Video editing software - help?

[DJlaysitup]

I have a fairly new Acer box running Win2000 and a standard Sony Handycam. I bought the Acer recently because my older HP was so virused up that no amount of virus scans seemed to work. The Acer was inexpensive but it came with very little documentation. I thought maybe Win2000 came with that software but I haven't found it. A friend said I should get Pinnacle Studio Plus.

Basically I just want to make some short videos of my son's rugby team that I can email to friends and relatives.

Any suggestions?

[Admin]

I have a fairly new Acer box running Win2000 and a standard Sony Handycam. I bought the Acer recently because my older HP was so virused up that no amount of virus scans seemed to work. The Acer was inexpensive but it came with very little documentation. I thought maybe Win2000 came with that software but I haven't found it. A friend said I should get Pinnacle Studio Plus.

Basically I just want to make some short videos of my son's rugby team that I can email to friends and relatives.

Any suggestions?

You could try Windows Movie Maker but I don't know if it will run on Win2K ... being someone who owns Pinnacle Studio Plus if I were you I'd invest the $100 in upgrading to Windows7 which is only $200 and has tools built in for things like that as well as tons of other great features. If you're worried about Windows7 being like Vista I can assure you that it's not, it's far superior from my personal experience and I use it at home and at work and I do a lot of video editing and it's made my tasks easier and quicker. That's just my 2 cents but if you don't want to upgrade to a modern OS then I'd look into seeing if Windows Movie Maker will work on Win2K since it's free. The only real advantage to Pinnacle is if you buy the top of the line version that comes with the ability to capture from cameras when you don't have firewire on your computer but even then most home cameras have the ability to sync via usb to your computer.

Edit - just checked and neither Pinnacle nor Movie Maker run on Win2k so I'm not sure what to tell you if you're going to stick with that OS.

[DJlaysitup]

You could try Windows Movie Maker but I don't know if it will run on Win2K ... being someone who owns Pinnacle Studio Plus if I were you I'd invest the $100 in upgrading to Windows7 which is only $200 and has tools built in for things like that as well as tons of other great features. If you're worried about Windows7 being like Vista I can assure you that it's not, it's far superior from my personal experience and I use it at home and at work and I do a lot of video editing and it's made my tasks easier and quicker. That's just my 2 cents but if you don't want to upgrade to a modern OS then I'd look into seeing if Windows Movie Maker will work on Win2K since it's free. The only real advantage to Pinnacle is if you buy the top of the line version that comes with the ability to capture from cameras when you don't have firewire on your computer but even then most home cameras have the ability to sync via usb to your computer.

Edit - just checked and neither Pinnacle nor Movie Maker run on Win2k so I'm not sure what to tell you if you're going to stick with that OS.

Thanks Dolfan, I think I'll take your advice as far as upgrading to W7. To be honest, computers have become a bit of a frustration for me. In the early 80s I bought an 8088 and got to know it pretty well. I've tried to keep up over these many years but computers aren't my primary job so I settled into the systems I'm given to manage budgets.

Everything moves so dang fast these days.

What ya gonna do?

[jhay610]

DJ,

Until you make the step up from Win 2k (yuck) you could check out some software called VirtualDub -- it's licensed under the GNU General Public License so it's free to download and use. Granted, it's not going to have the features, polish or editing power of your commercial software (it also doesn't have the price tag) but it can do the basics well and most importantly supports Windows 2000.

I've used it quite a bit and it does fine for basic jobs once you get used to the interface. May not be your thing but definitely worth a shot until you step up to Windows 7.

You can read about and download it here.