Hi all,

I'm in need of some professional video editing software. Free or costly, I do not mind, I just need some good editing software. I'm mainly interested in software that you actually use, and not something that you've just heard is good (or even worse, something you've just searched for on Google with the keyword "best video editing software").

I currently have VideoPad Video Editor, but it's a little basic for my needs, and I want to be able to add things easier and have full control over my editing. For example, I can fade/dissolve etc. stuff out, but I cannot do it inwards, it just abruptly pops up. Or another example is that I want a few pre-programmed templates to give me some ideas, like the news report one in iVideo. But that brings me to another point, I use a PC, so iVideo wouldn't be a suggestion I'd be looking for.

Cheers, and if you can help me at all, even just a name, I'd appreciate it.

Microsoft Paint

I had some basic training in Avid last year. To my surprise, it wasn't the brutal, confusing POS software everyone told me it was.

I've also worked with iMovie, of which the less is said the better.

Pretty much.

Avid sucks. Final Cut is very good, though I hear the newest version turned a lot of people away.

Final Cut.

Ok, so I'll try Final Cut then. Thanks

I downloaded Lightworks last night. It's the video editing software used for Mission: Impossible and many other blockbuster films, but it's hard to use. I will have to do some studying.

I've used all of them, but always go back to Final Cut. I've done news, documentaries, corporate videos, and now my first feature film, which I'm doing from now until mid summer. There studio packages are much better in my opinion as well, so that would be my recommendation. I would get Final Cut 7, not the current X as you can still do everything and it is much cheaper.

Final cut is for Macs only though. The newest version had some bugs, but it is absolutely amazing now. Most films and TV work are pretty much on Final Cut or Avid, or Adobe at this point. Some still splice and do use other platforms depending on what you need for each project, but those are good for any project, and are relatively easy to learn.

For PC's, I'd recommend Avid or Adobe Premiere.