Which basic video suite?

Which basic video editing suite is best for quick and easy video production? Something that does a good job with optimizing size for YouTube as well. I don't want to spend a fortune, under $100 is preferable.

- Sony Movie Studio 12 Platinum
- Corel VideoStudio Pro X6
- Cyberlink PowerDirector 11
- Other?

Thanks.

 

ive been using cyberlink power director 10 for the last 3 years now and its been great. its now upto version 12. it has the fastest 64bit rendering on any software.
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years ago i used pinnacle and sony vegas but found them too complicated compared to cyberlink.

try before you buy PowerDirector 12 Ultra Free Trial Download | CyberLink

 

I use Premiere Elements 9. I managed to grab free unlimited licenses with my mother's 17R :thumbsup:

It's nothing super but it fits my needs. I use After Effects CS5 (got it free from my old Highschool) for rendering some GFX, and Audacity/FLStudio for my Audio.

However, Kdenlive is an EXCELLENT video suite, and it's FREE, but for linux only.

 

cyberlink bar none. for all the reasons mrdj said.

it is much much faster than adobe media encoder and offers the most formats for a non pro level media suite. its also one of the easiest, if not the easiest, to use.

even if i have ae and ppro (cs5.5), i end up using power director the most. its that good.

 

Thanks. Any reason I should opt for 12 over 11? 11 is $45 for the Ultra version, but if there's improvements or enhancements in 12, I'm ok spending the $100. But if it's minor crap, then I'll save the $50+

 

no idea mate as im still using 10 and it does everything i need.
im guessing 11 and 12 will have even faster render, more transitions and menus etc.

 

im still on v11 but looking thru the site v12 seems more optimized for haswell. i also like an improved chroma key function (as that was a pita in v11), multicam support, and some nifty new effects like magnifying glass and tilt shift.

if none of those interests you then v11 will be more than enough.

 

Being that I do a lot of videos I had to test a lot.

Sony Vegas won as it had the power to do just about anything I needed it to and was still really easy for me to use/learn. Less than a day with it and you can make great videos and then once you look into the more advanced features you can do some of the stuff you may need specialty programs for.

If I am just doing linear editing like cutting a clip I wont even touch an editor I will just repackage the container and cut the video with no recording needed. This how I trim my 2 hour live stream videos to 20 minute episodes.

If You need super basic you have built in basic editors in things like AVIDemux and VirtualDub

 

ive used sony vegas pro and comparing the three (ppro, cyberlink, vegaspro) some years back i found vegas the least intuitive and it was almost twice as slow at rendering compared to cyberlink. i dont knowif things have changed on the newer versions, but imho the only advantages vegaspro has over powerdirector is third party plug in support and nested sequences. i also doubt whether vegas pro can be had for less than 100usd.

 

totally agree with travelbug.
me tried quite a few over the years and just couldnt get on with vegas pro.
for basic stuff even windows movie maker was ok but all in all PD is the fastest and so far best ive used.