Camcorder Editing Software

[Red Squirrel]

Has anyone used Cyberlink Power Director Ultra software please and what's your opinion of it? In particular with a Panasonic HD camcorder.

It's Which's best buy and sounds easy to use but word of mouth is usually a good recommendation too.

[willing to learn]

I used a program called Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 for my first attempt at editing hd video from DLSR.The Program was easy to use, for basic editing I used. The only trouble was my Pc crashed and froze several times. So for me its seems, for editing it boils down to the capabiltly of the PC for serious video work. Heres the clips I did just as a test really I would also recomend a tripod with a big lens My clip's might give you motion sickness
YouTube - YouTube Upload

Regards
Colin

[Red Squirrel]

Thanks for that Colin. I've read the reviews for that. It comes 3rd on the ease of use reviews and it said it's more for Techie people. Definitely not me. but I can dream.

I agree that a tripod is more than useful. I quickly found that out. I have a good sturdy one so I'm ok there.

Your grey squirrel posed nicely for you.

[Badllarma]

Hi Red
If I were you I'd go Adobe Prem Elements it's got a good interface and if you get into it you will have a mutch better grasp of how pro spec edit suits work.

I've used the full version and its good, for my main editing I use Newtek's Speededit but this maybe beyond what you need at present. Other wsie that is the fastest editor I've used to date.

You need lots of horse power in your PC for editing HD footage BTW other wise your in for a slow and very frustraiting time!

[Red Squirrel]

Yes I was looking at that today Badllarma. Watched a tutorial and was impressed with what I saw. Was also looking at Nero.

Eee by 'eck the choices and what to choose.

[Badllarma]

The main thing with Prem is it's been an editor for a number of years Nero is just a editor that was bolted on to CD burning software.

In this order I'd go the following route.

Mac Final Cut Pro (or a version of it.)

PC Premiere Elements,Premiere Pro, Newteks Speededit and VT 5.3 (which is wayyyyyy beyond an editor and what I use)

Don't forget you may need some compositing software at some point as well if you really get into it then you realise just how slow your PC really is LOL Compositing programs love memory and raw PC power! Mine can bring my quad core editing deck to it's knees pretty quickly LOL

[cosmicma]

iv'e just upgraded my pc because of hd editing
a while ago i treated myself to a panasonic full hd camcorder ( 1080p 24p ) to fall in line with the blu-ray slide shows i had been putting together i usually mix still photo's with video footage and while i was rendering to dvd with SD video footage everything was fine but as soon as i rendered to blu-ray the SD video footage looked awfull compared to the hi resolution photo's
hence the HD camcorder

trying to edit hd video with a 3.5 gig single core P4 was impossible now with a 3.4 gig i7 sandy bridge i'm a happy chappy agian
but there are issues...
thankfully not with the pc but with windows 7 x64bit my favourite weapon of choice was pinnacle studio which has suited my needs over the years unfortunatly in win 7 x64 it doesn't like the native .mts files from my camcorder and i believe it's not the only program that suffers from this
just something to keep in mind if you use win 7 x64

i'll have a look at a couple of your suggestions badllarma thanks for advice

[Red Squirrel]

Thanks for the advice badllama.

Firstly can you explain what compositing is please?

I still like the sound of Adobe Premiere Elements but I'm concerned that it will be beyond my capabilities in as much as I'm not that clever with computers.

I can't find any proper tutorials anywhere that might help me.

I should have said in my OP that basic editing is all I need at the mo.

The camcorder is a Panasonic SD600

Any help much appreciated.

[Badllarma]

Hi compositing is when you merge one or more layers together it's a bit like photoshop for video it can get very advanced....To the point where some places will charge you £700.00 PER HOUR (This is feature film rates of course).

Lets say you have just filmed your video and now want to show it to someone so your going to need a title as your video starts so if you have "Red Squirrels Video" as a title over your first bit of video that is VERY basic compositing.
In fact it's that basic most editors have that sort of thing built in these days so you don't need any extra compositing packages.

So to be honest for wildlife videos you don't need to worry about compositing.

Right I know nothing about you Red Squirrel but I bet you have used word on the computer and maybe excel? Correct?
If you have used these packages you can edit in Premeire Elements when ever you open up a new software package it all looks very scary but it really isn't

The three basic elements of edtitng are

1) Import your footage
2) Edit it
3) Render out the final cut (version)

And thats it
There are some cracking books out there to learn any software package the best one's I've found are the "How to do everything with" but the class room books are good as well.
Also youtube is a good source as well E.G
YouTube - Premiere Elements 9

If you PM me I'll give you my direct email address, other than that it's just a case of importing your footage and having a play.
Computer on and your book at the side of you

[Red Squirrel]

Well Badllarma I think I can safely say that compositing is out the window.

I've started to look through the link you gave and I'm finding that useful.

After my last post my old man found a free trial of PE9 to download which I'll do tomorrow. Poor man it's he that's doing the research.

Don't know about your email address, could do with you coming up for tea to give a demo.

Really do appreciate your help in this. Thank you.

As I'd finished typing this he'd found these reviews. Which version is it you use?

Amazon.co.uk: Customer Reviews: Adobe Premiere Elements 9 (PC/Mac)