Derby Talk

I guess this is WAY OFF TOPIC but:

I have been talking with a couple of people about putting together a keepsake video of the different pack events with the PWD being the center stage (of course). I have several people with different brands of digital video cameras who are volunteering to shoot footage but the editing will be left up to me.

Can anyone suggest an easy to use, effective program for PC? I don't need fancy but I don't have 100 hours to commit to editing either. I would like to be able to put music underneath the action and include a slide show of some still photos.

ULEAD Video Studio or Pinnacle Studio Plus
both run ~$100.

I bought and used Roxio's Easy Media Creator 9 last year and it worked great!

Lots of tools for things besides video editing too. There is a newer version out now, Roxio Easy Media Creator10 which I haven't used and don't have a good reason to upgrade but I did notice that it is currently discounted from Roxio's site by $30 instead of the normal $100. You might also check at Sam's Club or a similar discounter.

http://www.roxio.com/

I did videos of my grandkids PWD race pics and video last year. I added in sound effects like race car engines, passing cars, as well as music and the boys voices that I recorded wav files all very easily. I was even able to lift audio from the video and fine tune or clip out quotes and add back where I wanted.

For less involved video creations it has tools that will do much of the creative composition for you with a variety of themes once you've added the files you want to be included.

I would have to say that I almost enjoyed making video as much as helping the boys with their PWD cars. LOL

I am not sure how familiar you are with files types and converting from one format to another but this made the process pretty easy directly importing through the software. Keep in mind, video files can be huge so make sure you have adequate space for working on them.

Good luck and have fun!

Cyberlink Power Director http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/products/main_4_ENU.html

Windows Movie Maker - probably already installed on your pc

Sony Vegas http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/pro ... family.asp

Before purchasing one, download the trial to ensure it works on your pc - my experience with Pinnacle Studio was that it crashed a lot; of course for many others it works great.

Windows Movie Maker is ok if you only intend to play on other pcs which play wmv files. Perhaps there are dvd players which will play this format but that hasn't been my experience.

Another suggestion for input might be the user group on Yahoo dedicated to video editing. I know I found the users there helpful with a few technical questions. What ever you choose be sure that you check computer requirements for software as computer shortfalls as far as processor speed, graphics card weaknesses and insufficient ram tend to become very apparent when working on these type of files.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/amateurvideoediting/

Regards,
Nodakindy