Video Software for Editing Family Slide Shows and Videos

[cyanaura]

I'm looking for advice. I'm trying to decide on what video software to buy for family slide shows and videos. I see so many software programs for doing so in the stores but have no basis on which to make a decision. This is something I want to learn and manipulate myself, mainly for family things. Can anyone offer suggestions on a good program to use? Is Premiere the way to go? Final Cut? Or should I get something less complex and expensive? Please advise...

[Sports_Dude]

I end up with Photodex Proshow Gold. I used trial versions of premiere and proshow and found proshow to be much easier to use. The trial versions are available through the mfgs websites.

[Zepher]

Software is going to depend on what computer and OS you have.

[weemannie]

Zepher is right, Premiere and Final Cut need very high spec PCs to run well. Are you using a PC or a Mac?
Take a look at Premiere Elements and Sony Movie Studio Platinum. Both offer trial versions (Elements leaves a watermark across the footage) and are cheap and easy to use. It depends on how sophisticated you want your editing to be.

[jeremycliff]

Editing is my main job. If all you want to do is family stuff that is pretty basic you could get by with using windows movie maker (if you have a PC) or iMovie (if you have mac) Both will do perfectly fine if you just want some nice transitions and such. Final cut and Premiere are both industry standard programs. If you plan on getting more into editing then one of those would be ok to get. Their pricey, and hard to get used to at first. But if you have time to sit and learn they're really good. I use Final Cut daily and Premiere at work.

Or you can look into Pinnacle Studio. Its very user friendly and you can edit and make DVD menu's all in the same program. I used it for a while before I got Final Cut.

[SYS]

Also depends on in what format you capture your videos. I use the Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 12.1 because it can handle AVCHD format of my Canon HG10 which is an HDD camcorder. Initially my 32 bit Vista laptop struggled a bit with the software, but all's well now.

[seaside]

I use Photodex ProShow Producer. Handles most everything and does it well. Started out with the "Gold" Version and moved up after seeing what it can do. Made dozens of slide shows with it.