5 apps for editing holiday video
With the digital video camera making its way into more and more homes — whether in the form of a full-featured camcorder, an ultracompact HD-only shooter or even your cell phone's built-in camera — having some good software to edit the resulting clips is becoming a necessity. Unfortunately, most of these modern recording devices don't come with very good editing software. And many don't come with any at all.
Luckily, there are plenty of great apps available for turning any expanding library of video clips into a home movie worthy of sharing with friends and family. Now is the perfect time of year to pick something up for the amateur shooter in your life, or even something for yourself , so you have time to throw something together for upcoming visits with loved ones. We've rounded up five great options for Windows users below below, and even one extra for those with a Mac in the house.
Nero Video Premium HD
Price: AU$79.95
In addition to including all of the standard video-editing tools you need, Video Premium HD offers Blu-ray disc authoring and playback as well as the Nero Creative CollectionPack. This feature pack consists of 50 unique transitions effects, a picture-in-picture effects generator with more than 65 layouts and 25 movie theme packs with menu templates, transitions, backgrounds and music tracks. In other words, you get everything you need to create fun and professional-looking home movies.
Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10
Price: Free to trial for 30-days, US$94.95 to buy.
Sony's Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 falls somewhere in the middle in terms of consumer video-editing programs. It's probably too advanced for most newbies, but those with some level of experience toying with digital video will find that it offers a nicely laid-out interface and plenty of features.
Corel VideoStudio Pro X3
Price: Free to trial for 30-days, US$99.95 to buy.
Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 presents a straightforward design and useful editing tools that new users can pick up right away. The program isn't as strong as professional apps, which can also cost much more, but there are nice tools above basic levels for editing videos and creating projects in multiple formats. The app also offers HD video features, as well as the ability to burn movies and upload video projects to social sites.
VideoSpirit Pro
Price: Free to trial (Watermark on output), US$59.95 to buy.
VideoSpirit Pro may take a bit longer to pick up on than the others. Although the program's interface is plain and uncluttered, it doesn't provide much in the way of direction for the first-time user. That said, it also lacks the transitions and extra effects of the others. So there's less to tinker with overall, which may make it less intimidating for some.
Editing videos is simply a matter of opening the desired files and arranging them in the appropriate positions on the timelines, dragging and dropping them into the desired positions. The program has several other useful features, including tools that let users join, split and convert video files and extract images from video footage.
RealPlayer
Price: Free
RealPlayer is quite a bit different than the other programs on this list, but we wanted to include it anyway because it is free and dead simple. Mostly, RealPlayer is a video catcher and transcoder for your portable devices, but what many don't know is that it also includes a very simple video-trimming tool. It's not the right choice for polished home videos, but it does provide a free way to quickly cut, split and join clips.
Honorable mention: iMovie
Price: Included on new Mac systems; AU$69 to upgrade
If one of your machines is a Mac, the integrated iLife suite provides pretty much all that you need for your multimedia needs. For editing home video, iMovie is more than adequate and it's easy to use and to boot. As with the others, though, there is a bit of a learning curve. Practice on some short videos first. And be prepared to get sucked in for heavy-duty editing.
Via CNET.com