hello,

computer = pc /xp

video editing / production software is unknown territory to me...
The research I've done so far has narrowed it down...
So, without opening a big can of worms, which is better for youtube posts & generally creating music videos ...

Video Studio [version] ?

Vegas [version] ?

Media Studio [version] ?

Other ?

p.s. _ I Do NOT like Adobe products, so am looking at the "alternatives"


.

Which is "better" is often a case of personal taste/workflow, so long as the products meet your requirements.
You may be into a couple of weeks of heavy learnning - most products have a free fully functional time-knackered trial available for download.

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Tim

Thanks for the reply...
Yes, I'm ready for the learning curve

What do you use ?

I use Vegas 8 Pro. I started with Vegas Movie Studio Platinum v6 and can thoroughly recommend the current version.

Prior to that I used Pinnacle Studio (v9) which was/is a great program - very intuitive - hailed by many as the easiest to get into. Sadly, it was let down by major stability problems and like many others I jumped ship.

Vegas Movie Studio IS limited compared to Pro, but it's very well featured compared to the competition. I could probably do 95%+ of my editing on VMS. How often do you really need more than 4 video tracks and 4 audio tracks? How useful will you find scrpting? Do you need Velocity Envelopes or Secondary Colour Correction? All useful and desirable facilities, but until you're sure Vegas is the product for you I recommend you start with VMS.

If you play with the demo and like Vegas, I'd suggest buying VMS(Platinum) as it's a comparatively small outlay. If you grow with it and really like it you can upgrade to Pro later and it won't have cost you very much more than if you's simply purchased Pro in the first place.

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Tim

Vegas everytime - 4 tracks is enough for most most of the time as Tim says.

The buggust plus for me with vegas is that the program is very atable and can chew up most things on the timeline. And I think it is just nicer to use.

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I have two prejudices - I am anti HDV for consumer camcorders, and I eat mooks who claim to be pro wedding vidders and ask dumb questions.

www.zaskarfilms.com You tube channel 'zaskarfilms'
JVC DV5001e (big cam), Sony PC6E (tiny cam), Vinten pro5, PAG light, SM58, Sony ECM50, Sony C-76, 0.5x convertors for sony, Rode video mic, Vegas 7.

...Appreciate the replies...

this info does help indeed

...do you guys do this for a living ?

As i mentioned in earlier post, I'm familiar with audio editing software - I use the most under-rated audio production software Cool Edit Pro 2.1 ...

But this video stuff is a different animal.

Also... I assume your boxes have lots of memory & horsepower

Not I. Just an enthusiastic incompetent with a desire to figure out how to do things.

CPU & RAM not by today's standards (Core 2 Duo 6600 & 2GB)
Hard disk space - never enough (1 x 400GB system/programs 2 x 400GB striped for data, 500GB external USB for backup)

Perfectly adequate although rendering a 30 sec avi comprising 26 video tracks and 25 audio tracks lasting 30 secs took 1.5 hours the other day (it was a 5 x 5 video wall experiment, what did I expect?)

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Tim