Video Editing Software for Win 7 Help/advice needed

Bargain.hunter_4

Hi all,

I have a number of home movies I have recorded with my sony camcorder and woudl like to undertake basi editing and then burn to dvd.

Unfortunately he Sony software is not proving to be very good with this. I use to use a package called Pinnacle Studio 9 se which was great, but seems to have compatibility issues with windows 7.

Does anyone have any tips on what would be a good software package to do this. I am not a pro, so basic transitions are fine.

Free software is preferred but if nothing is available, any tips you have would be great.

Please do note that the videos are recorded in HD, so software must be able to handle that when converting to dvd.

Many thanks in advance.

Figment

Windows Movie Maker?

john1

Sony Movie Studio HD: Platinum 12 (PC) seems to get good reviews and currently @ £26.99 on amazon

Johnmcl7

I'd also recommend Sony software in the post above, it natively handles AVCHD video (which I assume is the format you're using) and I find it pretty straightforward to use despite the fact it's fairly powerful. You can download a fully functional trial that has no watermarks, just time limited to 30 days so you can give it a proper go and see what you think.

I've not had any luck with Movie Maker and AVCHD files as some people claim it can take AVCHD files but it doesn't recognise any of the ones I tried it with and it's a lot of hassle to convert them into something it recognises and then having to convert them again for output.

Bargain.hunter_4

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

I'd also recommend Sony software in the post above, it natively handles AVCHD video (which I assume is the format you're using) and I find it pretty straightforward to use despite the fact it's fairly powerful. You can download a fully functional trial that has no watermarks, just time limited to 30 days so you can give it a proper go and see what you think.

I've not had any luck with Movie Maker and AVCHD files as some people claim it can take AVCHD files but it doesn't recognise any of the ones I tried it with and it's a lot of hassle to convert them into something it recognises and then having to convert them again for output.

Thanks for that. If it is a free trial, will have a go. Bit annnoyed with Sony as the camcorder software for my sony cam is so bad!

Johnmcl7

That's pretty normal to be honest, neither my Canon or Panasonic video cameras came with any software at all.

John

Bargain.hunter_4

Well after an evening of absolute frustration in trying to use the seemingly most counter intuitive software around, I woudl like to open up the forum for any other suggestions.

As per previious psosts, All I want to do is pull a family video off my HD camcorder and make a home dvd with basic transitions.

Where did the sony fail: Transitioning was a bit of a nighmare, adding text was a function that seemingly didnt want to work, it crashed, didnt record the full movie that i spent hours editing end rendering and would not save to my hard drive, so i had to re-render with every copy.

To top it all off, when trying to make a menu page/scene selection, it refused to do this telling me I had to but a different piece of software!

Please anyone out there, surely short of buying a mac, there must be a simpler way to do this.

spud17

My first call in situations like this is Gizmos page.
Have you looked at below?

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-video-editor.htm

Johnmcl7

Bargain.hunter wrote: »

Well after an evening of absolute frustration in trying to use the seemingly most counter intuitive software around, I woudl like to open up the forum for any other suggestions.

As per previious psosts, All I want to do is pull a family video off my HD camcorder and make a home dvd with basic transitions.

Where did the sony fail: Transitioning was a bit of a nighmare, adding text was a function that seemingly didnt want to work, it crashed, didnt record the full movie that i spent hours editing end rendering and would not save to my hard drive, so i had to re-render with every copy.

To top it all off, when trying to make a menu page/scene selection, it refused to do this telling me I had to but a different piece of software!

Please anyone out there, surely short of buying a mac, there must be a simpler way to do this.

What model is the camcorder, is it HDV (tape) or AVCHD?

I'm not sure how you're having so many issues with the software as none of what you listed is normal behaviour for it (particularly not the re-rendering, Vegas allows project files to be saved) although that may depend on how you're putting the video footage on in the first place.

John

Bargain.hunter_4

its an AVCHD Handycam CX115

With regards to rendering, I do save the project so it keeps all my editing, howweve rit will not allow burn to disk with menu as it tries to sell me additional software, and it will not save to hard drive.

Instead,I select burn to disk (without menu), it then renders and then burns. Once complete however, unlike pinnacl;e, does not say would you like to burn further copies. instead it say burn complete and if I want to produce another dvd, it starts rendering again.

Is this the software you use?

Again, I appreciate your help

Bargain.hunter_4

Please note. It is not the vegas software. The sony site only let me have a free trial of Sony movie studio platinum 12