Secret Company Emails!
I have too much fun writing about not-so-fun things sometimes. Observe!Hey there Richard (and Dad/adviser/customer/potential investor)!
Pinnacle Studio 11 Ultimate is PC Mag's Editor's Choice, and it has some nifty features. It's also only $130, not the $150 I thought, and Best Buy has it on sale for $90. There's always the cheaper versions, too.
When I pull back to look at the big picture, Avid's higher-end apps, like Liquid ($500) look like better fit for me than say Adobe Premiere Pro ($800), since I don't need the slick integration with other Adobe apps (despite the fact that I'll eventually get InDesign for my print work). This guy's advice is short, on-point, and my source for that last statement. Starting version 10, Pinnacle started sharing a code base with Liquid, which means this pie-in-the-sky discussion is still applicable at the price-point that we're talking about: Pinnacle Studio vs Premiere Elements.
On the other hand, Pinnacle has a long history of being buggy, and even though it worked for PC Mag's editor, even he had reservations. And even though my computer is a hoss, Pinnacle is known for needing ridiculous CPU power.
Sony Vegas-based stuff is starting to look like a really strong contender. Pros and amateurs, Windows and Mac-users alike have been impressed with how Sony has improved the intellectual property they acquired with Sonic Foundry (note: Vegas is a Windows-only app! Intel Mac users talk about booting their Macs into Windows on the macrumors forums to use Vegas and don't get ostracized for it. The tone of this parenthetical is only slightly sarcastic).
Adobe and Sony have trial downloads; Pinnacle doesn't.
I did find another piece of freeware to try out. It's about 3% the size of the Sony Vegas download (85.8 MB), and probably another 20 times smaller than the Adobe demo, if some of their other software is any indication (I haven't even looked). Even the love of my video transcoding life, the free (and open source!) Avidemux is over 4 times larger than this little t@b ZS4 thing. To put Pinnacle into perspective, their free http://www.videospin.com/ software installer is bigger than the Sony Vegas download (148 MB).
Speaking of which, have I mentioned I love how small, resource friendly, and functional free software often is? Foobar2000 (plays music) and VLC for the win! I'll make converts out of you yet!
Not only that, but I've played Spirit of the Century (complete, free rules behind the link!) two Saturdays in a row. Hells yes, character creation counts as playing!
Pinnacle Studio 11 Ultimate is PC Mag's Editor's Choice, and it has some nifty features. It's also only $130, not the $150 I thought, and Best Buy has it on sale for $90. There's always the cheaper versions, too.
When I pull back to look at the big picture, Avid's higher-end apps, like Liquid ($500) look like better fit for me than say Adobe Premiere Pro ($800), since I don't need the slick integration with other Adobe apps (despite the fact that I'll eventually get InDesign for my print work). This guy's advice is short, on-point, and my source for that last statement. Starting version 10, Pinnacle started sharing a code base with Liquid, which means this pie-in-the-sky discussion is still applicable at the price-point that we're talking about: Pinnacle Studio vs Premiere Elements.
On the other hand, Pinnacle has a long history of being buggy, and even though it worked for PC Mag's editor, even he had reservations. And even though my computer is a hoss, Pinnacle is known for needing ridiculous CPU power.
Sony Vegas-based stuff is starting to look like a really strong contender. Pros and amateurs, Windows and Mac-users alike have been impressed with how Sony has improved the intellectual property they acquired with Sonic Foundry (note: Vegas is a Windows-only app! Intel Mac users talk about booting their Macs into Windows on the macrumors forums to use Vegas and don't get ostracized for it. The tone of this parenthetical is only slightly sarcastic).
Adobe and Sony have trial downloads; Pinnacle doesn't.
I did find another piece of freeware to try out. It's about 3% the size of the Sony Vegas download (85.8 MB), and probably another 20 times smaller than the Adobe demo, if some of their other software is any indication (I haven't even looked). Even the love of my video transcoding life, the free (and open source!) Avidemux is over 4 times larger than this little t@b ZS4 thing. To put Pinnacle into perspective, their free http://www.videospin.com/ software installer is bigger than the Sony Vegas download (148 MB).
Speaking of which, have I mentioned I love how small, resource friendly, and functional free software often is? Foobar2000 (plays music) and VLC for the win! I'll make converts out of you yet!
Not only that, but I've played Spirit of the Century (complete, free rules behind the link!) two Saturdays in a row. Hells yes, character creation counts as playing!