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Video Editing software - Any recommendations?
NigelH:
I used Serif MoviePlus X5 recently and was fairly pleased
The manual is here movieplus5.pdf
As a paid option, you can find it for as low as $33 shipped (USA of course)
IainB:
I have found that the market offers plenty of options for what looks like good video editing software.
However, from experience, it pays to try it out ("suck-it-and-see") before you can establish whether it is good for your requirements.
I say that because we often don't usually have a clear or definitive list of our peculiar requirements when we start out, and each person's requirements could be different. So if you ask them "What video editing software would you recommend?", you will get a wide response that might not be of much use in practice.
For example, being completely new to the field of video cameras, I was wanting to be able to take decent HD (High Definition) family video, and last year I chanced across a good starter video camera - a Sony HDRCX110 Handycam Camcorder at a bargain price. It was a half-priced, new refurbished product. (I usually prefer to buy refurbished new technology products at half price than at new retail prices). The Camcorder can take HD video - 1920 x 1080 standard. I used the video editing software that came with the camera, and it did a great job, but I felt it might be a bit limited in features.
So I tried another video editor - I think it was the Microsoft Live media video editor, or something, and it did a great job and was easy to use, except that it reduced the whole video to a lower definition/resolution standard - which probably makes it useless for my purposes. So I continue to use the video editing software that came with the camera, and which gets free updates by Sony from time to time.
So, one of my requirements - a new and mandatory one - could be defined as "Video editing software must be able to input, edit and output HD 1920 x 1080 standard without loss/degradation."
Do you think you might have those sorts of - as yet undiscovered/undefined - peculiar requirements?
If you do, then I would recommend that you try out as many video editors as you can, and that will probably help you to "discover" what it is that you actually need, as opposed to being in the self-constraint of what you or other people think you might need.
Renegade:
So, one of my requirements - a new and mandatory one - could be defined as "Video editing software must be able to input, edit and output HD 1920 x 1080 standard without loss/degradation."
-IainB (June 13, 2012, 08:09 PM)
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This is a pretty hefty requirement. The video camera (or source) that you're using MUST record in raw video and be lossless to start. If not, all is lost. That is, most video cameras use some kind of compression because video is simply ungodly large on disk. But once you have that, you likely need a dedicated video disk for the massive files from the camera/source.
I haven't checked, but I find it unlikely that most consumer level video editing suites would process raw video simply because most consumer level cameras use compression.
I would check out Media Chance though. Roman (the owner) is detail-oriented, and my guess is that he'd go that route. (I haven't checked though.) Otherwise, check other professional-level software first to see what they do, then search again for any possible cheaper software that will do the same.
4wd:
So, one of my requirements - a new and mandatory one - could be defined as "Video editing software must be able to input, edit and output HD 1920 x 1080 standard without loss/degradation."
-IainB (June 13, 2012, 08:09 PM)
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This is a pretty hefty requirement.-Renegade (June 13, 2012, 11:09 PM)
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It isn't, AviDemux has had this ability for at least a couple of years, VideoReDo, (mainly MPEG2), has had it for longer, VirtualDub can do it and I think Vegas also can do it.
Re-encoding will only happen if:
* a filter has been applied to the video, (ie. colour changes, resolution transformations, etc),
* a cut has not occurred on a key frame, or
* you are changing the output format, eg. H.264 -> MPEG2.
If it's all a simple cut/join edit and a cut doesn't not occur on a key frame then only the section between the last key frame and the next will be encoded. In my case, that's one key frame every, at most, 250 frames - so any section that needs to be re-encoded won't be longer than 10 seconds, (PAL = 25fps). I always try to make cuts on key frames so there isn't any need to re-encode but sometimes it can't be helped.
The two basic rules to minimise re-encoding, (assuming your program can do smart-rendering):
* output format = input format, (this means codec, resolution, frame rate, etc)
* no video transformations, (no cropping, resizing, filters)
You can muck around as you like with the audio.
IainB:
This is a pretty hefty requirement...
-Renegade (June 13, 2012, 11:09 PM)
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Well, I am a rank amateur, so maybe I should have referred to the .m2ts format, which is the file extension of the video files that are transferred from the camera to disk. :tellme:
The software that I use and that came with the camera and handles the .m2ts video files is PMB (Picture Motion Browser).
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