Video Editing Software

Dronebow · Jul 16, 2015

What are you guys using to edit video? I'm wanting something low cost or free, Mac or PC. I have Pinnacle Studios but it's very slow even on a fast system. I've been told Final Cut Pro is good but it's only free for 30 days. Premier is also great software but again, it's expensive.

So wondering what you other folks use where budget is a real concern.

DrewFlies · Jul 16, 2015

Dronebow said:
What are you guys using to edit video? I'm wanting something low cost or free, Mac or PC. I have Pinnacle Studios but it's very slow even on a fast system. I've been told Final Cut Pro is good but it's only free for 30 days. Premier is also great software but again, it's expensive.

So wondering what you other folks use where budget is a real concern.

You get what you pay for. Premiere pro has satisfied me for the past 10 years. With after effects helping along the way. Now its actually cheap. I paid $1,600 for my cs6 master collection. All you have to do is pay $50 a month and you get the entire adobe collection. If you just do this for a hobby and dont really care about professionalism, coloring and capabilties than just use iMovie. If Im not mistaken its free on Apple Computers and if its not free anymore its no more than $50.

madgitty · Jul 16, 2015

Same here, premiere pro, very good stable, look on eBay for an old version and upgrade, a lot cheaper

apsphoto · Jul 16, 2015

I use premiere pro, but it is expensive. You can also use the free GoPro Studio, it will even edit 4K video, just convert your videos on the first screen, which is putting it in the cineform(lossless) codec and then edit on the next screens. All free and it does not have to be footage from a GoPro. Also there is Vegas by Sony Software. If you are doing this for fun, then either of those can work. Any software will have a significant learning curve.

Alan

spankybear · Jul 16, 2015

I am using Powerdirector 13 and I am liking it... For the price it's good

msinger · Jul 16, 2015

Windows Movie Maker works well on Windows if you just need something with very basic editing features.

SteelGator · Jul 16, 2015

DrewFlies said:
You get what you pay for. Premiere pro has satisfied me for the past 10 years. With after effects helping along the way. Now its actually cheap. I paid $1,600 for my cs6 master collection. All you have to do is pay $50 a month and you get the entire adobe collection. If you just do this for a hobby and dont really care about professionalism, coloring and capabilties than just use iMovie. If Im not mistaken its free on Apple Computers and if its not free anymore its no more than $50.

There is also the photography deal from adobe which is ~$10 per month. It does not include Premiere, but it does include LightRoom and Photoshop. LR is great for quick edits on your stills and Photoshop, while not Premiere, will do a decent job with video.

snerd · Jul 16, 2015

I'm using Cyberlink Power Director 13. Still learning it, though. Will probably buy the Color Director they offer for grading my videos shot in Log mode.

Ash · Jul 16, 2015

Hi. I have tried many and I have purchased Nero video 15. I have to say I just keep reverting to windows movie maker. Its fast, straight to the point, yes a little basic but if you look at many vids on the tube they are very basic. Windows Movie for me. Thanks

shipdriver · Jul 16, 2015

I use Première Pro as part of the Creative Cloud subscription. I have the student version so it is every Adobe app for the price of 4 coffees at Starbucks each month and you always have the most up-to-date version. For color correction and grading, I mainly use the Three-way Color Correction effect inside Première Pro.

2k3sgm · Jul 16, 2015

another vote for the free GoPro app

PaulsyPaul · Jul 16, 2015

I got Cyberlink PowerDirector 13 a couple of weeks ago and am loving it.

Gregg Smith · Jul 16, 2015

I have both IMovie and Final Cut Pro X. They both work well if you have a Mac. IMovie is free with OSX and does a great job. If you want more flexibility and additional options for plugins the Final Cut Pro is the way to between these two. You can do a search on YouTube for FC vs Premiere to see the differences. I like both and chose FCP because it was less than $300 and I will get free upgrades down the road. The per month fees sound good but if you add them up it doesn't take long before you've surpassed the cost of FCP. You need to have a Mac. So that may limit you to what you can get. With FCP having a beefy system is very advantageous due to the large 4k files unless you shoot in lower resolution. Editing is usually ok by rendering for upload to YouTube for example can take a long time.

Bigdz · Jul 16, 2015

Adobe Premiere Elements 13
Adobe elements photoshop
Prodrenlin 10

I Did the trail with premiere pro just couldn't justify paying monthly when I have the licensing for the list mentioned above.

Plus just hobby... I'd say get what's compatible and cost effective.

TimBarnhart · Jul 16, 2015

I live by premiere pro, it works well and is very feature rich

Farmer · Jul 17, 2015

2k3sgm said:
another vote for the free GoPro app

I would like to use the gopro editor - BUT gopro wont allow you to trim MOV files.
Which way do you go A.change settings in P3 app to save mov files different format (i dont know if thats possible)
OR convert them to Mp4 another way?
I ask also, as for which method will lessen video quality.

Thanks

jcknows0 · Jul 18, 2015

Farmer said:
I would like to use the gopro editor - BUT gopro wont allow you to trim MOV files.
Which way do you go A.change settings in P3 app to save mov files different format (i dont know if thats possible)
OR convert them to Mp4 another way?
I ask also, as for which method will lessen video quality.

Thanks

If you are just looking for a free lite editor, davinci resolve lite is good. I would leave sweet I on MOV if possible. Gopro software is good at one thing, removing fisheye and decompressing and encoding to cine form (10bit 4k) beyond that it's too basic to make a primary NLE.

jcknows0 · Jul 18, 2015

Gregg Smith said:
I have both IMovie and Final Cut Pro X. They both work well if you have a Mac. IMovie is free with OSX and does a great job. If you want more flexibility and additional options for plugins the Final Cut Pro is the way to between these two. You can do a search on YouTube for FC vs Premiere to see the differences. I like both and chose FCP because it was less than $300 and I will get free upgrades down the road. The per month fees sound good but if you add them up it doesn't take long before you've surpassed the cost of FCP. You need to have a Mac. So that may limit you to what you can get. With FCP having a beefy system is very advantageous due to the large 4k files unless you shoot in lower resolution. Editing is usually ok by rendering for upload to YouTube for example can take a long time.

I would recommend hackintosh at least until they put out an affordable Mac that can do 4k editing. Right now the cheapest option is actually a laptop (2014 15 mbp with Nvidia or newer)