From what I've been reading in these forums, the three most recommended video editing programs seem to be Ulead VideoStudio 8, Pinnacle Studio 9, and Adobe Premier elements. What I think is odd is that everyone keeps saying that Adobe is expensive, but the prices I have seen for these three editors is pretty close (Ulead: $99.95, Pinnacle: $79.99, Adobe: $99.99). Am I missing something, or has Adobe dropped their price. Or is everyone talking about Adobe Premier Pro ? (priced at $699). Also, how does this software compare to Nero or Windows Movie Maker? What sort of features do they have that Nero and Windows don't?
You are right all the suggested software compare in price. The levels of complexity ( and therefore what effects you can get vary)For simple capture minimal editing and output to wmv format microsoft movie maker is ok. With all the others picture in picture, animated titles and digital manipulation of footage Ie; color, shake and sound are built in in varying degrees. You will (VERY) soon tire of movie makers limitations. what all the others do is give you a lot more ways to creativly turn your footage from the camcorder into a nicely watchable finished product. Also you can turn the footage into good quality mpeg files, video cd. dvds, quicktime or any no of video files with all the other software. You will certainly have to invest time to learn them and a decent spec pc to run them but you will be rewarded with a "polished" sleek video at the end of your efforts Why not try the time limited full version demos good luck
I just finished making my first movie with Premier Elements. I liked it, but if I left the program open and walked away from the computer for an hour or so it would crash on me. Luckily it didn't do this while rendering (as my 8min movie took over an hour to render). Nevertheless, this caused me to lose quite a bit of work when I forgot to save once. I'm still gonna get my free 30 days out of it, though
I know that Premiere has an autosave option and I would be surprised if Elements doesn't also have this feature.