Video editing software

[laxfan25]

I have several game tapes that I want to take snippets from to put together a ref training video from. What are some recommendations for PC-based software that is easy to use? - I'm not looking to do anything too fancy - I'd like to play a clip at full-speed and then show it in slow motion, with some text/graphic slides added in.

[Campbell]

I have several game tapes that I want to take snippets from to put together a ref training video from. What are some recommendations for PC-based software that is easy to use? - I'm not looking to do anything too fancy - I'd like to play a clip at full-speed and then show it in slow motion, with some text/graphic slides added in.

Have you tried just using windows Movie Maker? It is pretty limited such as not being able to break video down by frames, only by seconds, and it only has one line of audio. But, if you don't need much then it does a decent job and it is already on your PC if you are using XP. I have used Adobe Premier Pro in the past and it is far more advanced, but it is not cheap either. I'm not sure what it costs, but probably in the $400 range. I have really liked the program though. You might try playing around with Movie Maker and get an idea of what more you want and then go from there.

[mholtz]

windows movie maker is what you want (from your description)

Easy to use, and free.

[laxfan25]

I have the new, improved Vista OS. I'll check out MovieMaker when I get home. I understand that there is an Adobe Premiere Elements version, similar to Photoshop Elements, a lower-cost (<$100) option that has many of the key features as Pro without the hefty price tag.
Free is good though, so I'll check that out first.

[DG]

Pinnacle Studio version 8 was pretty good for Non-Linear Editing. I've just gotten Version 11 and will post my thoughts after messing around with it for a while. Version 10 was a complete disaster for Pinnacle, so this one has to be much better.

[DG]

Pinnacle Studio version 11 is great.

It is stable like the old version 7 and 8, but with many more features. I'd highly recommend it to anyone for doing video editing on a small (or even larger) scale. The NLE interface is intuitive, and the output options are many. You can control multiple audio tracks, mix pictures and video, have transitions out the wazoo, and it still runs well.

DG