I have several video editing packages. I have Sony’s home version of their Vegas Studio, Adobe’s Premiere Elements, and the movie editing software I’ve been using most lately Windows Live Movie Maker. I don’t have anything against Windows Live Movie Maker because it’s what’s gotten the job done lately. I loathed the idea of ever trying to use Adobe premiere elements again. Aside from the fact that it always crashed trying to create an HD video because it was making the files so huge the system couldn’t handle it, it decided frequently to just quit working in the middle of an edit. And as it is with most Adobe Elements brand products there are no bug fixes, that’s not because there are no bugs – far from it. It’s because Adobe’s idea of a bug fix is to buy the upgrade version of the next release of the product. Now any other software company in the world, especially as small struggling one, could not afford that luxury. I’d get pretty hacked when I think about it, because all I really want to do is make an HD video and upload it to YouTube simply and quickly.
I had gotten Windows 7 and the new Windows Live Movie Maker has an addin that allows it to upload directly to face book. I’ve found this quite handy. I did however encounter formats that the program could not handle but for the most part it worked just fine. Many of the videos that I wanted to make would be screen captures showing our customers and my students how to do things that they had done in class. A friend had recommended tipcam which turned out to be a pretty nice product. The problem with tip cam was that it made an 800 by 600 video and that resolution turns out to be quite fuzzy compared to 1280 X720 HD video which is crystal clear.
So when I got an email offer from Serif software to buy their Movie PlusX3 software package at a bargain price with a 30 day money back guarantee, I decided to go ahead and purchase it. I own a couple of Serif software’s $10 packages that they sell and then try to upsell out to the current version. Both of them, while not being flashy or glitzy, do a respectable job of getting done what I wanted to do.
When the software arrived from merry old England via the United States postal service, the first thing I noticed was I had gotten a Manual along with my software. There was no cardboard box to throw away thank god. I loaded the software and initially it seemed to think something else was being installed in my system but after ignoring that, it installed just fine. The software ran quickly and when I drag files from the explorer to the media bin a couple of times it crashed at first. It would also try to recover and automatically restart when it happened. While that was a little disheartening at first, it was easily circumvented by just saving my project when I first opened it and occasionally as I was working. The crashes seemed to vanish after about the fourth movie I made.
One of the nicest things about Serif software is they have a live Owner’s Manual in the left most pane of the software. So I went from installing the software to using it in a matter of seconds. It’s contextual too so it has a list of what to do based on what view you are in. As luck would have it, my favorite screen capture program Fraps had released an update that was compatible with Windows 7. They had also made several improvements to the program which included compressed video storage. So I was now easily able to make HD screen capture video. The question was would the Movie PlusX3 three package be able to handle it. Premiere couldn’t handle it. I created a screen capture clip and dragged it into the media bin of Movie PlusX3. The preview block was grayed out. Not looking good but then the software asks me if I wish to pick the correct encoder for the file and told me which one to pick. Boom. I was making HD quality screen capture videos complete with titles, and background music. Total time spent on task from walking back to the house from the mailbox to posting to YouTube about 45 minutes which included a lot of reading the wizards that won’t be necessary next time.
Not only did Movie Plus X3 render my video really well, it took a 400 MB Fraps file and after adding titles and background music rendered the whole clip as a 49 MB file. It uploaded in less than 3 minutes. If I had tried to do the same thing with Adobe premiere the file would’ve been over a gigabyte or most likely crashed altogether.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not a package that would compete with a high end video editing products but if you’re wanting to make videos and do it quickly and just get it done, you really can’t beat this package. You can pick up your copy by clicking here:
There is no demo version but there’s a 30 day money back guarantee and I’ve talked to customer service twice and both times they were extremely helpful and while I didn’t have a problem they helped me accomplish what I wanted to do. I also checked the web site and much to my delight there were many updates to previous versions of programs meaning they go back and fix bugs not make you buy the fix.
Having used about three of their packages now, I’m wondering if small companies like Serif won’t thrive in an environment where the monolithic companies play a numbers game and go for volume over customer service knowing they’ll lose a few customers here and there like me. The real-time connected web could create several new contenders.
After having such success with their movie package I went ahead and took the plunge and picked up their web software WebPlus X4 as well. I’ll let you know how much it I like it is well but for now I can recommend Serif software’s Movie Plus X3 package with two enthusiastic thumbs up.
No comments:
Post a Comment