My boys are using a version of Premiere Pro (Adobe) that is many many years old. It doesn't even have an MP4 option in it. I think we are losing a lot of the clarity of our videos after editing and converting.

Just looking for suggestions. I hate to get hooked into a $240/year subscription (new Adobe premiere pro). But also would like them to be as clear as what we see in the scope.

I use OpenShot. It can do anything you need it to do, free to download, IMO very simple and intuitive to use, and there are lots of videos on Youtube on how to use it. I don't really have experience with anything else but it works great for me. Since I am not a real technical person that probably says a lot about how easy it is to use.

Look at Wondershare Filmora X. You can try it out for free, but your video will have their logo on it.

The full version price was $79 bucks when I purchased it years ago, dont know what it is now.

The best part is there are TONS of videos on youtube on how to work it. To just import, cut and edit your videos its pretty easy. To do side by side videos theres a bit of a learning curve, but slow motion or fade in/fade out between videos is easy.

DaVinci Resolve. Professional grade. Free. You have to pay for features that allow multiple users to work on big projects together. As far as single user video editing, the entire program is free. Tons of features.

From my understanding it is similar to Premier Pro. (I haven't used premier pro)

Thanks for the tips guys!!!
Appreciate it.

240 a year is not bad considering you get all the upgrades along the way. Initially you would purchase a program for well over 500.00 and that was that, you wanted the new version you paid for it. So be sure to weigh that factor.

I used to use Sony Vegas, A lot, very very easy and quick to use. I went a different way for 2 main reasons.
One, it was messing with my graphics cards, for some reason I couldn't render using CUDA, and my playback was junk, even when I was editing and trying to watch my project at the same time on a different screen, I'm sure they fixed it, but when I tried it with Premiere, playback was like silk, even without creating proxies using 4K. 4K drone footage requires you to create a proxy before you can get proper playback while editing.
Two, I like photography and since Lr and Ps are on the Adobe platform I just pay for the cloud and have access to all the programs I like or need to use.

I'm going to do a podcast on video editing and photography sometime. I'm not a professional, but will give the insight I learned along the way to help others.

I like Davinci Resolve. The free version is likely all you'll ever need. The paid version is a one time $300. I use the paid version because it supports hardware acceleration, which allows smooth playback of 4K edits without proxies or even too much rendering on a beefy PC.

- DAA

Final Cut X for me all the way. If you learn how to manipulate a magnetic timeline you can edit twice as fast as one without. It’s been by far the most user friendly program I’ve used and will do 99% of what most are capable. If you can dream it, you can produce it most likely via the Final Cut X platform.