what software for editing video files from digicams

[Ed Overstreet]

I'm not sure which is the most appropriate forum for posting this, but here goes -- moderator is welcome to move this to another forum if that seems better ...

I am looking forward to the day that PTE will let me drop a video clip from one of my cameras into my AV show. I know there will be some issues with this (aspect ratio might be one, especially if I do HD video but 3:2 still capture; another is avoiding any "hiccups" when the video starts and stops). However there are numerous examples of where I'd like to do this (and a lot more examples than any I can think I'd ever want for the 3D features now being developed in PTE, but that's another issue ...). But I'd like to be able to edit a video clip before using it. Mainly the editing would consist of clipping out frames at the beginning and end, where in my experience there are most likely to be glitches I don't want or need, in order to make the integration with the preceding and following stills smoother. Nothing fancier than cutting frames, in all likelihood.

Can anyone recommend simple and affordable software that would let me edit MOV or (preferably and) AVI video clips? I want to do both, because to my chagrin my camera manufacturers don't standardize on the same format -- my Nikon D90 produces AVI but my Panasonic Lumix cameras produce MOV. (My new Lumix GF-1 also produces something called AVCHD Lite, which is another story ... that format I can edit in software that came with the camera, but the software seems only to output the edited result onto a playback DVD and not into any format that I think PTE will work with, though I may be wrong on that ... in any case, the software - PhotoFunStudio 4 HD edition - won't edit MOV clips, only AVCHD Lite ones as far as I can see)

This also raises the issue of whether PTE's eventually-promised video-clip feature will accommodate both MOV and AVI clips, probably a tall if not impossible order, but alas the reality seems to be that small-format cameras (including Micro Four-Thirds cameras) all seem to produce MOV and at least Nikon's SLRs only do AVI. So unless PTE is going to become software that only owners of some cameras can work with for video, I'm hoping it will somehow work with both formats... Though I guess that's for a different post.

For now, can anyone point me to basic and affordable video-editing software that runs on a PC and will work preferably with MOV format but ideally also AVI? (The video feature on the Nikon D90 is pathetic compared to that of the Lumix GF-1, so I'm far more likely to use the GF1 to take videos than the D90...)

[Ken Cox]

ED

I moved you to the Video section

ken

[Ken Cox]

Ed

try searching in here

http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/

for starters

and

see

http://www.google.ca/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=edit+avchd&meta=lr%3D&aq=2&oq=edit+av

ken

[Ed Overstreet]

Thanks very much, Ken and Tom. I'll have a look at QuickTime Pro and Premiere Elements trial edition and report back if I discover anything profound

BTW for the interest of any readers who use or might use PhotoFun Studio, I've run into a curious limitation to that software which has prompted an email from me to their tech support with a suggestion for an update on the software. As the documentation warns, and as I've verified, you can't copy AVCHD files from the flash card or the camera using Windows Explorer and then be able to do anything with those files in PhotoFun Studio; you HAVE to copy the files using PhotoFun Studio itself, because it "unpacks" the data into its own format before viewing (never mind editing) the files. At first I was pretty upset about this; when I travel, I don't generally take a laptop, just a Hyperdrive onto which I back up my flash cards as I go along, then reformat and re-use them. I then access my backup copies on my Hyperdrive for editing when I'm back home; I have no interest in spending holiday time sitting on my derriere in front of a computer screen, I do enough of that at home already I've discovered that PhotoFun Studio won't recognize my Hyperdrive when I attach it to my laptop's USB ports, though every other photo-editing software I own does. However I figured out that, once I get the Hyperdrive home and attached, then I can re-copy the AVCHD files to a flash card via a flash-card reader on another USB port, and THEN PhotoFun Studio can copy and work with the files from the flash card. The problem is the software is only programmed to recognize a CD/DVD drive, a flash-card drive, or the camera itself -- it won't recognize any external hard drives. The recopy-to-the-flash-card approach is lame and tedious, but it works ... Some days I want to grasp some software engineers by the throat and give their heads a sharp shake Anyway, a word to the wise if you're thinking of using PhotoFun Studio for AVCHD editing ...