Can anyone recommend a good video editing program?

[Buckeye Princess]

So DH and I are working on editing a little video of our last trip. But we are having trouble decided what program to get. We don't need anything too fancy. We just want to be able to piece video clips together with some still photos and overlay some music. If it has a few extra bells and whistles that is great. Mostly we just want something that is easy to use since we don't have too much extra time on our hands at the moment.

Free or cheap is a perk, but we don't mind spending a little money if it is worth it.


Thanks!

 

[bicker]

Personally I'm partial to Nero:

http://www.nero.com/enu/index.html

 

[disneymarie]

windows movie maker came on my computer. I am not into it though,
I am trying to figure out how to add a date/time stamp.
Have downloaded a few converters and no idea what I am to do?

Good luck,

 

[EllaM]

Depends what you want to do.

If your goal is to make a video file for viewing on computer (or streaming via a media player), then you can go with a freebie option like iMovie on the Mac or Windows Movie Maker on the PC. Turning that file into a DVD requires conversion to MPEG-2, wrapping the file in VOBs and authoring the menus. You'd go to a DVD authoring program (Nero, Ulead Disc Creator, etc.) for that.

If you want to make a DVD for playing on a DVD player, then I recommend a full service program like PowerDirector8 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002LSHLUQ/ref=oss_product). Costs about $60 but you can do all the editing, convert the file for DVD format, author the DVD menus and burn the disc.

If you have Windows 7, stay away from Windows Live Movie Maker. It's a dumbed-down version of Vista/XP's Windows Movie Maker. A really bad, failed version with very little control (like syncing audio, text and pictures in the same time sequence). Old WMM users were extremely po'd that the windows 7 team ruined the program.

 

[Tinijocaro]

If you are on a Mac computer, you already have iMovie-very easy to use with lots of bells and whistles.