Found PPro 1.5 clumsy & tedious years ago and got PElements 7.0 which I find inadequate (I never found a good tutorial for either and I hate trawling through chapters of sophistications to find that the basics are left out).

All I want is a reasonably fast & reliable programme for ....

1. basic colour correction of clips
2. effects transform of still images e.g. zooming in/out of photos
3. basic audio editing

Please recommend a suitable unsophisticated programme?

Sony Vegas Platinum. Lot's of folks swear by it.

I agree with Perrone. Vegas Platinum is miles ahead of Movie Maker and imovie. It does have some limitations but for the money (about 50 or 60 dollars I think) you'd be hard pressed to find something as powerful and easy to use.

And for something more robust and powerful check out Edius Neo2. The new Booster version handles AVCHD footage in real time!!

Videoguys Blog - EDIUS Neo 2 Booster Realtime AVCHD Editing Solution, Blu-ray Disc Authoring... and more! (http://www.videoguys.com/Blog/E/EDIUS+Neo+2+Booster+Realtime+AVCHD+Editing+Solution+Blu+ray+Disc+Authoring+and+more/0x1bcf18cec375146f6a3ac8258a173d91.aspx)

Gary

Brendan
You might also try Corel VideoSudio Pro x2
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1175714228541#tabview=tab0

Stelios

I downloaded that Edius Neo 2 booster thingy, and gave it a quick try. It seems to handle AVCHD much better now. I loaded a short 720p60 AVCHD clip (which is roughly just as taxing on the CPU as 1080i60 or 1080p30 AVCHD) and it played back silky smooth from the timeline, with CPU utilization hovering between 30%-40% on an AMD Phenom X4 9850 (lower end quad core CPU). Very nice improvement.

Robert

Please let me have the link where you downloaded Edius Neo 2. I just want to try it and see. Is there also a site where I can download raw AVCHD video file?

Stelios

EDIUS Neo 2 | Grass Valley (http://www.grassvalley.com/products/edius_neo_2)

I'm sure you can find raw AVCHD files somewhere on the net.

I may have to go through this once a year (or more often) to rediscover that I already discovered the answer 2 years ago to my questions above.

The answer, for me, is ...

1. Adobe After Effects (bought Jan.'08)
2. After Effects Apprentice, Lesson 1 - Basic Animation
written carefully by Trish Meyer & Chris Meyer

Bless them all.

Sorry to bother you unnecessarily and thank you for your tolerance and your suggestions.

Can aybody comment on experience with Corel Video Studio PRO X3

Ya, I would like to chime in. Personally looking for much the same as the OP. Something fast, solid, and easy. For basic stuff, not elaborate time-lines or effects. I almost think there should be a freeware something, but i have yet to have any one recommend anything.
So whats the kick-ass quick NLE?

always give Uleads VideoStudio a run through.

It's as simple as you want it to be and any dummy can get it to work (heck, I should know).

It ain't fancy, but it sure is cheap, and I haven't managed to break it yet, which is a damn site more than I can say for Premier Elements, which I loath beyond all reason.


CS

Ya, I would like to chime in. Personally looking for much the same as the OP. Something fast, solid, and easy. For basic stuff, not elaborate time-lines or effects. I almost think there should be a freeware something, but i have yet to have any one recommend anything.
So whats the kick-ass quick NLE?

Comparison of video editing software - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_video_editing_software)

Great link Mr. Ford. I would like to add another that came about as a result of exploring yours.
http://download.cnet.com/windows/video-editing-software/?tag=ltcol;narrow

C-net downloads, Video Editing. The left of the page has a narrowing list. Price or OS. I chose free and started working my way through the extensive list. I'm not sure if the "free" Swiss army knife of NLE's exist, but there are plenty single focus apps that one could compile to make a very useful suite of tools. I recommend everyone take a peak.

You may want to look at SpeedEdit 2.0 by Newtek.