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Not to be a Fan Boy, but I've tried a lot of them, and IMHO Movie Studio and Vegas Pro are dollar for dollar the best video production tools you can buy.

Google for LightWorks; it's PRO and has a very steep learning curve, but it is free and very powerful.

I've tried most of them, recently had a go with Lightworks, takes ages to get video files into the project and I don't find it very easy to get on with, also have adobe premier elements but this is also a bit of a fart on,I use Vegas Platinum and it really is the simplest and best video editing software I've used, I don't see myself changing any time soon.

If you can find and download the good old Windows Movie Maker (not the strange Windows Live version) you do get a nice tool with more than 1 video and audio tracks in the time line etc. (as far as I remember, at least)

Above that Vegas Movie Studio - and if you need more then Vegas Pro.

Thanks for all the replies. I don’t wish this to turn in a rant but I was at the end of wits with Vegas and wanted to see what else was out there.

I have Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 and it’s a real Jekyll and Hyde for me, sometime it works flawlessly and it's a joy, easy to use and understand for a middling editor like myself, I mainly edit street-luge videos to upload to FB or show to friends so all I'm interested in are simple straightforward things like transitions, fades and the odd 'fast-forwarding'.

I've been using a Drift Innovation HD 170 camera for sometime now. I'm confident the variables involved have remain consistent i.e. the camera, the computing hardware yet Vegas will work flawlessly one day working with material from the same camera and another day refuse to work at all without anything changing, maddening things like throwing up a low memory error as soon as render is initiated when there is clearly plenty of memory going on the system in task manager or saying there’s an unknown error straightaway again and again or the GUI disappearing all together.

I'm aware of the various settings and workarounds, I have a long list of them and have most of them taken care off e.g. reducing dynamic preview RAM, rendering threads, using CFF explorer and all that, you name it, I've tried it so please don’t think I've just turned up without doing any work myself to get a stable setup.

My nightmare is the unpredictable unreliability. I want consistency.

You should give the trial of version 12 a go. In my case, I saw a huge performance jump, but be warned: not all users were happy with version 12.

Windows Live Movie Maker is very suitable (and fast!) for simple projects.

The 'old' Movie Maker had 1 video tack, one title track, one audio track and one comment track.

You'll need the Live version to edit the more recent camera files!

VMSP12 hasn't always been my best friend, but history says VMS 13 should be out within a couple of months (I hope), and I'm really hoping that is going to be a much better version. Having said that, I still find it better than anything else I've used. Cin

I use Vegas Pro 12 but when I need some cheezy stuff I also use Corel Video Studio X5. I haven't upgraded to the latest version X6 because there are no features I need but works well for basic stuff and cheezy templates.

You can compare the different version here:
http://www.corel.com/static/product_content/vsp/x6/VSPX6_Matrix_EN.pdf

I'll put in my two-penny-worth to this debate.

I have used many video editing programs over the years... Premiere, Pinnacle, Corel, Microsoft etc. I was once a huge devotee of Premiere but basically got to the stage where I could not really afford to keep up with its releases. At the time, Sony Vegas Movie Studio was, if I remember correctly, a kind of spin off from Vegas by Sonic? I think that Sony bought Sonic's products (I may be totally wrong about this).

Anyway, I had read good things but must confess I was surprised at the pricing for Sony Vegas Movie Studio. I doubted that any software tackling a serious video-editing solution could not possibly sell for the price that SVMS did. It seemed too good to be true. Well, in my humble opinion - it is a frankly amazing piece of software for the money.

True, it has its failings - but show me a program that doesn't!!! I have purchased version 8 (?) right through to version 12 64bit and it just gets better, with fewer bugs, and smoother processes. If money was no object I would buy Vegas Pro but I honestly can't really think that it would much improve my final video edits or the processes involved along the way to produce my final edits.

When I initially switched to SVMS I must confess I wasn't totally convinced at the time — but this was (predictably) just down to me having to get used to a new piece of software and its different ways of achieving an end result. But the 'learning curve' was relatively short and I soon realised that SVMS was highly intuitive and could basically do more or less anything I needed to do with chunks of video and audio. Like anything else - you can't expect to immediately be familiar with a new product (especially when you have been using something else for ages).

I am never 100% happy with any software (or hardware) I buy - which is testament to how fussy I am. However, when factoring in the price and considering the wide array of functionality, then if anyone can tell me there's a better video editing program out there... well I am all ears!!!

...come on them. There's a challenge!!

Sony Vegas Movie Studio — not perfect, but getting closer all the time, and more importantly... I can afford to keep up with it as it gets there.

I can spend more money on a night out in a pub with a meal and drinks than I do on my edition of SVMS12. Difference is that I get HOURS and HOURS of creative fun out of video editing — not just a sore head in the morning!! I also end up with, what i consider, to be great videos that will last me for many years and provide wonderful visual memories, in clear HD with top-notch audio.

Viddy

Well said Viddy. I couldn't agree more. However, if you just venture to the Vegas Pro part of the forum you'll find that there are a lot more users dissatisfied with the faults with Pro than there are with the, in my opinion, very few faults with VMS.

MS Windows LIve Movie Maker and LightWorks were suggested -
IMHO, WLMM is practically a nightmare - but then it is in Storybook made, so less intuitive than SVMS. However, the lack of tracks and effects means you are severely limited in what you can do . . . and as others here have suggested SVMS really is a bargain, even though there are some additions we'd all like to see.

LightWorks isn't free as I understand - if you want to Edit Standard Definition then it is . . . but as even modest Still Cameras can produce HD footage, you need a plug-in to permit the import . . . . worth checking?
+One of the real benefits of LWKS I thought was the dedicated Keyboard on offer, but whilst it's no more than other "Dedicated" keyboards, they all appear to lack good user-experience for frequently-needed keys, rather it is a coloured version of a normal QWERTY keyboard . . . . such a pity.

( And there is a Pro Console too, - but you can buy a pair of camcorders for that cost...DYOR).

More alternatives: Consumer video editors