What video editing software you guys using?

[robmacom]

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 love PowerDirector 16 I have a low end pc and it handles 4k absolutely brilliantly as well as LUT's (Look Up tables) for color correction. It is always on sale and incredibly good value

This is one of my Edits on my WeeAirDrone channel which is all about Beautiful Scotland

 

[Jwelz]

Davinci Resolve 15 Beta. I had been using the free 12.5 version of and held off on 14 which supposedly improved performance and/or required less in terms of hardware capability.

I built a relatively inexpensive Win 10 system with 16 Gigs of ram, Ryzen 5 1600 processor, a 256 GB M2 system/software/scratch drive and an inexpensive 3 TB storage drive. I was fortunate to get a Radeon RX 580 before they got scarce over demand for Bitcoin mining so the price was near 300 CDN or less than 250 US.

It handles 3840 by 2160 files with ease. The older 12.5 version was slower and a bit jerky, and balked at playing in reverse/rewind in the edit window. The 15 beta version is silky smooth by comparison. I had no issues with editing the maximum data rates of 60 mbps of Mavic files and rendering times were close to clip duration times, though double and triple overlay transitions slowed that somewhat.

I rendered some 150 mbps Canon 4K footage yesterday on the 15 beta with contrast and minor other grading adjustments. A 3 minute 4K clip took about 1.5 minutes for Davinci Resolve on my hardware and toggling forward/reverse playback in the edit window, which was my biggest gripe for the previous version, was now instantaneous and smooth. 12.5 couldn't render 4096 by 2160 output and I haven't yet verified if 15 still has this limitation. It doesn't concern me as I do all my post for a 16:9 target audience.

I've used iMovie and MovieMaker and have a slightly older version of Premier Elements. Admittedly these were used with less capable machines and with lower resolution/ data rate files. There's no good way to compare but I can only say that iMovie had lots of kitsch but required more wasted effort than any software I've ever used in the past 30 years.

If you are new to Davinci 15, the manual from earlier versions is at least 5 times as many pages as the current beta manual. I like having a decent reference manual and have kept my old version and hope a comprehensive replacement is made available. V.14 introduced Fairlight with extensive audio editing capabilities and regrettably, how to work with it is not yet documented in the current beta's manual. I'll have to find a 14 manual as I'm increasing the scope of my work to include recorded audio.

I have found many excellent and worthwhile tutorial videos for Davinci online and needed some image shake reduction for one project and, never having had to do it before, found help and examples within minutes that enabled me to get reasonable results in no time.

My existing computer was not up to the task and wanting to get into this as a potential source of supplementing my income, I wanted to invest as little as possible that would enable me to produce reasonably professional results. DResolve is unquestionably comprehensive and capable provided you don't need the multi user features of the paid versions. The money I saved on software enabled me to invest more in hardware (I use a 39" Seiki 4K TV I picked up fo $100.00 as my playback target and as a main edit window and have a pair of 1200 by 1600 Dell monitors on either side, one of which is calibrated for reference, but my target output is everyone's livingroom TV so grading is often better fine tuned on the TV than a calibrated monitor).

Factoring costs of hardware, software and free training resources leading to ease of use and workflow, and having to acquire everthing needed for 4K from scratch, the choice was obvious and I would repeat the choice in a heart beat.

 

[Spot25]

Lumatouch is undoubtedly the best software you can use on your phone are use an iPhone and a mini iPad for you will never use anything else

Thanks for the heads up, just finished downloading.

 

[oldcelt]

$20/mo for Premiere Pro. FCP $300 one time and will be good for years with free upgrades. So pretty much a wash with FCP being cheaper in the long run.

Trouble is, it only works on a Mac!

 

[theharmonperspective]

Final Cut Pro X ... hands down ... the ease of use... makes it

 

[Larry Gibson]

I switch from Priemer pro two Divinci resolve 15 and love it.

 

[Slowcaptain]

I built a relatively inexpensive Win 10 system with 16 Gigs of ram, Ryzen 5 1600 processor, a 256 GB M2 system/software/scratch drive and an inexpensive 3 TB storage drive. I was fortunate to get a Radeon RX 580 before they got scarce over demand for Bitcoin mining so the price was near 300 CDN or less than 250 US.

Are AMD cpus better for video editing tasks? The outright performance of Intel 8th gen procs is better than equivalent AMD Ryzens but of course benchmark numbers are not everything.
Also, Intel 8th gen architecture requires specific Z370 MBs that are pushing the costs up. Thankfully GPU prices are coming back to MSRP levels (here in USA) now that crypto frenzy has waned.
Thanks for taking time out and typing a comprehensive answer.

 

[Slowcaptain]

I love PowerDirector 16 I have a low end pc and it handles 4k absolutely brilliantly as well as LUT's (Look Up tables) for color correction. It is always on sale and incredibly good value

This is one of my Edits on my WeeAirDrone channel which is all about Beautiful Scotland

Nice! what LUTs are you using? Did you make your own or you got those professional ones, thanks!

 

[Slowcaptain]

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!

I get what you are saying, but I am mostly editing videos for my own purpose (not for a channel or anything)...I do have a 4K TV and I could see a visible difference between FHD and 4K resolution when same content is played in those resolutions (on YT).

 

[Slowcaptain]

I liked it better when software was purchased and not leased.

This x 100.

 

[Zen]

FCPX

 

[Slowcaptain]

for just general creation of clips for personal or youtube/Vimeo use, the best thing I've found is GoPro Studio.

I have GoPro and it's application but when I loaded videos from my MA into it - it said only videos from GoPro are supported for certain functions. Is there any trick to make it treat videos from other sources as GoPro sourced?

 

[Slowcaptain]

FCPX

Holy wow! I was in CO last October (Aspen, Independence pass etc), you guys got absolutely beautiful mountains and fall colors.

 

[Biswa]

I love LumaFusion. Got a iPhone X 256 go so I don’t have to worry about running out of space. Moreover I use video LUTs which is one of the best app if you want to play with LUTs . It will allow you to import LUTs and apply and edit on the app. The beauty of the app is when you save your file it won’t compress and you get the same output .

Here is the link of my video clip using LumaFusion

 

[thebigbaddan]

I bought Pinnacle Studio 21... it had a 30 day guarantee, and I'm going to request a refund and switch to Davinci Resolve. Because it does it good enough (some will say better) and free, and I really don't need to spend more money on software, when I can be buying batteries.

 

[griffinhart]

For me Cyberlink PowerDirector, tried Pinnacle Studio and Corel Video Studio but deffenitively prefer the ergonoic and speed of PowerDirector !

I like PowerDirector as well. I also find it the fastest of a lot of the inexpensive packages.

 

[Coskier]

Holy wow! I was in CO last October (Aspen, Independence pass etc), you guys got absolutely beautiful mountains and fall colors.

Can't wait to do some flying around here this summer, that's for sure.

I love LumaFusion. Got a iPhone X 256 go so I don’t have to worry about running out of space. Moreover I use video LUTs which is one of the best app if you want to play with LUTs . It will allow you to import LUTs and apply and edit on the app. The beauty of the app is when you save your file it won’t compress and you get the same output .

Here is the link of my video clip using LumaFusion

I'm definitely curious to try this one, but a bit hesitant due tot he size of the iPhone screen. Could try with my iPad though. Might become a good justification to get a new one.

 

[Wr4ptr]

I have GoPro and it's application but when I loaded videos from my MA into it - it said only videos from GoPro are supported for certain functions. Is there any trick to make it treat videos from other sources as GoPro sourced?

Because of my work, I haven't upgraded to Win 10, so am using Win 7. The very newest version of GoPro studio won't load on Win 7 (also doesn't support 32 bit systems), so I had to go back and find a slightly older version when I recently did a reformat/reload of all software. I wonder if GoPro has "locked down" the newer versions of GoPro Studio? In case you want to give it a try, here is a link to the version that I believe worked on my Win 7, 64 bit system.

 

[thebigbaddan]

I bought Pinnacle Studio 21... it had a 30 day guarantee, and I'm going to request a refund and switch to Davinci Resolve.

I got a refund from Pinnacle without any fuss. Yay! I just contacted them on their form... never heard back from them, but saw the refund on my credit card. FWIW, Pinnacle *was* a bit more polished and ran smoother. But I just didn't need to spend $75 when that money can go to another battery...

 

[dvarapala]

Subscription models suck :/

I agree 100%.

However, Adobe's products are pretty much a "killer app" in the realm of video editing so I bit the bullet and subscribed.