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TOP SHAREWARE

Video Editing Software
by Scott Mendham

More people are using their PCs and the Internet to create and distribute video clips. Summertime also means holidays, parties, Christmas and other events you may want to preserve on video. While most video hardware comes with the manufacturers preferred collection of utilities, sometimes they are lacking certain features such as simplicity or special effects. And even if you don't have a capture card, you may still want to edit clips downloaded from the Internet or make your own animation from photographs. These tools can help you find an editing program to suit your needs. One issue to look keep an eye on is that many of these trial versions have limitations that may inhibit the length of video that can be edited or restrictions of other features such as the inability to save a file in certain formats. Home users can get started with VideoStudio, while semi-professionals and above may want to try MediaStudio or Premiere. Adobe After Effects can be used to add affects, or you can build your own movie frame-by-frame with AVI Constructor.
  • Adobe Premiere 5
    One of the market leaders in professional desktop video editing for broadcasting on the Internet, TV or video. It is a full featured editing suite that can also can be integrated with Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.


  • Adobe After Effects 4.1
    This feature-rich multimedia tool can create sophisticated motion graphics and visual effects for film, video, multimedia and the Internet. It is more suited for high-end or porfessional users, but home users can add extra effects to liven up videos for special occasions.


  • AVI Constructor 3.1
    AVI Constructor is a multimedia tool allowing you to quickly create AVI files from image (BMP, JPEG, or TGA) and sound files ( AVI or WAV files). This works a little like animation, instead of capturing a stream of video, you build a video frame by frame.


  • BitMorph 3.0
    BitMorph is an image warping and morphing program. This allows you to morph from one image to another in a staged sequence. This concept was used in many ads and music video clips in the early 90s.


  • iFilmEdit 1.4.5
    This is a simple editor for MPEG-1 files that can splice together separate MPEG files. It can also edit sound or video separately and perform other functions such as edge-clipping and deletion of unwanted frames.


  • MediaStudio Pro 6
    MediaStudio is a professional level video editing suite that includes capture facilities, video editing and paint tools, an audio editor and software package for creating animated titles.


  • MyFlix 2.0
    A multimedia tool for search, playing and editing MPEG videos. It has preview functions that allow you create thumbnails of the MPEG for easier viewing and management. Frame capture is also available and images can be saved as JPEGs or TIFFs.


  • Video Capturix 2000
    Video Capturix is a non linear video capture application. It lets you capture movies in AVI format from any Video for Windows video source. You can also freeze video images and save the image in BMP and JPEG format or copy the image to the Clipboard. The 'Autostart' function can schedule a date and time to start capturing, while the Motion Detector can start recording when video source changes. Other features include: an integrated movie viewer, the ability to print directly from any video source and insert copyright information into AVI files. You can also insert date, time and title information into your image and identify what codec compressed an AVI file.


  • VideoStudio 4
    VideoStudio is more suited to the home user. It integrates with camcorders, with the ability to capture, edit and then output high-quality video in both PAL and NTSC. It also includes FireWire/iLink (IEEE 1394) Support, Native MPEG-2 Support and MP3 Audio Input.


  • QuickTime 4.1.2
    View movies, MP3 files, and high-quality streaming video with this popular multimedia player. It supports most popular graphic and multimedia formats, including .bmp, .gif, .jpeg, .avi, MP3, Sorenson Video, and Flash.



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