Video Editing Software – Choosing The Best for You

Video editing software selection can look a little daunting when you start to see the range of products available. With some assistance in remaining focused on what is important you can make a good choice.

One of the key points to keep in mind is:

“What is it that I am I REALLY going to do with the video editing software that I choose?”

The answer to that question has to remain uppermost in your mind when selecting the best video editing software for you.

The well known video editing software makers provide camcorder to video file output editing solutions that are almost identical. So concentrate on what you REALLY need.

Like any other competitive market, video editing software is caught up in a never ending race to keep up with technology as it develops and still make the product seem “sexy” to the customer. The point being you most likely do not WANT to purchase video editing software. What you WANT is a finished video production.

The problem for the software company is that they know you NEED to buy video editing software but that is not what you WANT! They need to make you WANT it! And because of that we get “bells and whistles” features that make you WANT IT but most likely will never need.

Video File Formats

The first thing to establish is what is the format of the material you will be working with and what will be the formats that you will want to produce in the end. Input will be dictated by the camcorder or DVD recorder you use or what the origin of your files are. Find out the video file format your device use to record in and make sure it is covered first.

Then realistically take a look at how you would most likely distribute your final videos. DVD? Blu-Ray? Uploading to YouTube or something like it? Be certain the video software you select can produce to the format you need.

So, your first task in deciding on what video editing software is suitable for you is to work out what your most common source video files will be and what your most common video output will be. That covers the foundation of what you will be doing with the software and must remain as your main focal point.

Video Transitions

Transitions are the little inserts that go in between two clips to make the scene change. When you watch a movie you can see that when a scene changes it often cuts to the next scene with no transition, this is called cut or a straight cut. The scene fades down to black and then almost immediately the next scene fades up from black. Or, finally, the two scenes merge into each other softly and this one is called a cross fade. That’s it, the whole range of transitions you usually see in a professional production!

All video editing software programs offer at least 50 transitions each. Newbies use ALL the available transitions because they look cool the first time they see them. In reality no-one wants to return to their home ever again in case the new project is anything like the last one! Disregard transitions as a deciding point, every video editing software program has some and they all have more than you will need.

Video Overlay

An overlay track, simply put, is the ability to put one video in the background and have another visible on top of it. It is that “picture in picture” effect you have seen on TV and in movies. You can also add subtitles to overlay tracks or images or other things to get really creative. You need about five for good control but you would never use more than that otherwise, once again, no-one is going to want to watch the mess you have created!

Audio

There is no video editing software at the consumer level that offers truly excellent audio control and features. They are video editing programs not audio editing programs. Some have pretty good control, some don’t, if you are going to demand pro level audio then you need dedicated software for that.

The ability to handle Dolby 2 channel is a bare minimum and 5:1 Surround should be standard. The program should offer two audio tracks to play with in addition to the sound in the video track. That leaves you plenty of room for music, narration or effects.

Smart Render

Rendering is the term used when the video editing software is making the final file of your newly created video. Up until rendering, in any consumer level video editing software, all the cuts, additions, changes and adjustments you have been making are “virtual.” The original video files are never touched. So rendering puts all that together and produces your final video file in the format you have chosen as the viewing format.

Any of the highly compressed formats such as MPEG2 (for DVDs), MPEG4 etc invariably suffer from loss of quality when they are re-rendered. The degree of loss of quality varies but it is essential that any video editing software you choose has the ability to recognise those files it does not need to re-render and simply copy those sections resulting in the high quality possible being retained. It should also offer good control over the properties of the final video.

So there you have it, stay focused on what is important and keep the “gee whiz” stuff to a minimum and you will do fine!