PCA Forums

I am helping a friend make some short (3 min < ) clips for their business. We are starting with a webcam for now, but may move up to HD.

Looking for: simple editing functions (cut, splice, titles, fade, etc.)
low footprint - my friend has a mid end dell lappy - integrated graphics
free is always good - but willing to spend a few $$ for quality and simplicity.

I haven't done this in a couple of years, so I figured I'd get the skinny from you all - I'm sure that there is all kinds of new stuff out there.

TIA

John

Luckily, you'll be able to demo most of these editors to see if they'll run. I'd try these:

Sony Vegas

Corel Video Studio

Adobe Premiere elements

Virtualdub is open source and has many plugins for effects. However, it may be a bit difficult to use as the interface is rather minimalist.

I recommend going over to VideoHelp.com and look at their software lists also.

Windows Movie Maker?

Some of the edits you are asking for. Free.

Vegas is what I use but it's pricey. Premiere isn't cheap either and has a very steep learning curve.

As Nitemare mentioned, Windows Movie Maker does the job as long as a WMV file is acceptable as the final product or you're uploading them to YouTube (you didn't mention what you wanted to save to videos as). Even though Movie Maker doesn't come with Vista and Win7, it's still available as a Windows Live Essentials download for free.

If you need to burn to DVD, then the Ulead Video Studio and Movie Factory products (now Corel because they bought them out) have a long tradition of being easy to use, affordable and low on resource use: http://apps.corel.com/lp/other/5590/index1u.html

You may even find older versions (2008 or 2009) under the Ulead brand name for sale at local retailers, Newegg or Amazon.com. An older version, if it has the features you want, would likely run better on lower-end hardware.

You may also be able to find free conversion software from WMV to avi or vob (if you want to burn to DVD).

thanks gang! PCA for da win!