What are y'all using for video editing software? Think I'll finally look into buying something (in the $100 or so ballpark) again after just getting by w/ Microsoft's free stuff for a while. There seems to be so many choices at this consumer level though w/ Adobe Premiere Elements being one (on the very cheap end when bundled along w/ Photoshop Elements w/ PC purchase). I used to consider going for a several hundred dollar software-plus-hardware NLE bundle back in the pre-digital, MJPEG days, but seems like maybe $100-150 on just software (running on a recent machine) should do the trick for me nowadays.
And yeah, I plan on ordering a Dell XPS 8700 today or tomorrow (at the latest) -- and they include what seems like the most basic get-your-feet-wet editor in their lite(?) version of the Cyberlink suite, which I suppose could be upgraded to Cyberlink's full version editor perhaps... plus they offer the Adobe Elements bundle for just $50.
I'm not looking to do very fancy looking stuff (though maybe good pan-and-zoom capability, if possible, would be a big plus on top of the usual suspects), but mainly looking to produce enjoyable, highly watchable "home movies" -- majority of them will be simple videos of the kids in music recitals that will go on YouTube/Facebook and maybe burn an occasional DVD for such.
One problem I had w/ Microsoft's free Movie Maker is it seems to seriously darken the video on output -- 1080p source footage from Nikon D5100 encoded to 480p in WMV format at 1.5-2.5Mbps. I tried countering the darkening effect w/ their crude brightness setting, but that tends to make the video much more contrasty and alters color quality (like over-applying an S curve) and tends to crush black level (and kill all shadow detail) -- that and the video can still look pretty pixelated and/or filled-with-digital-noise particularly around small objects/details at 2.5Mbps. Hopefully, the former won't be a problem w/ the paid consumer level software (and the latter issue is at least reduced).
And yeah, I could probably use new photo editing software too, but not sure I should really get LR 5 (for $100) bundled w/ the PC purchase -- LR 5 probably doesn't do everything I'd like to be able to do though it probably does the trick most times, and maybe I could still fall back on my ancient Photoshop CS1 for very sporadic need of layers and such. Only reason to mention this at all here is my consideration of the Adobe Elements bundle for $50, but maybe that shouldn't matter at all.
Thanks for any help on this...
_Man_
And yeah, I plan on ordering a Dell XPS 8700 today or tomorrow (at the latest) -- and they include what seems like the most basic get-your-feet-wet editor in their lite(?) version of the Cyberlink suite, which I suppose could be upgraded to Cyberlink's full version editor perhaps... plus they offer the Adobe Elements bundle for just $50.
I'm not looking to do very fancy looking stuff (though maybe good pan-and-zoom capability, if possible, would be a big plus on top of the usual suspects), but mainly looking to produce enjoyable, highly watchable "home movies" -- majority of them will be simple videos of the kids in music recitals that will go on YouTube/Facebook and maybe burn an occasional DVD for such.
One problem I had w/ Microsoft's free Movie Maker is it seems to seriously darken the video on output -- 1080p source footage from Nikon D5100 encoded to 480p in WMV format at 1.5-2.5Mbps. I tried countering the darkening effect w/ their crude brightness setting, but that tends to make the video much more contrasty and alters color quality (like over-applying an S curve) and tends to crush black level (and kill all shadow detail) -- that and the video can still look pretty pixelated and/or filled-with-digital-noise particularly around small objects/details at 2.5Mbps. Hopefully, the former won't be a problem w/ the paid consumer level software (and the latter issue is at least reduced).
And yeah, I could probably use new photo editing software too, but not sure I should really get LR 5 (for $100) bundled w/ the PC purchase -- LR 5 probably doesn't do everything I'd like to be able to do though it probably does the trick most times, and maybe I could still fall back on my ancient Photoshop CS1 for very sporadic need of layers and such. Only reason to mention this at all here is my consideration of the Adobe Elements bundle for $50, but maybe that shouldn't matter at all.
Thanks for any help on this...
_Man_
_Man_Sent via HTF mobile app
