I haven't... SONY has some great video editing software... check out their website, I believe they even offer free trials so you can test-drive it to make sure it will do what you need it to do before you buy it.

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/...ts/default.asp

What are you planning on doing with the video? If you are making titles, transitions, and effects, then Premiere and Final Cut are not the answer. They are great programs for cutting and splicing, but their transitions, titles, and effects totally suck. After Effects is a great program for all your motion graphics (but not good for cutting up long video, as there is something like a 4 gigabyte limit to After Effects projects).

Other than that, for just cut-and-paste editing, dvd menu creation, etc., you can use the obvious (Final Cut, Premiere, Encore), or the Sony software Morea suggested (I think they may be PC only?), or iMovie and iDVD on a Mac.

If your looking to do video editing you could use the programs that come right on your Mac (iMovie, iDVD) or PC (MovieMaker and a DVD authoring software such as Sonic). Those would be your choices if you were making a home video for your family or maybe "religious" group.

However, if you are looking to make a professional video. Which I would think you is you would want your video to be. Especially, if your training people on how to use your product. If that is the case, I would use the Adobe software (Premiere Pro and After Affects) or Apple's software (Final Cut Pro and Motion). They do have learning curves as thier not meant for the average Joe Schmo. Total Training DVD's are available for learning thier software.

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Moving on to my little rant...

Types of transitions being offered in one software or another do not make a video good. A good video can be made without transitions such as a fade. To make a video good it takes the video editor to make the right decision when to cut to a new clip or when to add the right transition.

Rant over.
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As Ned mentioned, After Effects is meant for Effects not video editing. Motion is Apple's equivalent to After Effects.

I have used Premiere Elements some. It might of been bad software/disc but for some reason when the video was exported the you could see random colored pixels throughout the video.

If you need any video editing and video shooting tips a great website for that is http://www.digitaljuice.com/djtv/default.asp

I'm not sure if this answered your question or not.

Continuing on deadmanlaz's rant
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How many "effects" do you see on national television or on feature films. VERY little, it is almost all cuts. So called fancy transitions simply bloat your video and make it look like a cheesy wedding video.

As with most programs, its not the tools that make you great, only you make you great. Photoshop and Illustrator don't make me an artist.

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OK, I digress.

Besides Vegas Video from Sony that morea mentioned, I can't think of anything besides Premiere or Final Cut. Final Cut Studio 2 just came out, and I've heard quite a few video folk excited about it.

And the comments about filters are spot on. Filters in video are the equivalent of filters in Photoshop, and they don't make you a great editor; your ability to string together a solid video to a backing soundtrack is.


Man, I always wanted to get into video.

I do a bit of video for my job. I use Final Cut Express at home but before you go purchase anything give iMovie a try (if you have a mac)

I went to my local Apple store to see if I could "test drive" the software but they didn't have it installed on thier machines. I was really really disappointed.

The entire studio is amazing. I wish each of the new versions of the programs to use. Currently I do not. Maybe in a few weeks I can convince the people I'm going to be working for to buy the software for me to use if they already don't have it. Which I doubt because they just bought the MacPro 2-3 Months ago.

Can anyone tell me what the second-newest version of Premiere is? I don't think I need the BRAND NEW one.

I would go after Final Cut Express. It's got a good price of around about $200 (check ebay) and damn close to its big brother Final Cut Pro which by the way is used in many major motion pictures and television programs. AvidXpress is the other biggy.

I think the following is the version order of Premiere:

• ADOBE Premiere 6.5
  
• ADOBE Premiere Pro 1.5
• ADOBE Premiere Pro 2.0
• ADOBE Premiere Pro CS3

If you're working on a Mac (and this is even truer for Intel ones), you really have no choice but to go with the newest Premiere.

Final Cut Studio is pretty sweet too. Got a major deal on it thanks to the Intel switchover...last year, Final Cut Pro 5 owners could upgrade to the entire Final Cut Studio (Universal Binary) for like $99. Best deal ev-ah.