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What's the Best Movie Making Software?
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abrogard
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26. February 2009 @ 01:41 |
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I would have thought it would be Adobe Premiere but I found it too complicated to handle, right up front where it asked about presets. I went to an Adobe forum and got laughed at and told I should get some professional equipment and the correct sort of data and get some education before I tried using such a wonderful piece of gear as Adobe.
What a bunch of whackers, I thought, and veered right off Adobe straightaway.
So now I use Nero when I want to make a movie.
ALL my movies are made from my little digital camera .avi files. I just want a few nice transitions now and then, the ability to cut and join, of course, and the ability to put in sound tracks here and there, play with the sound a bit.
They're just little things to burn to DVD and let the wife and kids see how smart I am and how amusing they are in their daily play.
That's all.
I like to put in some of the cellphone movies and stills, too.
And it should be as slick and easy as possible, of course, that's the point. Zoom up and down along the timeline or whatever, view what's happening, what you've made.
I've tried a couple of other things. Windows movie maker. Ulead movie maker. And even more.
But I haven't found a place I'm happy with yet.
So it is time I asked the experts.
What should I be using for my humble efforts?
Any clues?
regards,
ab :)
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Senior Member
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26. February 2009 @ 13:17 |
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You Might want to try Pinnacle's Studio 12. It's a Pay Program. It is almost like Nero, But with More Toys. You May Never be totally Happy with any 1 Program.
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Member
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26. February 2009 @ 13:33 |
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I consider myself a newbie in this area, but I have had good luck with Sony Vegas. Little bit of a learning curve, but despite going in blind, was eventually able to do everything I wanted to do with it within a total of about 5 hours over a couple of days.
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AfterDawn Addict
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26. February 2009 @ 14:26 |
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I use TMPGEnc Express and TMPG DVD Author. They are not free but have free trial editions.
I couldn't have asked for anything simpler.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 26. February 2009 @ 14:28
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Senior Member
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26. February 2009 @ 16:46 |
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You wont get much more simple and straight forward for jobs like this than Nero and I've tried everything mentioned except for TMPGEnc Express and TMPG DVD Author. Is there something you cant specifically do in Nero abrogard, that you wish you could? Nero wont read cellphone files but most the others dont either, you need to convert the file to something friendlier first.
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abrogard
Member
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26. February 2009 @ 20:21 |
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Thanks for all the suggestions, guys, I'll work through them.
I forget what first turned me off Nero so I went back there just now to check and I found that when I go into 'make movie' I can drag video clips (from the digital camera) into there and it'll open the first frame and show them, but it won't play them.
The marker moves across the slide as though it is playing them but the picture just stays there on the first frame, like a still.
So I don't know what I didn't like at first, but I do know what I don't like now.
Anyone got any idea what the cure for this is? Reinstall?
ab :)
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Member
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21. March 2009 @ 02:26 |
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Adobe Premiere Elements is quite good also.
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miafter
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15. April 2009 @ 02:47 |
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spam edited by ddp
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 15. April 2009 @ 14:43
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pachelbel
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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24. April 2009 @ 11:51 |
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hello everybody. this is gonna be my first posting :) im excited :D
@abrogard: as far as i can read out of ur posting, u r kind of beginner-advanced in video editing, right?
and i can fully understand ur problem :)...until now i almost used every single programm downloadable coz i was never really satisified..
what i can tell u is that i would recommend u: MAGIX Movie Edit Pro
im still usin' it and it is probably the best for u, as it has plenty of features and its easy to use (which is from capital importance ;))
i think they have trail versions on their website...i found a video too
check it if u like..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oMSKgeGPMs
bye bye
Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop to look around once in a while you could miss it. - Ferris Bueller
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abrogard
Member
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29. April 2009 @ 02:27 |
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Well thanks for that, pachelbel, I downloaded the trial and have begun trialling it.
It passed the first test, no problem. I fed it one of my cellphone movies - that's in .3gp format - and one of my canon digital camera movies - that's in canon's .avi format.
And I told it to string 'em together and make an avi file.
And it did. No problem. And I ran the .avi and it's cool.
So there's more testing to do but right there it's ahead of everything else I know about.
regards,
ab :)
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pachelbel
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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1. May 2009 @ 13:00 |
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good to here, that u like my recommendation :D. seriously, its a pretty cool tool..im happy with it.
Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop to look around once in a while you could miss it. - Ferris Bueller
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famemon78
Newbie
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29. July 2009 @ 17:38 |
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Ok here s a question on a related subject would anyone be willing to recommend a software thats great for DVD authoring and encoding. I dont like Nero anymore although i did use it for over 5 yrs admittedly :-) its just that i want to start making more professional looking menus like in the factory released original DVD's . or atleast something more flexible than nero. I tried Ulead DVD Movie factory 6 plus for quite a while. But it suddenly started malfunctioning in that it would still be at 4% after a whole nights encoding. I really enjoyed its menu making functions. Also i want something that allows me to put in subtitles for my avi's and what not. which nero doesnt allow u to do. Any suggestions would be welcome!
-F
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abrogard
Member
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30. July 2009 @ 17:21 |
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Try Magix.
:)
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famemon78
Newbie
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30. July 2009 @ 19:54 |
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Thanks Abrogard ,
I did try it a day or so ago but i got the feeling its more for video editing rather than encoding .. its not holiday vids i wanna edit neither do i wanna make home vids unto dvd's // i wanna encode tv episodes and movies onto dvds .. kind of what nero vision and ulead dvd movie factory is used for .. just with more menu making functions and the option to add subtitles. keep the suggestions coming though thanks!
-F
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AfterDawn Addict
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30. July 2009 @ 21:29 |
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My recommendation is the same:
I use TMPGEnc Express and TMPG DVD Author. They are not free but have free trial editions.
I couldn't have asked for anything simpler.
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varnull
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31. July 2009 @ 08:47 |
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editing and format conversion.. adjust framerate from different sources etc .. avidemux .. to build a dvd from the resulting mpeg .. dvd-author .. command line and very cool sleek and fast when you get the hang of it.. making menus is an artform tho, so not for beginners..
2 excellent freeware apps that all this payware seems to be built on top of.. especially the dvd-author engine. These take a little reading the wikis and experimenting to get the best from.. I make multi episode multi language disks with animated menus.. just by editing an xml file XD
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 31. July 2009 @ 08:49
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JaguarGod
Senior Member
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8. August 2009 @ 05:25 |
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@abrogard,
I tried Adobe Premiere Pro for the first time and it is rather daunting at first. It took me a good 30 minutes to figure out how to crop video :P It took me about an hour to get comfortable with it, but I still can't do anything other than the most basic editing.
From what I gather it is similar to Sony Vegas only Vegas is easier to pick up. I used to use Vegas a lot and I loved it. If you own the software, you might as well learn to use it. If not stick with what you like.
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varnull
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8. August 2009 @ 07:08 |
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I watch the boss edit wedding videos and the like with Magix .. I haven't used it.. looks a bit dodgy to me like most windoze payware... He gets good results.
The trial is probably worth a look.. if you like it pm me. I have a full one here unused and never registered. Came preinstalled on a vista media center pc XD
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 8. August 2009 @ 07:11
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abrogard
Member
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11. August 2009 @ 04:26 |
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I'd like to go the way you suggest, Varnull, with freeware or open source stuff, much my preferred option. But I think there's a bit of a learning curve isn't there? And maybe you've got to be a bit smarter than I am :( . Despite my lofty hopes and ambitions I always finish up taking the easy way out, just so's I can get something done now instead of next year.
that's why I gave up on Premiere, great though it is supposed to be. If it can't explain itself to me in half and hour ( half a minute? ) it's no use to me.
The experts devoted to such as Premiere always claim people such as I with that attitude are much in the wrong and culpably lazy and stupid and we really should get to night school and study or something.
But I reckon computing is about getting things done. The programmer does the worrying and writes a prog that hides all the hassles from you and enables you to do magic things. :)
Which actual dvd author prog are you referring to? And where do we get it?
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angelay
Junior Member
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11. August 2009 @ 21:40 |
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i'd recommend ulead dvdmoviefactory and womble mpeg video wizard dvd :D
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varnull
Suspended permanently
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12. August 2009 @ 00:04 |
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You can do basic cut/join type editing with avidemux .. it's so simple a 4 year old could do it... It works in exactly the same way I was taught back in the days of tape.
dvd-author is just that.. google it... it's command line..
as for the learning curve with open source freeware.. it's no different from anything else.. and because it's open source these applications have excellent documentation and user guides...
Don't be fooled by people who say "only payware works" .. because that's a huge lie and part of a conspiracy by fanboys and paid bloggers.. Open source software is written by people who want to do something and aren't happy with the paid things.. so it tends to work well.. even if it's sometimes a little odd or different.
The absolute best film making software out in the wild is cinelerra.. but you will have to dump windoze if you want to use it.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 12. August 2009 @ 00:09
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JaguarGod
Senior Member
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12. August 2009 @ 02:55 |
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Yeah, Open source software is awesome. I ditched office 2007 for Open Office... I took the money loss because it completely sucked. Other people swear by it, but I just can't stand the eye candy and limited control. The M$ software has some advantages when you get into more complex uses since it is taught in school but that's a familiarity issue.
With Payware vs Open Source it is usually not a matter of which software is better, but which software has more support. Photoshop has more resources and support than Gimp, therefore it is the Hollywood standard. Example, there are not schools that focus on teaching Gimp. Although there is a large community support for Open Source software, one will usually not get the type of skills required to do something professionally from this.
As for the Adobe people calling you lazy, they are defending something they spent a small fortune on. Also, based on my Adobe experience (other software), if you do give the software a chance, it is incredibly powerful. It just does not make sense for everyone to use it or learn to use it. If the software were free, I'd say go for it, but you are talking about $800. If you were just using a demo, then use something else. If you bought it, then maybe reconsider unless $800 is not that much to you. If I had bought it separately, then I would be spending a few weeks learning how to master the software, but since it came in a suite, I don't care. I'll eventually figure it out, but I do not do enough video editing to justify taking the time to use it (this can be referred to as laziness as well).
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