That software is great! It is what I used until I bought Avid Xpress Pro.

Matthew Sconce

Hey Jawakings. I would have to agree with msconce, Avid Xpress Pro is great for video editing but the only problem I see with Avid is that you need a more than decent computer to run Avid. You should post your current systems specs on your next post...that would help. I personally use Sony Vegas, it's easy to use, user and computer friendly and it has everything you need. Try downloading a demo somewhere and give it a try, I'm sure you'll like it.

Is there a PC equivalent of iMovie for Mac? That is such a great program and it's free.

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

Thanks alot for the feedback. I did look like a really great program. I will buy it as soon as I can get the money. Well the specs for my comp hmm. I am running a Dell Deminson with Windows XP and a Pentium 4 processor. I have a 50 gb hard drive and I am not sure on the ram. I know it's not the best comp but I can't buy one of my own. I will someday when I am older. What is this Imovie software. It's free? Again thatnks so much for the feedback. You guys are great!

Film: Imagintaion becomes reality.

Hello again Jawaking, sounds like you're going to buy a very good computer. Just make sure you buy hardddrives over 80gb's (7200rpm) for good video editing experience. I would recommend editing with your current computer with Sony Vegas 5.0. Version 6.0 requires a little more horse power to run nicely, so stick with Sony Vegas 5.0. Practice as much as you can, downloading free (legal) videos and make your own trailers or music videos...that helps a lot. Oh by the way, visit the FAQ section on this site, it's incredibly usefull.

Thanks so much again. Yes the faq is really helpful. I have read just about everything I am so into doing the best I can in my films. Also I was considering getting an external hard drive. I saw a nice 250 gb one on circut city.com. I think it would be good because I will have all my footage on one hard drive and when I go to my friends house I can easily just plug it in to cut our footage together. Do you think an external hard drive would be much better? Also I am getting a Sony Mini DV forgot what model. In the faq I read the Mini DV takes 200 mb a minute. Thats another reason I would like an external so I don't eat up my memory on my computer. Thanks again for the help.

Film: Imagintaion becomes reality.

Hello everyone! I'm firends with Jawaking 1138. We make our movies together. I saw that you told him a good program to use on his computer so I am going to tell you my specs and I would really appriciate it if you could tell me a good software. Ok so I'm runnig a Dell Dimension 8400 with a Pentium 4 processor. Ive got a 160 GB hard drive and 1 GB of RAM. The camcorder I use is the Sony Handycam DCR-HC21, although I don't know If you need to know that.
Thank You all so much!

Hello MovieMan, I would recommend using Sony Vegas 5.0 or better yet, version 6.0. Those specs can easily give you some good editing experience when it comes to Vegas 6.0. Although it would be a good idea to download both Avid Xpress Pro and Sony Vegas demos and pick the one you feel more comfortable with. I personally feel Vegas is easier for me to use.

I am also looking at which editing software I am going to use. I have a Powerbook, which would limit me to either Final Cut Pro or Avid Xpress Pro. But I am considering buying an additional PC (Windows based) for my editing. Why not another Apple? Because they are really expensive. If i want an Apple, with a good graphics card, two harddisks in SATA RAID configuration, and 1 - 2 Gigabyte of memory, I am looking at $2000. For a similair Windows PC, from Dell for example, I am looking at $1300 or something in that range.

I think that is a huge difference. And I am not convinced that although Mac's are better in video editing in general, there will be a big difference in the two configurations. Furthermore, unless I buy a Powermac (which in my configuration would be like $2400), my options for future updates (like harddisk, another graphics card) are limited.

But to come back to my story, I am currently considering Final Cut Pro, Avid Xpress Pro and Sony Vegas. Avid Xpress Pro has the best cards for me, as it runs on both a Windows and Macintosch computer, and it is also the industry standard (80% of all professional film is said to be edited with Avid software and hardware).

What do you guys think?

"Revenge is a dish best served cold."

Personally I went for Avid Xpress Pro HD, and it does everything I want to do: but quite a few people seem to like Vegas.

Yeah, I'm a cheap bastard and I tried to get a burned copy of Adobe Premier 6.0, needless to say it didn't work properly, but while it was working I got a little taste of what it could do. Now that I'm looking at legally purchasing some software vegas does seem like a really good deal, I think I saw a Vegas software bundle for like $500 or something, but what I'm curious about is whether or not it's on the same level as premier, I really don't want to shell out $500 dollars on something that will need to be replaced to do quality work. I'd rather just go for what I can use permanently if my computer can handle it.

Comp Specs

one 60 GB hard drive/seperate partitioned 60 gb hard drive(30/30)for everything film related

512 GB of RAM (soon to be 1 GB)

2.7 Gig AMD (Athlon I think)

on the comp specs make that the unpartitioned hard drive the one strictly for editing. it's been a long day.

I've always liked Premiere Pro and After Effects. Of course that's all I've ever used so I'm not much help when it comes to other programs.

An external hard drive is great. However, I've heard of a few people who have had trouble capturing video directly to the external (it's not fast enough). If you have problems export the video to your internal hard drive (make sure it's 7200) and then transfer the video to the external hard drive.

--QD Jones

I've been on the Mac side of things for about a year now (I use Final Cut and love it), but my favorite back when I was editing on PC was Adobe Premiere (I've never used Premiere Pro, just Premiere 5/6). I also used Vegas and thought it was decent, but I didn't like the interface as much as Premiere. I guess it just depends on what you learn first.

If you want free, the only Windows options I know are Windows Movie Maker (terrible?worse that iMovie. NEVER use these programs if you plan on moving up to a higher-level program in the future, as their interface is TOTALLY out of line with every other editing program in the known universe) and Avid Free DV, which is kind of a step up from that, with the downside that it uses Avid's patented incomprehensible interface with about five thousand buttons that all look exactly the same. As I recall, there's also an open-source editing program that looked promising but still a bit unstable back when I looked into it a year or two ago, although the name escapes me.