Video editing software recommendations

[JR Ewing]

I've been using Windows Movie Maker for a very long time but I'm about to hit the delete key on it. Constant problems. Half the time the video won't play, or it will play but there won't be any sound, or WMM just decides I pushed it too far and crashes. I am now in the market for a new video editor.

Aside from switching to a Mac and using iMovie or spending $800 on Adobe Premier, are there any really good video editing software programs available that you use? It doesn't necessarily have to be free. I just need something simplistic, but can handle multiple audio and video tracks.

Thanks!

[Bludd]

Virtualdub?

[JR Ewing]

Unless I'm missing something in the program, it doesn't have a lot of editing capabilities. It's great for capturing, cutting, compressing, and postprocessing video (which is what I use it for) but beyond that, you can't do much else.

[Bludd]

Well, you said simple. :)

[Telee]

VideoThang works for me.

[JR Ewing]

Well, you said simple. :)

Simple in a different context. :)

Maybe simple was a bad choice of word. What I meant was a program that could do what Windows Movie Maker does (or more) but won't act like WMM. I tried VideoThang but it was too simplistic. There was no timeline for audio or video tracks. You were also limited to only one output format.

[Bludd]

Here's a list of stuff you can check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_editing_software

[Phait]

Sony Vegas Movie Studio, ~$100
http://forums.3drealms.com/vb/showthread.php?t=25295#14

Examples
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qzBY_EtvV58
http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0BDE954C2E69846F

I love it.

[JR Ewing]

Thanks guys for the replies.

After trying various programs that were listed under the link that Bludd posted (Ulead VisualStudio and MAGIX Movie Edit Pro to name a couple) but ultimately I think I've settled on Sony Vegas Movie Studio. It does just about everything I want it to do and much much more. I have a couple of problems though.

First, the firewire port on my miniDV camera doesn't work (it's a Canon Elura 100) so the only way to transfer the video to the computer is by using my capture card. The original video is 16:9 but VirtualDub apparently only captures the video in 4:3 so the video is too narrow. When rendering the video, I tried resizing it to 16:9 but it never worked for me. This was never a big deal because I could convert the video to 16:9 in Windows Movie Maker. Now that I can't seem to use WMM without something going wrong, I need to find a different way to convert these videos to 16:9. Every other video editor I've tried so far adds black to both sides of the video rather than stretch it to the edges, including Sony Vegas Movie Studio.

Second, I can't seem to capture video in Sony Vegas. The video and audio are there and when I click Capture Video it acts like it's capturing (free space decreases and hard drive indicator flashes) but the counter remains at 0:00. When I go to to folder where captured media is stored, nothing is there.

[Phait]

Huh.

I used to have an Elura 100 too, but now I can't help you. I would try Sony's support forums about that.