I’m starting to record videos for a class I’m giving (sort of like a preview video) and have used both the Windows Live Movie Maker and some software that came with my videocam.
Both are unwieldy (for me) and it takes what seems like eleven years to upload to YouTube.
Can you recommend some good, relatively easy video editing software? I’ve got a few ideas from chatting with teh google but wanted to hear thoughts from others.
I know it can’t be this hard or time consuming and while I don’t think I’m technologically challenged, it’s entirely possible that I am the one at fault for creating craptastic vids. If so, I know I’ll need to find a good (human) editor and cough up some cash.
Sony Vegas has worked well for me. Versions with slightly limited capability can be had for $50.
See product comparator here. You can download a 30-day trial for free, and it comes with built-in tutorials that show you how to do most of the basic things (by actually walking you through the steps and waiting while you do them, so that you learn by doing).
Note that for most internet connections, downloads are fast and uploads are slow. If you’ve got a video of substantial length and/or quality (i.e. 100+ MB), it’s going to take a long time to upload to YouTube. Moreover, it can take a while to render those movies too. A couple of months ago I was cranking out vacation videos; a 4-minute flick in full 720P HD took a good hour to render, creating a file that was about 200 MB. Haven’t tried uploading any of them to YouTube, but I suspect it would take an hour or two.
Vegas gets my vote as well. It’s also important when you’re rendering the final product to think about what platform it’s going to be watched on. If I’m making a home video that we’ll be watching on the big TV, then I render it at DVD quality. (640x480 I think). However if it’s going to be loaded on my wife’s iPod, then I render it at something smaller like 340x120 (I think). This will create a smaller file size which will upload faster. Most people are going to be watching the video in a window smaller than 15 inches. So you don’t need DVD quality for that.
