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What video editing software you guys using?

So I spent a lot of time downloading, evaluating a handful of video editing softwares. Most of them are behemoths and absolutely suck the life out of your machine if it is anything less than a high end setup. Mine is a 5th gen i7 with 16GB RAM and a 2GB GFX card, and the thing absolutely dies editing 4K video.
Anyhoo, I used Adobe Lightroom CC (for color grading/LUTs loading) in combination with Movavi Video editor for trimming, clipping, joining and transitioning of videos.

Took a better part of the day for editing and rendering, but I think results for a novice first timer are good.

What programs are you folks using, which is less cumbersome and does not burn a big hole in your pocket?

I use Cyberlink Power Director 16. I have used other, but I like this the best of general editing.
 
I use Pinnacle 20 - £45 pounds if I remember correctly. An example is

 
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I second Giaruso on Cyberlink PowerDirector.
I have V15 Ultimate and love it.
(Have not worked with 4k in it.)
I was a Movie Maker guy for 20 years, argghhh...I KNOW.
So, PD is a dream.
PowerDirector University on YT has TONS of tutorials done really well.
 
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Premier Pro hands down. It has Kernal optimisation so it actually used your relevant system recourse like you graphics card, to reduce post processing.
 
I read through every post here and I'm amazed no one has mentioned HITFILM EXPRESS.

The editor is completely free and boasts a plethora of tutorials for advanced effects.

It does have its draw backs though if you are used to a program like premiere.

The one that burns me is that you cannot use markers in the time line. So if you want to do something like time your cuts to a music beat, then this is not the answer.

I have had no problem editing 4k, however I noticed that if you load your source footage and cut it up on the time line, it does not flow smoothly.

If you take your edited shots and export them as separate shots, then load back to the time line, then it will be smooth as silk.

I think the reason is if you do it the first way the program is buffering the full clip for each shot. And it has a tough time working the same file multiple times.

Other than that it's a fantastic editor for an incredible price. - free

My setup is i5 - SSD drive - 16gb ram

Also mentioned before - if you swap to a solid state drive you will notice a drastic difference in the loading speeds.
 
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I read through every post here and I'm amazed no one has mentioned HITFILM EXPRESS.
Thanks. Never heard of it myself. Great to see all these options come out tumbling one by one. I hope it runs well on older systems. Downloading it now anyhoo.
 
There a number of issues that impact enjoying effective editing. 4K video with DJIs H264 codec places a lot of stress on the hardware, both the cpu and graphics card. Without adequate hardware, no software will work satisfactorarily. If you have to work on weak hardware, you can use proxy images to edit with, and switch to full res for output. Both Resolve and Final Cut ProX support proxies within the software. You can make your own proxies by converting the footage to a more edit friendly format like Prores. That for me ran fine on older 2008 machines. An easy way to test the hw is to play back the original video file on the video player that comes with the operating system. If it doesn’t play smoothly there, you will need to trancode the footage to some proxy format that will. Once those issues are resolved, you can think about what editor to use.

I work with both FCPX and Resolve. Both are wonderful complex programs that get the job done. IMovie for the Mac is also a good choice, and is somewhat faster to learn. Resolve 15 beta looks very good. I have been testing it with 4K from both my Phantom and Mavis with no problems, and the price is right. It probably has the best color correction capabilities of any editor I have ever worked with. Earlier Resolve versions required proxies to work well, but 15 works directly on the camera footage
 
What programs are you folks using, which is less cumbersome and does not burn a big hole in your pocket?


I switched from Windows Movie Maker to Davinci Resolve and have been using it for about a year. It still slows down the system editing 4k, but it is still manageable and results look much better. I have just started creating my own LUTs. It takes some practice but there are lots of Youtube videos on how to edit and color correct. I highly recommend!
 
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Have used FC Pro X for years and love it. I had bad experiences with Adobe Premier when I was first editing (decades ago) but believe it's now really good.

I'm surprised how many of you are editing in 4K. I don't have a 4K TV and my audiences are almost certainly not viewing on a 4K device. This is such a waste of your time and system resources. 1080p or 2.7k will be enough for 95%+ of people. Made up number of course, but you get my drift!
 
Power Director 14. Around $50. I’ve used it for editing all my 4K videos from my drones with my little $500 laptop. It uses Shadow Files to allow you to edit 4K videos in lower quality but when you actually produce the final videos it applies all of the edits to the 4K video clips and produces a perfect 4K film. It supports 3D and green screen and does waaayyyy more than I’ll ever need it to.
 
Have used FC Pro X for years and love it. I had bad experiences with Adobe Premier when I was first editing (decades ago) but believe it's now really good.

I'm surprised how many of you are editing in 4K. I don't have a 4K TV and my audiences are almost certainly not viewing on a 4K device. This is such a waste of your time and system resources. 1080p or 2.7k will be enough for 95%+ of people. Made up number of course, but you get my drift!
Very soon everyone will have all 4K TVs. I don’t make my videos for others. I make them for me. I watch them with my external drive plugged into my 65” 4K tv, and once you do that you’ll never want to view your drone footage on anything else. I edit my 4K videos with Power Director 14, on my cheap $500 laptop, using Shadow Files.
 
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I use Cyberlink PowerDirector 16 on an HP Omen 17" 4k video Gaming Laptop purchased solely for 4k video editing. Found PowerDirector to be much easier to use then Adobe.
 
So I spent a lot of time downloading, evaluating a handful of video editing softwares. Most of them are behemoths and absolutely suck the life out of your machine if it is anything less than a high end setup. Mine is a 5th gen i7 with 16GB RAM and a 2GB GFX card, and the thing absolutely dies editing 4K video.
Anyhoo, I used Adobe Lightroom CC (for color grading/LUTs loading) in combination with Movavi Video editor for trimming, clipping, joining and transitioning of videos.

Took a better part of the day for editing and rendering, but I think results for a novice first timer are good.

What programs are you folks using, which is less cumbersome and does not burn a big hole in your pocket?

I didn't have time to review all of the responses here, but none of what I did look thru mentioned using a proxy of the 4K video to edit. If you don't know how to use a proxy to edit video I'd recommend studying the method. Even a powerful personal computer and graphics card these days will struggle working with raw 4K footage... but doing so isn't necessary. A proxy lets you work on something with much less overhead and still output the real file with all the eye candy. I use Adobe Premiere Pro CC (on subscription). It has a learning curve to navigate but it's more than worth the time invested.
 
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So I spent a lot of time downloading, evaluating a handful of video editing softwares. Most of them are behemoths and absolutely suck the life out of your machine if it is anything less than a high end setup. Mine is a 5th gen i7 with 16GB RAM and a 2GB GFX card, and the thing absolutely dies editing 4K video.
Anyhoo, I used Adobe Lightroom CC (for color grading/LUTs loading) in combination with Movavi Video editor for trimming, clipping, joining and transitioning of videos.

Took a better part of the day for editing and rendering, but I think results for a novice first timer are good.

What programs are you folks using, which is less cumbersome and does not burn a big hole in your pocket?


I have been using Sony Vegas for years. I presently have Sony Vegas Pro 13. I decided to try Adobe Premiere, and I honestly can't stand the interface. It seems unintuitive to me and the (ironically) low-contrast color palette is hard to read. Sony Vegas utilizes standard Windows hot keys for things like resizing text, copying and pasting, etc. I find Adobe has their own set of hot keys that make no sense to me. Add to the fact that I'm paying $21/month for the Adobe CC suite, and it looks like I'm going to let it go. Sony Vegas does 99% of what I need. I just wish they had a quick way of speeding up video beyond 16x. "Hyper lapse" is the only reason to hang on to Adobe CC...and honestly, that's not enough. I have a legacy version of Photoshop, too, which serves me well. I liked it better when software was purchased and not leased.

D
 
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I use Magix Movie Edit Pro. Reasonably priced and not too cumbersome .
Good for sound also, mixing in stills, combining a few files in order to create a movie.
I manage band's also so I record gigs in video, sound and stills. I use a few cameras for different angles. MEP is great for that. I'm also able to split a 2 hour file into 24 separate songs.
Also Magix bought out Vegas from Sony
 
Sony Vegas does 99% of what I need. I just wish they had a quick way of speeding up video beyond 16x.
I believe you can... Apply the 16x speed to the clip, then drop a velocity envelope on the clip, and ramp it up to the top of the clip. If you're already using the velocity envelope, after applying it - hold Ctrl and grab the right side of the clip, and drag it to the left for additional speed.
 
Great conversation. Baseline for comparison: I'm using a PC with 3.5 Ghz i7-3770k processor, 16 GB RAM, SSD and HDD. Asus GT640 2GB graphic cards.

I'm editing videos from my Mavic Pro and from my GoPro camera, mostly from vacations and for personal use.

After some experimentation, I shoot at 2.7k using a D-Cinelike filter, then render the end product in 1080. I'm fortunate enough to have a theater room with a 110" projector and have found that 1080 looks great on that setup and I did not see enough improvement with 4k or 2.7k native clips to warrant the downsides that have already been covered (big file sizes, long exports, etc).

I bought Adobe Premier Elements, but found it clucky and with a fairly steep learning curve. Based on a recommendation in this thread, I just tried out Movavi. One license PER MACHINE. Editing was a chore (tons of lag as I dragged the editing line through the clips). I looked for a way to "downgrade" the quality of the video during the editing process (I've seen this feature before and it reduces such lag) but I couldn't find a way to do it

Honestly, for just general creation of clips for personal or youtube/Vimeo use, the best thing I've found is GoPro Studio. It's also a bit clunky in that there is an few extra step or two (mainly, converting videos to AVI prior to editing) that are kind of extraneous. But once you do this, there is no lag. Very quick and intuitive to edit. I like the color grading support (which was the hardest thing to find packaged in a low cost solution). Color grading is not professional level, by any means, but you can pretty easily create a filter for a given video that you are editing, then apply that across all of the clips for a seamless end product. Also allows two separate audio overlays so you can have music AND narration. Easy export options. Could use better support for titles, but it works for me.
 
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