Gaffpro
I have several of my band videos that were shot on a Canon HD Video Camera...it came with software to load it into the computer via usb but I want to edit these into short clips to load onto youtube......is there anything that is "easy" and good without having to buy Adobe Premiere or similiar high end program? I'm an audio guy and and a newbee when it comes to video editing. Thanks!
PS: Also, has anyone done anything with video in regards to Sonar X1?
Video software, like audio software, is such a relative thing. ;-)
Similarly, defining 'easy' and 'good' are also such relative things (and in some cases might contradict each other).
First I'll ask some questions:
1. Are you likely going to do this regularly (a few times a month can count), or is this likely to be a short-lived investment?
2. What's the model of the canon, and (more importantly) what's the resulting file format you'll be dealing with (AVCHD, avi, etc)?
Some disclaimers:
I do video frequently (novice producer, decent editor, horrible cameraman). But enough to take into account a few things into my definition of 'good':
- rending output quality
- rending output SPEED
Also, as part of my definition of 'easy', I like as few steps as necessary in between shooting the video and actually rendering the result (and, hence, prefer editing in the format of the camera... no intermediate codecs or conversions or worse... real-time importing).
Render quality you can sort of manage by learning and practicing the output options with whatever software you're using, but there are different codecs, so if ultimate optimization is what you're looking for, take into account the codecs that can be used with a given piece of software (hint: the higher end stuff will support almost everything out of the box AND support plugins for everything else, while the lower stuff will support a subset and might not support plugins for that at all... or the ones you want).
But, chances are, pretty much everything that's been mentioned will cover you, particularly if the web is what you're eventually going for.
Render speed is fundamental for me, because I shoot an awful lot of video and I don't like a zillion steps between me and my raw format and whatever I'm eventually going to render. Which means, I edit in AVCHD (the raw format of my camera, a canon vixia 200), which is a stupid heavy format. STUPID. HEAVY. FORMAT. I kid you not. I have an 8-core, relatively current machine with 6 dedicated drives and 24GB memory, and AVCHD can bring it to its knees (well, it used too... keep reading).
Definitely not all software is equal here, and the differences are (literally) night and day.
I'm currently using Premiere Pro. Even within that product line, considerable performance enhancements have been made when working with AVCHD.
On PP CS4, a 1-hour project with minimal effects took over 5 hours to render for iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, YouTube, etc. FIVE hours for an hour of video.
On PP CS5.5 (current version) the same unmodified project took less that half-an-hour (IIRC, it was around 23 minutes). Not kidding, and it literally blew my mind.
How effectively applications optimize for 64bit, multiple threads, and memory management is everything where video rendering is concerned. The files are just huge... it's like uber-audio.
So:
If you're alright hitting 'render' and going to bed to wake up to your finished project, no problem. Get something basic and be done with it.
But it you're going to do it regularly, the entry-level products are going to... well... not equal the non-entry level products.
However, I will say this (and I'm a little biased toward Premiere because that's what I've been using for years now, after starting out on Vegas):
The new version of Premiere Elements (10, I think) has most of the performance enhancements of its big brother (they call it Mercury Playback Engine), minus the video card off-loading (which requires an expensive card to use anyway, even with Pro).
Vegas might be similarly optimized, however, but I know nothing of the others at this point.
My opinion is that the differences on many levels are likely to be personal, rather than quantitative, just pick a couple to demo... vegas studio and premiere elements, or whatever. Play around with them and see what you like.
Sorry for such a long non-recommendation, but like I said, I find it to be a big topic.
Take care,
- zevo