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. However with a little help to remain focused on what is important you should be able to 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.

All of the major home video editing software companies offer camcorder to DVD video editing solutions that make them almost inseparable from each other. So concentrate on what you REALLY need.

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 determined by your camcorder or your DVD recorder or whatever the source of your material is. Take note of the format your device records in and make sure that one 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 similar? Make sure the software you choose can output to the format you want.

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.

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 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 have 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 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 either cuts to the next scene with no transition, this is called cut or a straight cut. It fades to black then fades into the next scene from black called a cross fade through black. Or, finally, the two scenes merge into each other softly and this one is called a cross fade. There you have it, pretty well the entire gamut of transitions that professional video editors use!

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. 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 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 footage is 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!