best video editing software for year 6

[rocknrollstar]

Hi, following my earlier post on a video editing PC, does anyone recommend any video editing software with a good trade off between ease of use and features? Aimed at older primary school children / non-techie teachers.

 

We want more then Movie Maker, partly because we have several Sony hard disk cameras, which record in MPEG2 format, and Movie Maker doesn't like it. (I hate having to transcode it, which I have done, but it takes too long to make it feasible in a primary school). So a big requirement of the software is that it has to take MPEG2 videos as input.

 

Initial thoughts: Adobe Premiere Elements, Sony Vegas, Serif Movie Plus.

 

Thanks for your suggestions.

[kmount]

Serif Movie Plus is lovely software, well worth a go if it does your MPEG2 bit.

[kesomir]

I know some people swear by vegas, but personally, I prefer premiere.

 

For a year 6 class, elements should be fine.

[rocknrollstar]

Awsome, thanks

[Ric_]

If funds are tight, Avidemux might do swhat you want - Avidemux - Main Page - open source and cross platform.

[dhicks]

So a big requirement of the software is that it has to take MPEG2 videos as input.

 

Which Adobe Premier Elements doesn't:

 

PC Pro: Product Reviews: Adobe Premiere Elements 4

 

Our first real surprise came when we tried to use the Adobe Media Downloader to pull video files off the AVCHD-based Sony HDR-SR8E camcorder. Despite AVCHD having been around for more than a year, and fast becoming the new consumer HD camcorder standard, Adobe has missed it out of two successive versions of Premiere Elements. Even MPEG transport stream files didn't work, so HDV remains your only option when shooting HD video.

 

--

David Hicks

[marekbrad]

Ulead Video Studio 11 (now Video Studio Pro X2)is a good buy at the moment and works very well with Sony and other HD based cameras. We use it at one of our CLC's with pupils from Y3 - Y11

 

VideoStudio 11 -

 

or from Pugh

[laserblazer]

Which Adobe Premier Elements doesn't:

 

PC Pro: Product Reviews: Adobe Premiere Elements 4

 

 

 

--

David Hicks

 

 

The latest Premiere Elements (7 I think) supports MPEG2 and AVCHD.

[lovelldr]

How about pinnacle studio?

 

I know it can be used quite simply on the ultimate version (which I've seen around for £70 a copy), so maybe the lower versions will have everything you will need? ALso, have seen that version 11 can be had for £20 for the standard version from their website...

[laserblazer]

Pinnacle can be very flakey. I don't know about the latest version but certainly some of the recent ones have been a right can of worms.

[jmcdermott]

Kino on ubuntu is a nice small and easy to use linux video ed program, will output to nearly any format as well.

[Jobos]

Pinnacle can be very flakey.

 

I think I would use stronger words than that! I've just bought pinnacle studio ultimate for my computer at home. It might be because I'm running Vista but what a waste of money! Crash, crash crash

[laserblazer]

It's been like that since v8 I think. Are you aware that you probably qualify for Adobe education pricing which makes Elements very competitive.?

[Jobos]

It's been like that since v8 I think. Are you aware that you probably qualify for Adobe education pricing which makes Elements very competitive.?

 

Thanks I didn't know that. Here's the link to Adobe's education site.

 

Adobe.com Site Requirements

Edited September 23, 2008 by Jobos

[dhicks]

The latest Premiere Elements (7 I think) supports MPEG2 and AVCHD.

 

Oh yea:

 

Premiere Elements 7 preview: Finally, AVCHD | Crave, the gadget blog - CNET

 

Drat, only bought the previous version (which I could have sworn was v4...) a little while ago.

 

Edit: buyers note that v7 isn't actually out until the end of September - check the version before you buy.

 

--

David Hicks

Edited September 22, 2008 by dhicks

[laserblazer]

A friend of mine in the trade is about to review it. I'll post a link when he done it.

[markwilliamson2001]

I would go with Serif Movie Plus as well, very easy to deploy, (in version 5 I think we have), and easy to import and use video. The only issue I had with it was the audio codecs which our Sony camcorder used, but I managed to find K-Lite codec pack, which I deployed using a startup script. This was free, and was very easy to do.

 

If anyone wants anymore help, please ask.

 

Thanks

Mark

[mrbios]

Premiere elements is up to version 7?!? damn.....we're still using version 2.0!

[diagram]

You can get trial versions for most of these progs.

 

We ended up using Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum edition.

 

I'm told it will use all 4 cores if you are rendering to DVD. It has never crashed on me, which is more than I can say for Pinnacle and Ulead.