Video Editor recommendation?

[ipfory...@gmail.com]

I've done a lot of pro editing (Avid, Pro tools, etc) but I'm looking
for something that will allow me to quickly and efficiently combine
video and create montages of various video scenes. The formats vary
anywhere from a proprietary digital camera video codec to mpeg-1/2/4/dv
and various bastardizations of mpeg-4 codecs like xvid, etc. So i'm
looking for some directshow support is probabaly what i'm asking.
Premiere is a little over the top but I will go back to it if I get
frustrated enough with looking for new software. The rendering is so
slow, though, even with my p4 2.8 with 4gb ram (and no pagefile) (I
don't have a hardware baser renderer, I have an old Canopus DVraptor
(not RT version) which I don't even use much anymore). I was hoping
there was a final cut or something like that for PC but I guess not...

I've looked at Avid Xpress HD but it doesn't support a lot of file
formats and just looks like another premiere basically...The Ulead
stuff has never impressed me..Unsure about Pinnacle. ..I don't want an
app that is basically crippling because its so amateurish and not
interested in an app with "wizards". It could all come back to
premiere for me but I just wanted to see if anything has changed in
..like...bascially 10 years for semi-pro editing..

Thanks a lot!

[RS]

If Premiere will support the range of file formats you want, but you
don't like the rendering, just use a frameserver and output to something
like Cinema Craft which is quite speedy.

[David Chien]

1) Try vegas video demo and see if that'll do what you need.

2) otherwise, drop everything into VirtualDub/etc. and output to
standard DV AVIs for editing in what you have now.

[fotoo...@gmail.com]

Premiere (7.0) chokes on compressed avi's. I have gigs of small clips
in various formats. So i'm going to have to potentially convert
everything to (large, uncompressed) DV avi's just so I can edit them?
That would be irritating. Not everyone edits straight off their dv
deck or camera..but I guess thats the assumption :) Its not like I
have a 10TB raid array to store uncompressed video :) I understand the
tradeoff in speed due to the need to decompress but thats fine with me
as long as its not ridiculous. When trying to import a regular mpeg-4
(divx) into premiere 7.0 pro it just hung there until I cancelled
it...I waited 20+M.

RS great idea I forgot I could frameserve with cce. Will do.

David- thanks. Will try Vegas.

Thanks again!

[Gary Bettan]

On 5 Oct 2005 08:33:01 -0700, ipfory...@gmail.com wrote:

> I'm looking for something that will allow me to quickly and efficiently combine
>video and create montages of various video scenes. The formats vary
>anywhere from a proprietary digital camera video codec to mpeg-1/2/4/dv
>and various bastardizations of mpeg-4 codecs like xvid, etc.

Check out Vegas 6. Since the beginning one of the strengths of Vegas
has been it's ability to handle just about every CODEC & Video format.
Basically, if you can play it on your computer, you can edit it with
Vegas. Not sure about all the 'bastard' MPEG-4 formats, but the latest
update 6.0c adds support for MPEG 4/AVC/H.264 file formats.

you can download a free trial of Vegas 6 here
http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/download/step2.asp?did=585

You will aslo find excellent user group/ communities for Vegas

DMN
http://www.dmnforums.com/cgi-bin/displaywwugindex.fcgi?forum=sonic-foundry_vegas

Creative Cow
http://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_view_posts.cgi?forumid=24

DVinfo.net
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=54

The folks over at VASST have a ton of free turorials
http://www.vasst.com/

Ed Troxel has a great vegas newsletter (which we are proud to host for
him) http://thetroxels.com/vegas/forum/

Gary
Videoguys.com

Videoguys.com http://www.videoguys.com
The Digital Video Editing & DVD Production Experts
800 323-2325 or Free DTV tech advice (516) 759-1615

All DTV purchases include our 30 day customer assurance program
and FREE tech support

[fotoo...@gmail.com]

Thanks Gary. Will check out Vegas 6. Right now i'm gathering video
and audio but have re-remembered Premiere and am already starting to
get comfortable with it again so not sure what i'll do.

[RS]

Plus Vegas has some very good audio tweaking/editing abilities.

[fotoo...@gmail.com]

Vegas crashed on me repeatedly and was installing weird databases and
all sorts of junk that I don't like bundled with video editing
software. It was installing so much junk that my antispyware was
popping up repeatedly. I'm not going that route, unfortunately. Oh,
and it would freeze-up when trying to import compressed avi's.

Thanks though, i'll just stick with the tried-and-true Premiere :)