Video editing for PC

[carguy1]

Ok, I need to do some video editing and I have a PC. Any recommendations. I don't mind spending a little bit of money, but don't have a lot to spend (if I did I would just buy a Mac). Before we get into the whole PC-vs-Mac thing, let me say...I know that Macs are better for this kind of thing, but I own a PC and have to work with the tools that God has given me and don't think it would be good stewardship to go further into debt to purchase a Mac at this time.

So, what can you tell me. Thanks.

[russhutto]

How in depth are you wanting to go with your editing?

If you're looking for simple features Window Movies maker is bare bones and can get the job done.

I've used Nero as well (less than $100) but I don't recommend it.

[carguy1]

Pretty basic at this point, just cutting a clip out of a movie and then putting music over part of it.

[dan_tone]

If that's all you are going to be doing at this point, I would go with Adobe Premiere Elements (http://www.adobe.com/products/premiereel/). While I have no personal experience with it, I am big fan of Adobe's products, they put out quality stuff. Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and After Effects are all pretty much industry standard programs.

Premiere Elements is a very stripped down version of Premiere Pro, but it should suit your needs just fine.

[dtpuga]

We are full on Mac users here but I cut my video editing teeth in Premier and then Premier Pro. Premier is good software for video editing and similar to Final Cut as far as layout. I recommend going that direction as well. I would compare the features of Elements vs. Pro and see what you need. My advice is to stick with Adobe for PC products. There are a lot of consumer targeted products out there that will sound nice and come cheap. My opinion is that anyone who cares enough to ask what they should consider will want more than the $100 variety. (That being said, iMovie and iDVD do come cheap and work pretty stinking well.)

One more thing to consider... how do you pln on delivering your content? Make sure you have what you need there. Make sure if you are wanting DVDs for instance that you have the ability to build DVD projects and not be stuck with basic system software.

Hope this helps.

[rdhdfmn]

I started editing the videos we shoot on sunday mornings with vegas. It is pretty easy to get started with and it will do anything I will ever need as far as editing goes. It was right at 100.00. RD

[stephen_can_man]

No, macs are not the end all be all of video editing. We use Final Cut everyday and it is not the best in our opinion. Rendering! Quite frankly, Avid is rendering video in the background always, but everytime we want to preview something on that wretched mac we have to wait for it to render. We have a G5 dual processor but I get sick of waiting for that dumb thing to render everytime we make a change. Any of you mac gurus know how to slave a processor to rendering so that we can watch what we do without all the wait time? Try Avid or Premiere Pro.

[dtpuga]

Stephen check your render settings. There are different settings for rendering and different render types. I use shortcuts to only render audio or video sometimes. (Command-R, Option-R, Command-Option-R.) But anyway, there is a tab right under the sequence tab that says "RT" you can click it to change settings around to suit your needs the best you can. "Safe RT" will let FCP work within the limits of the machine a little bit better. That way when you hit the space bar for playback it will only prepare certain aspects of your footage.

It is possible that you have the render settings under the sequence menu set too high as well. There are certain "renders" that FCP will perform in order to prepare something for video that are simply unnecessary for computer based playback and much less for previewing your work.

Hope this helps!