Hi All,

Now I've got a jucy laptop, I thought I'd try my hand at video editing.

Basically, I've got a Digital video camera with firewire and S-Video outputs and a TV with an S-Video output and it would be nice to capture content off both (especially he former) and be able to fiddle with it.

Can anyone suggest a good, inexpensive starter package and the appropriate leads?

Many thanks,

Ns04

 

Firewire cable and a Mac or one of those PC things with Windows XP or Vista.

 

I've just started using Windows movie maker which is included with XP, seems quite easy to use after the initial WTF do i do i did this with it, nothing special but it was my first attempts

tunnel run

Same tunnel run but with music

Firewire cable you should be able to get from Maplins or PC world

 

If you're using XP you've got Movie Maker, which is basic but will suffice for many:

Windows XP: Create great movies

Otherwise there are many for beginners to fit your budget, such as . . .

PowerDirector
ShowBiz DVD
VideoStudio
Premiere Elements
Easy Media Creator
Pinnacle Studio Plus
WinDVD Creator
Nero
Vegas Movie Studio DVD
DVD Movie Factory
PowerProducer
MoviePlus
Muvee Auto Producer
VideoWave
MyDVD Studio
Digital Studio

Video Editing Software Review 2007

 

I'd avoid Pinnacle studio like the plague. It's bug ridden and the tech support is terrible. Likewise with Easy media creator, (I've unfortunately had first hand experience of both).

I'm now using SpeedEdit, (which for a 1st version of a piece of software is very impressive, and I think better than Premiere Pro) but I think that may be out of your price range. Premiere Elements is probably a good bet...

 

depends how techie you want to be. PinnacleStudio & Ulead(videostudio/moviefactory) are simple products aimed at families and produce good results very quickly. Premiere is tougher to get into as theres too much info on screen and not as visually intuitive but naturally will give much better results after time.