As soon as you view the example project provided for users of Pinnacle Studio HD, it's clear that the program can be made to create really impressive video projects, either for professional-looking creations or more homey endeavors, such as family vacation videos.

Pinnacle Studio HD is aware that the program is a little intimidating-looking, so it provides great help in the form of an introductory video, help files and online tutorials. Even so, once you start to use the editor, you'll see that it is actually very user friendly: Pinnacle Studio automatically divides your media into chapters and, crucially, supports drag and drop of all items, so assembling a video couldn't be easier.

To use Pinnacle Studio HD you simply drag your media to the timeline in the order you want, and then click on the vertical icons on the left to add sound, text, effects, transitions and more. Once applied, the various elements will be clearly visible on the timeline, which means that editing the video at a later stage is equally simple. Pinnacle Studio HD also includes a preview window so you can view your creation throughout the process.

Obviously, there's no point creating a beautiful video if you can't share it. That's why Pinnacle Studio HD comes with a Make Movie option where you can export the video in several ways, including disc, a variety of file formats or even directly to the web. Pinnacle Studio wasn't a particularly easy program to install and it is very resource-heavy, but even still it is a perfect balance between ease-of-use and functionality, and is a great option for beginner to intermediate video creation.

Pinnacle Studio HD is an incredibly comfortable and easy way of creating home videos.

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The interface in CyberLink PowerDirector Ultra is divided into four main tabs (Capture, Edit, Produce and Create Disc), all of them pretty self-explanatory. As for the Edit part in CyberLink PowerDirector – the most complex one – it features the standard design in video editing tools, with a library window to browse your media collection, a timeline to drag and drop elements and a preview window to check what your creation looks like when you put all the elements together.

CyberLink PowerDirector Ultra includes all the necessary tools for the whole creative process, from assisting you in with the very first step (capturing video from several different sources) to adding the final touches to your creation, such as a totally customizable DVD-style menu.

When you're done, CyberLink PowerDirector Ultra lets you save your video on your hard drive in different formats, publish it to YouTube straight away, share it on Facebook or output it to a camcorder.

Most recently, CyberLink PowerDirector has been updated to include ways to share your creations via DirectorZone and 3D editing tools to create stunning 3D movies.

With CyberLink PowerDirector Ultra you can easily create multimedia presentations with video, photos and music.

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Power Video Cutter is not a professional standard application, but rather a program that anyone can pick up and cut their videos with. Drag and drop is not supported, so you have to click browse and find the file you want to edit. Most formats are supported, and seconds later your video will be loaded.

There is a small video window for viewing, and a progress bar too. While playing the video, start and end cutting points can be marked by hitting those buttons at the right point. Alternatively, start and end times can be entered manually.

Power Video Cutter has many output profiles, depending on what you want to do. These range from iPod ready formats, to Xbox 360 or Sony PSP set ups. Alternatively, you can choose your video/audio codec, bitrate and so on yourself.

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While the original Premiere application is mainly intended at professional video editors, Adobe Premiere Elements brings video editing closer to the average user. The program features a complete set of simple yet powerful tools that will help you extract video from several sources, combine them into a movie, add special effects and filters and share with family and friends.

The interface in Adobe Premiere Elements is very similar to that in Adobe Photoshop Elements. The application is divided into two main parts: the Organizer and the Project editor. Both work seamlessly with each other and share the same sleek, elegant dark interface.

The Adobe Premiere Elements Organizer lets you browse your media (photos, audio and video), rate them and add captions to them. The Editor, on the other side, is where the creative part comes in.

The editor in Adobe Premiere Elements features the classic video editing working space, with a special area for imported media, a built-in preview window and a timeline at the bottom. Though it may seem confusing and difficult to use at first sight, a bit of effort and patience on your side will help you master the program without much fuss.

Adobe Premiere Elements works with all popular media formats (including HD video) and features a bunch of extra material (special effects, transitions, graphics and text, menus, titles and more) with which you can easily create awesome movies.

Moreover, Adobe Premiere Elements also features all the necessary tools to share your movies, either by burning them to DVD and Blu-ray, or by uploading them straight away to Facebook and YouTube.

Adobe Premiere Elements is the perfect way to get started with video editing and the powerful tools included in the original Premiere suite.

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MAGIX Movie Edit Pro is one of those apps. It allows you to import videos from DV cameras, HDV cameras and video tapes, as well as use video files stored on your local computer and record video directly from your PC. This offers exciting new possibilities to create your own video slideshows with your own menus and extras.

MAGIX Movie Edit Pro includes not only a full featured video editing tool, but also specific utilities to add titles to your movie, spice it up with filters and effects, and also create the perfect complementary soundtrack.

While the program makes maximum use of processing power while cutting, recalculating and arranging video files, it still requires a pretty powerful system for a smooth, seamless experience. Also, if this is the first time you use a video editor, I'd strongly advise you to take a look at the Help menu: MAGIX Movie Edit Pro may seem a bit overwhelming, but luckily it's also very well documented.

MAGIX Movie Edit Pro is an excellent video editor that includes all the necessary tools to handle HD video, titles, video effects and sound.

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The Xilisoft Movie Maker interface is straightforward and makes editing easy with a large preview window. You drag and drop your movie files into Xilisoft Movie Maker and use the icons below to edit and the options to the right to add effects, sound and even subtitles. When you're ready, press the green icons beside the name of your movie to process the files.

Movies made with Xilisoft Movie Maker are good quality and there are bunches of output formats, so you can make sure that the movie is suitable for whatever device you want to use. Xilisoft Movie Maker doesn't have too many configuration options apart from the editing ones, but the two main options - auto-update and auto-shutdown - make life much easier.

Xilisoft Movie Maker is a great option for hassle-free video editing for beginners.

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Then Auto Movie Creator converts you into Steven Spielberg but without the hours spent learning how to cut and splice and render videos that most video editing packages require. In fact, the program does much of the work for you via the editing wizard which is effectively your Assistant Director. It takes you logically and slowly through every step holding your hand as you go from capturing video to outputting it in a format that's suitable for your needs. One of the most time-consuming parts of editing is going through the footage to see which parts you need to take out. Auto Movie Creator even does this for you simply by selecting "Detect Scenes" and the program automatically scans your footage for the best quality shots. It also allows you to add professional style effects such as dissolves and fades simply by dragging and dropping them into the timeline. You can also add photos and other images into your video to give them a more personal touch.

Auto Movie Creator feels more like a photo editing package than a video editor but this is the key behind it's appeal - it requires absolutely no prior editing knowledge and is simple enough for even the most amateur of video makers.

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AVS Video Converter can give you a hand with this. This efficient, easy-to-use tool converts videos between the most popular formats (AVI, MP4, MPEG, WMV, FLV, MOV, 3GP and more) in just a couple of steps. Each format in AVS Video Converter has its own conversion options, which allow you to tweak certain settings such as video codec, 8frame size, and audio quality.

Conversions apart, AVS Video Converter still keeps an ace up its sleeve. The program also includes a special editing tool – hidden under the 'Edit' button on the toolbar – with which you can add special effects to the image stream and the audio track in your video file. The AVS Video Converter editor is very easy to use: simply drag and drop the selected files on the timeline and check the results in the preview window.

The video effects supported by AVS Video Converter include sepia, old movie, mosaic, puzzle, snow, pencil sketch, mirror, wave, greyscale and a lot more. As for sound, you can use amplify, chorus, reverb, vibrato and flanger, among others.

AVS Video Converter is a fully featured tool that not only converts video, but also lets you apply a variety of effects to both image and sound.

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It works on noise disturbances, block artefacts, interlaced images and of course color, contrast and brightness.

One could wonder why they didn't include these filters in their setup if they are necessary. Eventually, after doing that, you can use the wizard to improve videos.

It continues by asking about the presence of blocking artefacts, usually caused by strong compression. A query about the noise follows. Ending, you can decide to resize your video, 'upsizing' it if you want maintaining a good quality.

Also when we pressed next, nothing happened, so we just closed it and manually selected the filters in the advanced mode menu.

Pay attention when you want to create different versions of your video to rename the files, otherwise the application will overwrite them each time.