The Best DVD Editing Software

Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 comes packed with a punch. It comes with a nice collection of upgrades that will not only save you big chunks of time, but they will pay for themselves with the amount of work you could be doing. As Michael Testi puts it “Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 attempts to reduce the complex process that is video production. It does this by including copies of the products Adobe OnLocation CS4 and Adobe Encore CS4 to try to make each step of the video production more efficient and giving you more time to work your story”.

Among the many upgrades, here are the few that I consider the best. First, the support for HD video, both on the hardware edge and on the software edge. That is, the support for AVCHD cameras and the support for full HD Blu-Ray auhoring. This one is something everybody wanted. Now you can connect your HD Digital Camcorder to the computer and start working on your video in minutes. When you finish, just pop in a Blu-ray disc and you are done (well almost).

Second, the batch encoders. Now on Premiere CS4 you can easily render HD videos, DVD’s and SWF (Flash) files from the same master. It might not seem like a big deal, but it will save you a tremendous amount of time. Add to this that you can directly export your video to Encore CS4 and you have 3 distribution channels for the price (and time) of one.

Lastly, there is a nice additional feature that goes more into the breakthrough technology than the productivity suite. Adobe has included a speech recognition engine that automatically transcribes what is said in the video. This turns into keywords (for easy search) and full transcripts. Although it is not a very developed feature it has many possibilities and will surely flourish in upcoming updates.

Adobe Premiere just got better, if you are looking forward to improving your productivity and render the best professional videos, Adobe Premiere CS4 is your best bet.

Technorati Tags: Adobe, blu-ray, cs4, definition, dvd, editing, encore, flash, hd, high, onlocation, Premiere, professional, swf, video, youtube

Here is a mini tutorial by TalentedPixie.com about how to apply effects in Adobe Premiere CS3. It should also allow you to get a sense about how Adobe Premiere (and many other video editors) works. Take into account that this is a piece of software targeted to professionals, so you probably will not be seeing a very intuitive and clean User Interface (UI), but a more packed and efficiency driven one. That should not scare you though, once you get around the ropes with it, you will be doing things much faster and much easier. Then you will appreciate why the interface is like that.

Technorati Tags: Adobe, apply, cs3, editing, editor, effects, interface, nonlinear, Premiere, professional, ui, user, video

I spent the whole day yesterday figuring out Cinelerra. It is possibly one of the best video editing tools I have used so far. I will say it upfront: It is not user intuitive, period. I spent a few good hours watching over and over the tutorials at Cinelerra’s Documentation Page. I learned the most out of the video tutorials by The Source Show. As with most software, there were a few bugs and crashes, but if you follow the installation instructions for your distribution and steer clear of the know issues, you should be fine. I have tried other solutions, like Kino and KDEnlive, but none of them came close to the functionality and flexibility of Cinelerra.

So let’s summarize the pros and cons real fast.

PROS:

• Open Source (FREE)
• Works on Linux (Linux uses less memory and CPU power than Windows or MacOS)
• Extreme Flexibility
• Professional Quality results
• Tons of features

CONS:

• Poor design (horrible GUI)
• Steep Learning Curve
• Not intuitive at all
• ONLY works on Linux

OVERALL RATING: 4 out of 5

I truly believe that Cinelerra can be great and lacks only a few features of other professional video editing software packages. If you are serious about getting your video just right, or you do it professionally, but do not have the money to buy one of the high end products, Cinelerra is your best bet. You need to take some time to learn the different controls and just how the whole program works, but once you get that under your belt, you will be on your way to make professionally produced videos.

Technorati Tags: cinelerra, editing, linux, open source, professional, software, ubuntu, video