Good Video Editing Software? Is there any?

[Renox]

Can someone post a couple links for top of the line video editing software? I dont care if it costs money, thats not an issue... I just need something that offers good text effects and good special effects...

[tinjaw]

Apple and Sony have excellent retail products for this. People make commercial films with them. What are you looking for that they can't do?

[nite_monkey]

it's not top of the line, but the windows movie maker that comes with windows xp has text effects and some special effects, but you probably already knew that.

[Beth UK]

Pure Motion make Edit Studio which has some enthusiastic followers

http://www.puremotion.com/

[Ampa]

Adobe Premier Pro is another commercial product used by film makers and TV studios world-wide.

[Carol Haynes]

Sony Vegas is really excellent and if money is no object (and learning time) add Boris Red as a plugin. As a system you then have a really kick-ass system with all the text effects you could ever wish for.

If money is a bit of an issue then you could use Boris FX and/or Boris Graffiti (both of which are subsets of Red functionality). They had a special on these recently and I grabbed a copy but haven't had enough time to get to grips with them yet.

The Boris stuff can be used in lots of different host applications (including Sony Vegas and Adobe Premier).

Personally I never got on with Adobe Premier - but it has been a while (version 5) since I used it.

There are cut down versions of both Sony and Adobe software too (Vegas Movie Studio and Adobe Premier Elements)

[TucknDar]

Not to hijack the thread, but I would like to know some free alternatives, too. Currently I use Windows Movie Maker, which is fine for personal use, but I'd like to check out some more advanced apps.

[tinjaw]

In the free category, check out ZS4 Video Editor.

[Renox]

Do you guys know of any good software that allows the use of Rotoscoping? Sony Vegas?

[Carol Haynes]

Haven't tried it but ...

http://www.silhouettefx.com/roto/

might be what you are after. It is a plugin for Final Cut Pro or Adobe After Effects. The Adobe product is an additional product for Premier.

[NigelH]

I use Movie Edit Pro 11 http://site.magix.net/english-uk/home/.
It's pretty good value and is often available with a hefty rebate.

DVD-lab has always interested me though.
http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/dvdlabpro.html
Comparison of various versions (DVD-lab 2.0, Studio and PRO) here
http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/comparison.html

[Carol Haynes]

You have to be careful with the Mediachance stuff - it is good but when I tried it there was no AC3 codec included (which for DVD building seemed pretty narrow minded) plus I really couldn't get on with the interface. DVD-Lab isn't really video editing software though - it is DVD Authoring software.

For authoring I really like DVD Architect from Sony (in a package with Vegas).

For quick DVD builds I like to use TMPGEnc DVD Author 3. In this, the new version, it supports DivX DVD formats too - it really is surprising what you can achieve with such a simple package and can recode some formats (though you need TMPGEnc XPress for full flexibility in recoding)..