HD Video Editing/Burning Software

jbs

jbs

jbs

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I have just bought a Sony DSC-HX9V compact camera and so far very happy with it. I am not into photography and was just looking for something that will take good quality photo's and video, mainly of my children, and it had to be small.

I am now looking for some software that meet all my (very simplistic) criteria below. Ideally only one package and preferably not wanting to spend more than £50, if I cannot do all of this for free. I have tried a few free packages and trial versions, but have not found something that can do everything I like (at least in the trial versions). I just have to mention I don't have the time or the patience to do much editing, so a lot of the software packages looks overcomplicated to me. Generally I am a bit handicapped when it comes to any editing software so it needs to be easy to use. I do not currently have a blue ray writer but will probably get one in the near future.

  • Support my AVCHD format - .mts files
  • Do simple transitions between scenes
  • Add Chapter markers where I want them
  • Write to AVCHD disk (DVD)
  • Write to Blue Ray

Here is the software I have tried so far.

Windows Live movie maker + Windows DVD maker
With this combination I can do either the transitions or the chapters automatically between files (limited to 18), but they seem to be mutually exclusive. I'm not sure if this can do the AVCHD disk or Blue-ray.


Sony PMB - This came with the camera
Easy to just choose video clips, does the chapters automatically between clops and write AVCHD disk to DVD, but no transitions. Does not like the output from Windows Live Movie maker otherwise these two could have proved useful together, although still cannot put the chapter markers where I want them.

Sony Vegas Trial Version
I was surprised this was not difficult to use (even for me), but after a few searches found there is no support to write HD content to DVD only Blue ray

Nero Vision 10
They have disabled all HD functionality in the trial version, but it does actually look like you can do what I need. However I used Nero 7, the editing was just awful and this seem to be still exactly the same, so not that keen to spend money on this unless it is the only solution.

I have tried several freeware packages, but they all seem to come terribly short on my very simple requirements.

Anyone with ideas how I can achieve this with what should be very easy to use software?
 
Personally I use Pinnacle Studio a lot as it just works for me. It's up to version 15 but I believe you need the HD version or at least one of the higher versions to edit avchd.
 
alle said:
...Have a look at Videopad. Free version may do what you need.

http://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/index.html
Click to expand...

Thanks, it has all the functionality I am looking for, however I have experienced a few problems with it.

  • Some transitions work fine, others just ended up with the first frame in the transition freezing and staying like that until the end.
  • I had to remove the first second from all clips as they seem to be fuzzy at the start.
  • A few times the audio and video were out of sync in the exported movie even though it was fine within the tool.
  • The quality of the movie was very bad even though it was supposed to be 1920x1080.

A shame really as I found it really easy to use.

Pinnacle Studio looks good, just a shame there is no trial version. After having so many products that just does not deliver I really do not feel like spending money unless I know it can do what I need it to do.

Edit: Just found a trial version of Pinnacle Studio HD 15. Was well hidden away, busy downloading now.
 
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I was gonna say there is a trial but you found it. I found Pinnacle was good enoug to produce decent footage without being overcomplicated. Beefier the pc the better it runs though
 
PowerDirector is another good one, my Dad uses it from importing off his Sony Camera through to burning a bluray
 
I really don't understand why this is proving so difficult. I thought the things I am looking for should be subset of any basic Video editing package.

Pinnacle Studio Trial
This has a good interface and easy to use. It ran fine on my system - Overclocked i5 2500k. I have tried all sorts of combinations but whatever I choose to write to file there is quite a bit of quality loss from my original HD video. For some reason it refuses to write to DVD, it just ejects any DVD without doing anything.

Power Director
By far the best interface, so easy to do everything I need. Wrote to DVD and file, but in both instances the quality is dreadful. My DVD looks like it was taken with a camera dating back to the 1990's after coming out of Power Director.

So still the only way I can write to DVD and have good quality is to not edit anything and just do it with the free PMB software that came with the camera.

The search continues...
 
right...you do realise that dvd isn't HD don't ya? And because of the way it's compressed you lose loads of quality? Better off making it a file and using a different compression like perhaps mp4 or something. Keep the resolution the same as your camera and there will be no loss of quality...

Welcome to the compromises you have to make to keep your files etc. and edit them...
 
Writing to DVD is only an interim solution as I don't currently have a blue ray writer as I stated. I have already tested making an AVCHD DVD using the PMB software and it plays with brilliant quality on my TV. Only thing is it is the unedited clips with no transitions etc. So I have already seen the HD quality (or near) on DVD.

The problem though is I cannot even seem to get proper quality with these products writing to disk when I don't mind the file size - for testing at least. Could very well be that I don't use the correct settings etc, but then that is why I am looking for software that will make the difficult decisions for me:)

I did not set the compression, I chose AVCHD which is what I want to do, otherwise the quality isn't there.
 
well you also need to set the resolution. And don't use write to disc, use file and then burn to dvd afterwards, as write to disc makes a dvd compliant disc (which is of course sd)
 
sorry - forgot you had version 15, use disk and then avchd in the drop down type. Set resolution to full hd in video preferences (1920x1080/60i or 50i) and you should be fine. Also set disk type to best quality
 
Just a quick update in case any one has similar problems. Using Pinnacle Studio Trial I could not get the Create disc function to work, all it did was eject the disc. I then read about a few people that had similar problems and to solve it they bought the full version. This seems a bit risky, so instead of buying the full version before knowing if it will work I changed the setting from Create disc and burn to Create disc but don't burn.

I then used ImgBurn to create the DVD and result! Perfect HD video on a DVD!
 
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