Video Editing Software - Choosing The Best for You

Choosing the best video editing software can seem a daunting task given the wide range of products available at the moment. 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.

Video editing software makers are engaged in an ongoing race to track with new technology as it evolves and still make the product appeal to the customer. The point is you probably don’t WANT to buy 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. Take note of the format your device records in and make sure that one is covered first.

Then decide how you would be most likely to distribute your final videos. DVD? Blu-Ray? Uploading to YouTube or similar? 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 represents the core of what you will be using the software for and should be your main focus.

Video Transitions

Transitions are the little inserts that go in between two clips to make the scene change. If you look at a movie you will notice when the scene changes it sometimes 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 cram in all the transitions they can because the effect looks so cool when they first see them. The reality is NOBODY ever, ever wants to go back to their house again to look at their latest production because their heads are still spinning from the last one! Ignore transitions as a deciding factor, all video editing software programs have them and they all have more than you 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 put subtitles in an overlay track or still photos or a bunch of other things to really get 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 not audio editing programs they are video editing programs. Some offer reasonably good control and some do not, if you really want professional audio features you should have specialist software to do that.

The ability to handle Dolby 2 channel is a bare minimum and 5:1 Surround should be standard. The software should have two audio tracks to work with as well as the audio already in the video track. That provides sufficient leeway for adding narration, music or other effects.

Smart Render

Rendering is the term used when the video editing software is making the final file of your newly created video. Until you render the final video file all the changes, cuts, additions and editing decisions you have made are only “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 amount of quality lost is variable but it is vital that the video editing software you select can identify files that don’t need to be re-rendered and just copy them to keep the highest quality possible. It should also offer good control over the properties of the final video.

Well that’s the basics covered so remember to keep your attention on the important stuff and try not to get pulled into the “bells and whistles” stuff and you should be able to make a good choice!