also find on our software page called AVSEdit. If (okay when) you need some help, make sure to post a new message so we don't take this thread any further off topic than we already have. On the subject of codecs, every avi file has a code embedded in it called a FourCC. This code determines what codec is used to decompress it for playback or encoding or whatever because uncompressed frames are required. If you get download GSpot you can open the file with it and find out what codec you need. It's probably either Divx or Xvid, but there are other less common codecs that could be required instead. I'm not sure about the Roxio issue, but like most things I expect it's because Roxio is a steaming pile of crap. Okay it's not that bad, but it's not going to help you much and I highly recommend replacing (and uninstalling) it as soon as you can. It's famous for causing conflicts with a laundry list of other programs, particularly better burning programs, and if you post problems and mention it's even on your system it's almost guaranteed that the first piece of advice you get will be to remove it. Good luck.
If you are completly new in video edditing i think the best option is the latest version of Windows Movie Maker. Get away from pinnacle products, they are very very bad. If you plan to make money on the future, like in weddings and birthdays use vegas5 + dvd. Later on you will be able to make 1 day documentalas, you go out in the morning and in the evening you have a dvd whith an interesting story. Learn the Syd Roy screenplay techniques and you have no borders before you. The difictult thing is not doing the films, but imagine them. X
hi.. it's strange because I followed the www.100fps.com link and in the later section (how to deinterlace...), it is mentioned that to de-interlace virtualdub, avisynth and Divx are required and if anyone of them is not installed, it will not work.... it is contradictory to what u said.. Part from that, everything seems ok.. i will take your advice to uninstall Roxio (btw it came free with my comp) Also I would try to use Windows movie maker and vegas.. i think I just need to do some trials before coming back to this again.. any information about dvd.. u mean to say dvd lab?? what's the purpose and which is the nice version... thanks a lot for all your help
I think that was because the site was written for Divx conversions (which I dont' do) and the most common methods for that do require all those tools, but if you want to see the results from just VirtualDub you can open your AVI (once you get that sorted out) and look at the effects of the video filters that are built in. I don't recall saying anything about DVD at all, but I can tell you DVD-Lab is a DVD Authoring program with a lot of features for the money. The regular version is an incredible program that can already do about half of what many true professional programs can, and the Pro version adds most of the rest of those features (like subtitles, multiple audio tracks, multiple VTS). The downside is it's a little bit more to learn than simpler software (but there's a good tutorial) so it really comes down to what you need from the software and how much time you're willing to invest (notice the recurring theme here - more power = steeper learning curve). The main thing is you hit the nail on the head. If you want to figure out what the best method for you is you'll just have to try some things out, probably get more help, try some different things out, get some more help, etc., ... I've spent literally hundreds of hours getting to the level of knowledge I have now, and I expect to spend hundreds more getting where I want, but everybody has different requirements and taste (and budgets) and you need to figure out what's right for you.
hi.. I tried to play with the virtualdub but it doesn't work at all.. it says " Couldn't locate decompressor for format 'dvsd'(unknown). Virtual dub requires a VFW(video for windows) compatible codec to decompress video. Directshow codecs, such as used by windows media player are not suitable." What does it mean?? I tried to see using Gspot what kind of codecs are required to open with this .avi file and it shows three kind of codecs are already installed on system to open this file and 4cc code for this video is dvsd. This .avi file i transferred using Pinnacle studio. While there is another .avi file that i transferred using Roxio studio and surprisingly enough, it doesn't show any 4cc code with Gspot. Not to mention that Vdub can't open this file even, error being the same as that of other file... any help please??
Try to install NimoCodecPack9 Beta1. I think that u get nearly every Codec u need, really amazing, but after all im just a newb in Video Editing...
