# Video editing



## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

My fiance just picked up a video camera (Canon ZR100) and we had some fun filming her cats and making a little video using Microsoft Movie Maker.

Well, Movie Maker does not seem that good to me and I wondered if there was anything better, that was free. I tried searching for Open Source products but the only one I found did not work well. Any better editors out there?

Also, what can I use to save my new videos to play in a DVD player? I have a DVD/R drive in my computer, firewire, USB and an Svideo output that I can connect to my TV. Windows Movie Maker only seems to save in WMV which is not compatible with most players and AVI which is a huge file.


----------



## Pseud (Oct 19, 2005)

I have a canon ZR85 and it came with free with software, 'pinnacle studio' (It's only SE (student edition), so some of the features are locked (like picture in picture), which sucks, but I can't justify the 60 bucks to unlock it). Anyway.. this may be beside the point, but if your camera came with this software but you have to send off for it, definitely do it. The program is VERY quick and simple to use, very user friendly.

As for other options.. I dunno. Sorry!


----------



## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

I use Adobe Premier for video editing. I've also used Vegas Video. Both are mid-level apps and retail in the $500 range.

Whatever software you use, editing video for burning to DVD is a slow process. If you don't need to do a lot of editing it's much simpler (and faster) to buy yourself a comsumer DVD recorder with a Firewire input and burn DVDs directly off your camcorder.


----------



## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Congrats Dennis!
We have the Canon Elura 70, and it came the the Pinnacle Hollywood FX 5 version software. It can do a lot, but as with everything, it takes some studying and trial and error. As for free software, it's probably hard to find a good program, if your camcorder didn't come with it (aside from trial versions).

As for saving it, as Bill already stated, it's easiest to get a DVD recorder and do it directly from there. Trying to save them on your computer is a huge load if you don't have to do it.

Otherwise, get yourself a bunch of mini dv tapes, and save them there.


----------



## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Thanks for the input all. I will look around for those programs, if they came with your camcorders I could probably find them on Canon's site or something. We definately can't spend much more money right now so a recorder is out


----------



## scitz (Mar 16, 2004)

Dennis, the "uncompressed" (as compared to say wmv) mpeg-2 format that DVD's require are going to be huge.

A normal retail movie DVD is packed with ~8 gigabytes of data. Any sort of video editing or DVD creation is going to require quite a bit of hard drive space. When I make archive DVD's with favorite downloaded movie clips, where I may only be shaving off credits or black sections in order to cram as much onto a DVD as possible, I eat up around 10gigs of data.

Most commercial video editing programs offer a free "trial" or "shareware" edition. You might check out some software companys' websites. Make sure to check what features got left out of the trial edition. Sometimes you get a time limited app (stops working after 30days), sometimes you get a "lite" version (can only make a 5 min movie, or can't save to standardized files like mpeg or .mov) and sometimes you get both (can't save, stops working in 30 days).

Also, if you have bought a new pc or videocard in the last 3-4 years, your driver disks may include video editing programs. I know the InterVideo, makers of the WinDVD dvd player app also make a dvd creation app which gets bundled with most editions of their WinDVD software. WinDVD is pretty commonly bundled with videocards or DVDr drives.


----------



## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Wal-Mart sells an "off-brand" DVD recorder for $98. It even comes with Firewire input. I was about to get one to try out but it only reads/writes DVD +R, and I prefer to buy stuff that are +/- compatible.

But for $98 it might be an option for you.


----------

