An Array of Programs to Choose From
So many different video editing packages are available for use on the PC that picking one can be daunting. Some programs such as Avid's Xpress DV, Adobe's Premiere Pro, and Sony's Vegas 5 are high-end packages designed to edit everything from industrial and wedding videos to documentaries and even feature films. You can always grow into these heavy-hitter applications later, but they aren't the best choice for casual videographers, since they sport complicated interfaces--and cost hundreds of dollars, to boot.
Fortunately, there are plenty of affordable video editors that make editing fairly hassle-free. In addition to Adobe's Premiere Elements and Pinnacle's Studio Plus 9 (see "Inexpensive Video Editors Shine" for a review of these two products), Ulead's VideoStudio is a popular package. All three programs offer features that casual video makers are bound to appreciate, such as titling tools, effects for things like color correction, and templates.
Each of these editors has a simple interface designed to step novices easily through the editing process. Pinnacle's Studio Plus 9 is so straightforward that you can likely get it to work just by glancing over its menus and some self-explanatory buttons and tool icons. This kind of intuitive design is especially important if you plan to edit video infrequently, as it spares you from repeatedly relearning the application's process and tools. In addition, all three apps can export to DVD (or create Web movies).
Adobe's Premiere Elements is the most powerful of the three, with a sophisticated interface that will appeal to both novices and experienced home-video editors. It also provides a great collection of special effects.
Some editors include music libraries and sound effects that you can quickly add to your videos. Ulead's VideoStudio offers a feature called the Auto Music Maker, which generates a musical track--in a number of styles--that exactly matches the length of your movie. We were a bit skeptical about such a feature (elevator music anyone?) but with a large library of generally well-done musical samples, there's a good chance that one or more will match up nicely with your video's content. Of course, you may just want to capture 'real' music from your favorite music CDs, which is easy to do in all editors as well.
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