[creatureofdarkness]

As I have gotten into home movie and slideshow making, and added various pieces of related hardware and software, I have accumulated a number of different programs for making movies and shows - specifically - Pinnacle Studio and Studio Plus; Nero, with a variety of applications; Roxio Easy Media Creator 7; Sonic My DVD and Record Now; Cyberlink DVD Solution; and Windows Movie Maker 2, which came with my computer (Dell Inspiron 5160). Some of thesde I purchased outright, others came with hardware I bought. I have used several of them a few times, and am slowly learning what each program does, but wonder whether you can speed up my learning curve with info. about whether some of these programs are more redundant than I need, and whether some are superior to others, such that I could go ahead and remove some without losing useful functionality.
Thanks!

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well I wouldn't use roxio, but the rest are pretty good. if you get into highdef work I would seriously consider purchasing quicktime pro v7 as thats the best hi def software package currently.

[starjax]

well I wouldn't use roxio, but the rest are pretty good. if you get into highdef work I would seriously consider purchasing quicktime pro v7 as thats the best hi def software package currently.

[creatureofdarkness]

Starjax -
Thanks for your reply. Can QuicktimePro be used to create movies and slideshows and capture video? I've looked at the software on a friends machine, and read the help files, but can't tell see how to capture or create a move from scratch.
Thanks again.

[gust0208]

Hello,

I have now done a fair amount of video editing / movie creation and I started out with Windows Movie Maker and found it a great intro to digital video editing. It is free (always nice) and should allow you to make slideshows and movies. As mentioned by starjax, it won't do high-definition, but overall, I found it one of the easiest to use editors and great tutorial on starting to use NLE (non-linear editors).

Once you feel you have reached the limits of WMM, I would highly recommend looking for either a used copy of Sony Screenblast of investing in the it's replacement, Sony Movie Studio + DVD which is available for ~$80-$100. It operates in a very similar fashion to it's big (and expensive) brother, Vegas, but is by far the best NLE available in that price range. It allows multiple video and audio tracks, audio fx, numerous transitions, DV video capture and includes a version of DVD architect and mpeg encoding capability! This is a great program and I used it for a long time before taking the plunge to Vegas to do some more advanced editing.

Hope that helps, video editing is great fun and I hope you enjoy.

Cheers,
Tom

Starjax -
Thanks for your reply. Can QuicktimePro be used to create movies and slideshows and capture video? I've looked at the software on a friends machine, and read the help files, but can't tell see how to capture or create a move from scratch.
Thanks again.

[starjax]

and if you are really serious about video stuff then adobe premier or the really big one... going to mac for thier software.

[gust0208]

Hi starjax,

I agree that for true "professional" editing, the standard is Final Cut Pro on the macs. But I would have to say that myself and a number of people prefer Vegas over Adobe Premier in the "prosumer" category for stability, ease of use and audio manipulation capabilities. One drawback for Vegas is that it doesn't integrate as well with Adobe After Effects.

Cheers,
Tom

and if you are really serious about video stuff then adobe premier or the really big one...  going to mac for thier software.

[starjax]

I haven't used quicktime for editing, but most people that I listen to/read use quicktime for high def conversion.

you should listen to the pod casts by This Week in Tech: http://twit.com/

this is by the guys who used to do "the screen savers". quite a few of them are doing IP tv... tv episodes distributed over the web. they talk about it off and on over the various episodes.