What to buy? Vegas Platinum HD 10 or Premiere Elements 8?

[A31]

**If this is in the wrong section, please feel free to move it!**

Hi all - I was using Nero Vision 4 (included in Nero 7) as my video editing software for a long while and for the most part I was pretty happy with it, but now I would like something a bit more powerful. I tried Nero Vision Xtra (included in Nero 10) for 15 days and found it to be pretty slow at loading and importing files etc.

I heard that Sony had released a new version of their Vegas video editing software called Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.0, so I went to the Sony website and downloaded the 30 day trial and installed it. (If I do buy Vegas, it will be the Production Suite because it also comes with Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio as well as Vegas Move Studio and only costs a few pounds more). I have been happy with Vegas Movie Studio so far and it is certainly faster than Nero Vision Xtra at loading etc...

I also went onto Adobe's website and downloaded the Premiere Elements 8 30 day trial and installed it, but I found it to be slow and bloated (like most Adobe products).

With video editing, I like to make casual movies and I use features such as the Chroma Key (which is rubbish in Vision Xtra but good in Vegas Movie Studio) and I like having lots of effects to play around with. I mainly make videos with my friend on are what are meant to be at locations I just dont have around here (like battlefields with tanks in the background etc), so this is where Greenscreening and Chrome Keying comes in handy for me.

I am running on a 2GB RAM, 3.0GHz Dual Core Pentium 4 HT with a clean install of Windows 7 Pro 64-bit (re-installed last night) and nearly 1TB of hard disk space (970GB) (not on the ThinkPad). I also have an NVIDIA Geforce 8400 GT 512MB PCI graphics card but soon will hopefully be upgrading to an NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT 1GB PCI-X card.

In your opinion, which video editing software is better for making just the casual home movie? Vegas Movie Studio or Premiere Elements 8? My price range is £70 max by the way (otherwise I'd most likely be looking at Vegas Pro or Premiere Pro, both of which cost hundreds of pounds)

These are the links I'd be looking at

Premiere http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ADOBE-PHOTOSHOP-P ... 3a5e178841

Vegas (with Sound Forge Audio Studio) http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SONY-Vegas-Movie- ... 588948beb0

Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated!

A31