Video Editing Software

Hey guys! Earlier this summer you may remember me posting about what kind of video camera to get, and that deal is done. Awhile back I bought myself a Sony DCR TRV-33. It's very nice and has suited me well. Now that I have the camera, I'm looking for software that I need for my computer. Now, my computer does not have that much hard drive left on it, so my initial plan was to get an external hard drive. So here are my questions:
- How much space will I need the external hard drive to have?
- Does the quality of the firewire card matter? Whats the difference between a 100$ and a 40$ card?
- What is a good editing program that is simple and fairly cheap?

I've got some ideas myself on what I need, but basically I want some more feedback. And not just from the people at the stores. People who'v actually used them.

Thanks again!

Charlie Weingartner

How much money are willing to spend?
At my school I work in a tv production class and the programs I use for editing is final cut pro and premiere. I don't have a camera, I use the ones at school. They are cannon XL1

A 40 gig hard drive should be plenty to edit with.

I've had no problems with my $40 8-port Firewire/USB 2.0 combo card. Just poke around Ebay, and you'll find something reasonable.

Windows XP has a video editor built into it, so essentially it's cheap, but it's very restrictive. On the other end of the spectrum, there's Adobe Premiere, which is very good, but isn't cheap by any means. It's really one of those things where you get what you pay for.

For a good combination of ease of use, affordibility, and features I'd recommend Pinnacle Studio (version 7 or higher). I've used it and it's great.

After looking at some of the hard drives on CompUSA.com, some of the hard drices have the Firewire port connectors. For Example:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=50336371&pfp=BROWSE

Do I need to get a hard drive that has these port connectors? Or what do I need in order to hook it up externally to my comp now?

Edit: If I get one with the Firewire port, do I need to get a card, too?

Charlie *** Edited 11/16/2003 7:05:20 AM UTC by Darth Saambe***

I would recommend on getting a HD of at least 40 gigs. If you've shot alot of video then you should probably get a larger one.

I also use Adobe Premier for video editing. It's not that cheap plus it has a steep learning curve. If you're looking for something simple, Ulead's video studio is nice,and fairly intuitive, but it limits you to simple effects.

If you plan on making any DVDs from your videos, I would recommend DVD-lab. It has the best combination of price(about $99), features (it's close to being a professional tool), and ease of use (It's not as easy as using some other programs comprably priced programs, but for all the features you get it's good).

Why not get a second internal hard drive and set it up as a slave drive? They're really cheap. I just scored a 120GB drive for $79 (after rebates) - it was still only $159 out of pocket.

As far as software, I'm a fan of the Sonic Foundry Products. (Sony just bought them, so I guess they're Sony products now) *** Edited 11/16/2003 9:46:58 AM UTC by Lord Gonchar***

Avoid Rebates and stuff. Look around online and see what you can find. Newegg.com had drives on sale recently. You can find 120 gig HD's for around $88 with free shipping.

Just use windows movie maker for editing, it comes with windows and its easy to use.

I've used Pinnacle Studio 8 and Adobe Premiere 6.5 for editing. Adobe Premiere is a little harder to learn but it has some nice effects. Studio is really simple to learn and you can make good movies with it. If you have no knowledge about editing I would start with Studio 8. *** Edited 11/16/2003 3:27:19 PM UTC by SFgadvMAN***

Lord Gonchar, how do you set it up as a slave? Is there anything I would need with it?

...or if you have dual processors (which I'm sure you don't) and had a couple grand's worth of dollar bills sprouting from a backyard tree, you could edit using Avid (the best and propably the most difficult to use, we have 2 at my college). Anyway Premier is awesome to use (I don't have a mac but if you do then I suggest Final Cut, which is an outragious ripoff of Premier)......I agree that 40 gigs is enough, I have 80 gigs and its utterly ridiculous....

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PKIEMPSOB said:
Avoid Rebates and stuff...Newegg.com had drives on sale recently. You can find 120 gig HD's for around $88 with free shipping.

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Yeah, Newegg is always the first place to check (I even link to them on coasterimage) - but the exact drive I got for $79 (after rebates) was $107 at Newegg at the time. It's now down to $97. I don't mind rebates - I get nice little checks in the mail later.

Darth Saambe, All you need to add a second internal drive is a open IDE channel. I'd be willing to bet you have one. You will have to open your PC up, so if you're uncomfortable with that, it may be better to go external.

There's nothing wrong with rebates. I really like the Office Max system in particular because you can track the things online. Got a $50 rebate for a 120 gig Maxtor drive in less than three weeks.

FireWire cards are mostly the same, mostly based on the same Texas Instruments chip, which is compatible with most cameras and most software. I had a bad experience with Pinnacle crap in the past and their support at the time was also crap (this was circa 1998 mind you).

If you think you might ever get serious about editing video and do it frequently, I can't even begin to describe how valuable Avid's Xpress DV is. Yeah, it's hundreds of dollars, but you're dealing with most of the same feature set and interface used to edit 95% of the feature films made today. It's the most elegant tool of its kind.

Jeff's right. Avid DV is a step above everything else. I used Premiere for years and woudln't go back to it for the world.

40GBs might be enough now, but with prices the way they are, go as big as you can afford. My sister scored a 200GB drive for 150 bucks after rebate. The video feed from your camera runs about 1GB every 4 or 5 minutes, and for any substantial movie, you're going to shoot much more than you actually use.

-seth

As far as video editing software goes, I'd recommend you look into Vegas(recently purchase by Sony from Sonic Foundry). Although it doesn't have the name recognition as the other programs mentioned, it's a rock-solid performer with a very intuitive interface.

I'm also on the Newegg.com bandwagon as far as the place to go to purchase computer equipment.

I love Vegas as it's very easy to use, but if Vegas cost too much for you then go with Sony's Screenblast Movie Studio. It's got the same look and feel of Vegas and only cost 99.00

http://www.screenblast.com/main/content/index.jsp?name=software_main&menuPath=%2Fsoftware%2Findex.jsp

Anyone ever tried to build their own computer? I've been thinking about doing that as well.

I built all of my own. Is there another way? :)

Yes Jeff, there is another way. My way...the lazy way...Let someone else build it. ;) One of these days I will build my own pc.

But as someone thinking about the future of possibly making videos and will problably get Avid when I am ready to go that route. Just based on the reputation.