Videomaker Editing Software Buyer's Guide

Videomaker by Doug Dixon

The range of the video editing software market has been remarkably stable over the past decade or so, with a clear divide between "consumer" tools in the $50 to $100 to $150 range, and "professional" tools from the likes of Adobe, Apple, Avid and Sony, starting at around $700 to $800.

If we were talking about jeans or jewelry, some entrepreneur would have filled that price gap with an in-between product, or competition would have driven down the price on the high end. Instead, the spread has remained in editing tools, as new technology has poured into the pro products, including higher quality from HD video, surround sound, deep color and 24p film editing; broader sharing via syncing to portable devices, uploading online, and burning to DVD and Blu-ray; expanding format support from DV to MPEG-2 to HDV, to tapeless AVCHD, to video DSLR and pro cameras; and faster workflow from real-time preview to graphics acceleration and 64-bit editing. It never ends!

Even better, all that technology is not just for the high end - "Consumer" no longer means "beginner" for video editing. Consumers no longer want to be limited to an easy step-by-step tool. Instead they want access to the kinds of effects they see on television, with multi-track editing and lots of effects. read more...