\n\tToday, video editing has become a completely mainstream technology, with countless video editing products on the market. Here are five video editing apps worth checking out.
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\n\tNote: If you’d prefer to view this information as a blog post, check out this entry in our Five Apps blog.
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\n\tPhoto: iStockphoto.com/iLexx
\n\tPinnacle Studio (Figure A) has been around practically forever. It provides a good balance between ease of use and a solid set of features. Overall, the software does a really nice job — however, it’s a little bit buggy. I have had some problems with the live preview occasionally freezing on me.
\n\tPinnacle Studio uses a timeline method for video editing, in which elements such as video clips, music, sound effects, and video effects are arranged along a timeline so that you can place each element at precisely the right spot within the video you are creating.
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\n\tPinnacle Studio HD Ultimate sells online for $79.95
\n\tCamtasia also includes a smart zoom feature that automatically zooms in on the area of the screen where you are working so that fine details are better seen in the finished video.
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\n\tCamtasia Studio sells online for $299.00
\n\tCorel VideoStudio Pro is designed to add polish to your home movies. Like most of the other products I have worked with, it lets you add video clips and other elements to your project in a linear fashion to form the finished video. Your projects can include things like graphics, titles, transitions, and special effects.
\n\tCorel VideoStudio Pro seems to work relatively well, but I did have trouble installing it on one of my lab machines. I received a message stating that the installation failed — no reason, no apologies. Fortunately, this seems to have been an isolated incident.
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\n\tCorel VideoStudio Pro sells online for $99.00.
\n\tVideoPad Video Editor also lets you add polish to your movies. It has all the basics of video editing covered and offers numerous options for creating disks (CD, DVD, Blu-ray), media files, and for uploading videos directly to YouTube.
\n\tOne of my favorite features is the set of audio editing tools. VideoPad Video Editor includes multi-track sound-mixing software that lets you blend voice-over, music, sound effects, and pretty much anything else you can dream up.
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\n\tPerhaps the coolest thing about this app is that NCH offers a free version for noncommercial use. If you want all the bells and whistles, the Master’s Edition is available online for $69.95
\n\tCyberLink PowerDirector has most of the same features as the other video editors I have discussed, but it also offers 3D support. You can create 3D videos that use the old school red and blue anaglyphic 3D glasses or you can create a full-blown 3D Blu-ray disk.
\n\tI didn’t have any native 3D content to test with PowerDirector, but it lets you convert 2D content into 3D. I really wasn’t expecting much from this feature, but I was surprised by just how good my 2D videos looked in 3D.
* 1988 - Started teaching myself about computers \ * 1992 - Mainframe programmer for an insurance company \ * 1993 - Network Administrator for a different insurance company \ * 1996 - Author for The Cobb Group \ * 1998 - Network Administrator for Fort Knox \ * 1999 - CIO for chain of hospitals \ * 2000 - Gave up the corporate rat race to work out of my home. I have been a full time technical author ever since. Visit my Web sites at http://www.brienposey.com and http://www.relevanttechnologies.com \
