subject: Top Video Editing Software Packages [print this page] Digital editing is the best way to improve your home movies before showing them around to friends and family. Digital editing can always give you the chance to delete unwanted scenes, add music or sound effects, and improve your clips with visual and audio transitions.
Before editing your older VHS magnetic tapes or Super 8 movies, you or a professional transfer company need to first capture all of that great video footage from these tapes and film and transfer them to your computer. Digital files will take up considerably more disk space than other types of files so be prepared to buy an external hard drive. Go to a local computer store to see if they can find a way to beef up your computer' speed or increase its disk space.
Find the best software for your editing needs so that you can edit your home movies on your PC or Mac without any problems. Movie Maker is free on all Windows machines and iMovie comes free with all Macs. However, if you want to buy better software for your personal computer, take a look at this short list of the best digital editing software packages.
-For Macs you need to have Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Express. No question.
-For Windows Corel VideoStudio, Pinnacle Studio, and Cyberlink PowerDirector are the best.
-Adobe Premiere Pro will work very well for both Windows and Mac OS X.
After you are done will all that editing, you will need to use a DVD burner to copy the finished videos to DVD. Many computers will have DVD burners built into them but yours may not. If you don't have that burner built in, you will need to purchase an external burner. When you go to burn your DVD, your chosen software will offer various choices for on-screen scene menus. These menus give you a quick overview of all of the chapters (scenes) with titles and thumbnail photos illustrating each chapter.
Again, if you are unsure of something, you can go to your local computer shop. Chances are you will need their help sooner or later anyway so you may as well introduce yourself now. Good luck!
