RichCowell Posted June 23, 2015 Posted June 23, 2015 Hi All, Looking for advice for video editing software... Need something more advanced than Movie Maker, but not as complex as After Effects (which I've got). I need to add a slideshow as a picture in picture (can obviously convert to images if not the actual slideshow) I'd also like to be able to edit the volume of the audio from the video - changing levels at different times throughout etc. If anyone can suggest solutions I'd be keen to hear... Only looking for one copy for myself, not a site licence or anything... Thanks, Rick
Steve21 Posted June 23, 2015 Posted June 23, 2015 Serif MoviePlus. That's what we use here. Out of curiosity any reason you choose that over Pinnacle? Need something to replace iMovie this year and was looking between Serif and Pinnacle. Thanks, Steve
localzuk Posted June 23, 2015 Posted June 23, 2015 We rolled out the full Serif suite here. MoviePlus is half the price of Pinnacle, even at retail prices. 2
Steve21 Posted June 23, 2015 Posted June 23, 2015 Ah ok hadn't had a look at the full suite Thank you. Steve 1
hallb15 Posted June 23, 2015 Posted June 23, 2015 I use Adobe Premiere Elements - its way better than movie maker and Pinnacle (at least it was but I haven't touched pinnacle for several years so it may have improved) Its more expensive than Serif though... 1
FragglePete Posted June 23, 2015 Posted June 23, 2015 Sony Movie Studio here - use it myself at home and well chuffed with it. They used to do really cheap site licenses for Schools but not so sure now. Pete
RichCowell Posted June 23, 2015 Author Posted June 23, 2015 Serif MoviePlus. That's what we use here. Thanks for that - I asked before even starting to look really... Seems cheap, and the Serif stuff I saw years ago seemed reasonable enough... Do you know if you can do the two things I mentioned on MoviePlus? I'll get it ordered today if so...
localzuk Posted June 23, 2015 Posted June 23, 2015 You can edit audio levels, as far as I know - you have complete control of the audio track (click the audio track, in properties choose "Show Keyframes". You then have a volume line and can add dots wherever you want and adjust the volume at that point). What do you mean picture in picture slideshow? 1
RichCowell Posted June 23, 2015 Author Posted June 23, 2015 What do you mean picture in picture slideshow? Got a video of someone speaking, and a slideshow she was running at the time, I'd like to have them both showing, so put the video of her speaking as a thumbnail over the slideshow movie...
howartp Posted June 23, 2015 Posted June 23, 2015 I use Adobe Premiere Elements - its way better than movie maker and Pinnacle (at least it was but I haven't touched pinnacle for several years so it may have improved) Its more expensive than Serif though... At home I ditched Pinnacle last year after years of hating it and it eventually crashing my project and having to start again (the save version wouldn't open). Now using Cyberlink Powerdirector and amazed at what I've been missing out on. At school, I'm monitoring this thread with interest - I've been asked to replace Movie Maker, but not sure what I'm going with yet. I use Serif Pageplus day-in, day-out at home and school so I'll certainly look at them. Peter
ITGURU Posted June 23, 2015 Posted June 23, 2015 We started out with Movie Maker, then went on to use Pinnacle, now we Use Premier Pro for video editing as have the CS6 suite. Pinnacle the easiest to use, if I remember it wasn't that expensive and did the basics you needed with titles/effects etc.
ass17 Posted June 23, 2015 Posted June 23, 2015 Adobe premiere elements is easy to use and not to expensive. I now use lightworks as its free, a bit more complicated but it's free!
dhicks Posted June 23, 2015 Posted June 23, 2015 If anyone can suggest solutions I'd be keen to hear... Only looking for one copy for myself, not a site licence or anything... At home and school for my own use I use Adobe Premier Elements - it's good value when bought as a stand-alone double-pack along with Photoshop Elements, and it covers most cases where I want to quickly throw together a DVD of some footage of an event or similar. I haven't tried doing the picture-within-a-picture thing with it, though, and for audio I'd tend to export the audio, process it with Audacity and re-import it. For a site-license for pupil use we went with Serif's suite - good value, although I don't think we've had a whole class try to do video editing all at the same time yet. At school we have also bought three full (academic) license for Adobe Creative Suite - around £20 a month per license at academic pricing, which really isn't bad if you are going to use all the features, and more and more the features they are adding automate the tedious bits of video editing, leaving you to concentrate on the interesting bits.
Oddbod Posted June 25, 2015 Posted June 25, 2015 Screenflow4. I used this for exactly what you're describing. Good for video podcasting and online tutorials too. iMovie / final cut x layout if you're used to those applications.
localzuk Posted June 25, 2015 Posted June 25, 2015 Got a video of someone speaking, and a slideshow she was running at the time, I'd like to have them both showing, so put the video of her speaking as a thumbnail over the slideshow movie... Ah, OK. Yes, that is possible. http://www.serif.com/appresources/MPX5/Tutorials/en-gb/tutorials/timeline_pip.htm 1
ChrisH Posted June 25, 2015 Posted June 25, 2015 I use Lightworks as well it only took me a day to get my head around it and I've never used anything more complicated than Movie Maker before.
RichCowell Posted June 26, 2015 Author Posted June 26, 2015 Ah, OK. Yes, that is possible. Picture in Picture Thanks :-) checking it out now...
PeterH Posted June 26, 2015 Posted June 26, 2015 I've always thought MoviePlus was the best of the Serif software. It's always done the job, easy to use and never had a problem with it. However it looks like it is being discontinued: https://community.serif.com/forum/movieplus/36571/movieplus-x7-and-mkv-files?page=1#answer147276 Really disappointed about that. MoviePlus X6 is still available, but I don't think has been updated for a few years now. So might have to start looking for something else for the future.
localzuk Posted June 26, 2015 Posted June 26, 2015 That really sucks. It's a great bit of software. We'll continue to use it until we find we can't i think! Then we'll be back here to find something new.
GRitchie Posted June 26, 2015 Posted June 26, 2015 I've always used Premiere/AE for editing. If you're wanting to create a photo slideshow, try (old but good) Microsoft PhotoStory? Download Microsoft Photo Story 3 for Windows XP from Official Microsoft Download Center Old-school XP program, but still good!
RichCowell Posted June 26, 2015 Author Posted June 26, 2015 I've always used Premiere/AE for editing. If you're wanting to create a photo slideshow, try (old but good) Microsoft PhotoStory? Download Microsoft Photo Story 3 for Windows XP from Official Microsoft Download Center Old-school XP program, but still good! Thanks... It's not a slideshow I need to create... I've got After Effects and Premier Pro so will check them out in more detail... I was hoping to find something simpler / quicker to use for a fairly simple project... I'll be checking Movie Plus out too as it sounds like that's what I need for now, hopefully there'll be a similar alternative out by the time that's no longer compatible with everything...
dhicks Posted June 27, 2015 Posted June 27, 2015 I've got After Effects and Premier Pro so will check them out in more detail... I was hoping to find something simpler / quicker to use for a fairly simple project... It's worth persevering with Premiere, especially if you have a Creative Cloud subscription and get the latest upgrades. Premier seems to be heading down the route of automating common tasks - the more I use it, the more I get used to the way it works and find I don't actually have to do very much to get a decent video.
WebBot Posted June 29, 2015 Posted June 29, 2015 Has anyone any experience with Corel Videostudio? Video Software - VideoStudio X8 Family We've got Premiere Pro CC and I love it, but it's too pricey for site-wide or even a classroom. I also have a copy of Premiere Elements and found it really frustrating to edit with. I had a copy of Pinnacle 10+ years ago and it was terrible (crashy and glitchy) and the Amazon reviews for the latest version suggest it's no better. The Amazon reviews for Corel seemed pretty decent though. So, back to my original question - Has anyone used this?
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