Video editing programs worth your money

Hey guys I've been looking at video editing software and since I'm new at buying video software for mac I wanted to get your inputs. I want to get a program that can let me edit my home movies like a video i took at my brother's wifes baby shower. So i want a program that can let me perfect the HD video if that makes sense and add cool features/effects. Finally that the program lets me burn the movies after i finished editing them. Besides that i want to edit old videos that aren't HD and make them look a bit HD like I've seen people do on youtube where they fixed the image of the video and quality.
The 2 programs I looked at are Toast 11 Titanium and Adobe Photoshop Elements 9/Adobe Premiere Elements 9. I'm willing to spend 200 bucks.
Sorry for writing a lot just wanted to be a bit detailed running late 2009 Macbook Pro 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 4GB 1067 MHz DDR3 running snow leopard hope you guys can hook me up =)

Toast Titanium is not going to do what you want in the way of video editing but can handle burning discs. You would need other editing software I suggest looking at some of the tutorials on iLife 11 or Final Cut Express.

I don't know if you have a PC or not, but if I had an option (I got my Mac and FCP software for free) I would go with Avid or some similar PC advanced editing software. Previous to FCP, I used Windows Movie Maker in PC and found it very easy to work with. Working with Final Cut Pro in Mac/Apple has been one frustration after another. It is obtuse and non-intuitive, and like the iPod with audio MP3 files, it doesn't play well with others (i.e. MTS video files).

@rankuma: Unfortunately, your problems stem from your lack of spending time with the application. You came from using MovieMaker which is one of the simplest forms of video editing tools out there. If you had come from another video editing platform (ie: Adobe Premiere) you would have understood FCP out of the box much more easily. I have a feeling if after you had used MovieMaker you sat down at premiere and tried to use it (not elements, but full premiere) you'd have been just as lost (before I switched to Mac and FCP, I on the PC side used Adobe Premiere, Pinnacle Liquid Edition (later Avid Liquid after Avid bought pinnacle), Speed Razor (which I hated), FAST Video Machine and a few others here and there - all had different features, but they all worked similarly - and all were different and more complex then Movie Maker which I have also used for slide shows). Instead of looking to understand the differences, you tried to force FCP to work how you thought it should rather then how it actually does.

@rockmetalr: As with what slydude suggested, before you spend money on another editing tool, you should see if iMovie will cover your needs (iMovie is part of iLife and should already be on your Mac. Your version is probably dated unless you've updated iLife). If it won't I'd next suggest to look into Premiere Elements (next cheapest option at $99), then FCE (stripped down version of FCP) which is $199 (or was, it may be only available as new-old stock now, not sure if it was removed from the market since FCPX came out). If FCE won't cover you, then it's time to research some other apps, FCPX may work for you (it's got limitations that cause problems for professional use but they may not affect you because those missing features are usually ones pro use would require - but I'd do research first before jumping on FCPX to make sure you don't need any of those missing features), and you can always look at Premiere CS5 or Avid Media Composer or Edius. CS5, Media Composer and Edius will most likely fall outside of your budget unless you're a student where you can get the Student discount

ramkuma said:

It is obtuse and non-intuitive, and like the iPod with audio MP3 files, it doesn't play well with others (i.e. MTS video files).

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While agree to an extent that FCP is a PITA, I dont think that analogy is fair.

iPods read a variety of formats. just because it doesn't read FLAC or OGG files, it doesn't mean it "doesn't play well with others."

Whats up to respond to you all thanks for the comments and Slydude I've used iMovie literaly 3 times and once i failed 2nd time it worked and 3rd i edited the video and didn't like the results i got. Guess it wouldn't hurt to try a 4th time with tutorial instructions along with it? =p and
@ramkuma I miss Windows movie maker fast and simple but honestly didn't see any video quality improvement in neither WMM OR iMovie even when saved at the highest resolution available something that i find important and need.
@Nethfel Yeah I'll retry iMovie again but honestly feel like there is better but probably because I havent checked out the tutorials yet I'll try to make a 5 min edited video tomorrow along with tutorials before i can either keep iMovie as an option or move on.
I'll start to research these names tomorrow as well of these programs and yes I am a student my good man so maybe i can get a little bit of discount for that program that i have never heard in my life lol.

for home movie editing, iMovie is hard to beat for ease of use and features. Note that any video editing takes getting used to . . . the nature of editing video is foreign (and often not intuitive) to most folks at first. Final Cut is fantastic (well, except for the new FCP X) but have waaayyy more features (and hence, complexity) than you'd need for basic editing of home movies.

Entering the realm of video editing will give you a whole new appreciation for why you need to shoot an hour of video to get 10 or 15 minutes of good quality edited video. It takes time (often, a lot of it), but it sure useful to have edited video of memorable event rather than 3 tapes full of raw footage.

Take a breather, get a book or a video tutorial on iMovie and go through it without the pressure of a deadline and I think you will see that it's actually a pretty awesome program that can be as simple or complex as 99.5% of non-professional editors need it to be, but you've got to get into their mindset.

The tutorial videos on Apple's iLife web page are outstanding and I encourage you to give them a try first. Yes, there are alternative programs, but they are all (without exception) more complex than iMovie.

Nevermind. Misread post I was referring to...

move along...

nothing to see here...