video editing software

[rosawendel]

so with the recent addition to team rosawendel last year, i made the investment in a video camera (sony hdr-hc7 mini-DV for those interested), and i've been able to upload videos to the computer with relative ease.

now i'm interested in some editing software. nothing too crazy, just something that i can use for wipes, dissolves, and maybe sound overdubs.

any suggestions?

[Sean Malone]

What OS are you using? Windows Movie Maker is actually fairly robust for the home user and it comes with XP.

The camera probably came with some software too but in typical Sony fashion it's probably crippled trialware.

[extramundane]

I'm not typically one to say this, but score a cheap used Mac (if you don't have one already) and use it.

The Missus is getting her National Board Certification (teaching), and one of the biggie requirements is 30 minutes of classroom video. Since her average class size is 32, getting much more than 5-10 minutes of usable footage at a time is challenging, so editing is utterly necessary. The "software" that came with the camera (Samsung) sucked, Windows Movie Maker wasn't robust enough (though it's probably fine for home movies), and I couldn't find any freebie stuff that I liked. Then I brought home a decommissioned 4 year old eMac from work, and after updating everything, iMovie has made life much easier on us all.

[rosawendel]

i have xp at the moment, but expect to move to vista in a month or two.

[Sean Malone]

i have xp at the moment, but expect to move to vista in a month or two.

have you tried Windows Movie Maker? I been using Adobe's Premier (advanced video editing package) since it debuted a decade ago, but when I'm helping my daughter do a quick video for a homework assignment or whipping up something to send to all the aunts and uncles I just use WMM. What you will want in order to impress your bro-in-law or grandma is software for the DVD menus. Your camera should have come with at least a trial of that.

[Rogue Leader]

I use Sony Vegas. WMM Is nice but you will get bored with it in a week and want to do just a little more. Vegas seems daunting at first but once you get the hang of it it is pretty simple and VERY powerful. I picked it up without even reading the manual and made a pretty sick (if I must say so myself) movie for my firehouse you can see here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHHx71QKUMU