All Things Video

Playing with Video: My Experiment

Free Video Editing Software

• Windows Movie Maker - Microsoft Windows Movie Maker 2.1 is an XP-only download that gives you the tools to create, edit, and share home movies. There is a Vista version, Window Movie Maker 6. This is a pretty good editor for the price. Read my review on my blog: Windows Movie Maker vs VideoSpin: Which is Best? (Part 4)

• VideoSpin is a freeware video editor with a few limits. No MPEG 2/4 support unless you ugrade ($5), but it has a few more features than you'll find in WMM. Also VideoSpin will give you more features for an inexpensive price when you're ready to move up in the world of video editing.

•  Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports many file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs. Tasks can be automated using projects, job queue and powerful scripting capabilities. It imports most common file types and exports video or audio ready for iPod, the Web or playback on a set top DVD player.

Open Source Movie Maker Alternatives

Online Video Editing

• JayCut
• muveeMix
• JumpCut (Shutting down soon)
• Motionbox
• One True Media
• Cuts

For a comparison of features, check out: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2124596,00.asp

• Movie Masher
• stashSpace
• Clesh

One thing you have to know about working with video online, the end result will be Flash Video (.flv) files. It has become the default video format on the web and most online video sites use FLV to stream videos online.

Online Video Editing Reading

• Flash Video Editing Made Simple - Learn Everything about FLV Videos
• 5 Free Online Video Editing Sites Reviewed
• Video Editing 2.0: 8 Ways to Remix Online Videos - ReadWriteWeb

Commercial Video Editing Software

Video Editing Software Review - TopTenReviews reviewed 10 of the top video editing sotware packages available today and chose PowerDirector their Gold choice. It's $70 for the Deluxe and $120 for Ultra. Ultra gives you more features, like Blue-ray disc and DVD disc authoring, and the ability to work with the AVCHD video format, which is big if you have a Sony or Panasonic HD camera. Most of the packages have a basic package and an upgraded package with HD support and more DVD authoring support like PowerDirector offers. Here are the 10 packages ranked in order according to TopTenReviews:

• PowerDirector
• VideoStudio - Ulead
• Pinnacle Studio
• Premiere Elements - Adobe
• ShowBiz DVD - ArcSoft
• EasyMedia Creator - Roxio
• DVD Movie Factory - Ulead
• Vegas Movie Studio - Sony Creative
• Nero
• MoviePlus - Serif

System Requirements for Video Editing on a PC

• AVI Capture/Production: Pentium 2 450 MHz or AMD Athlon 500 MHz
• VCD Quality (MPEG-1) Profiles: Pentium 3 600 MHz or AMD Athlon 700 MHz
• DVD Quality (MPEG-2)profiles: Pentium 4 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 2200+
• High Quality MPEG-4 and WMV, QuickTime, RealVideo Profiles: Pentium4 2.4 Ghz or AMD Athlon XP 2400+
• AVCHD and MPEG-2 HD Profiles: Pentium Core 2 Duo E6400 or Athlon 64 X2 5000+

Commonly Used Codecs & Format Standards

Format, or codec, is the means by which the video compresses.  It’s like choosing the type of pencil that you use to draw a picture.  For Windows Media, you’ll want to use Version 9, which is the most widely accepted.  For Quicktime, the two best codecs are Sorenson 3 and H.264. Here is a list of most familiar codecs from Wikipedia.

• H.264 - the next-generation video compression technology in the MPEG-4 standard, also known as MPEG-4 Part 10. H.264 can match the best possible MPEG-2 quality at up to half the data rate. H.264 also delivers excellent video quality across the entire bandwidth spectrum — from 3G to HD and everything in between (from 40 Kbps to upwards of 10 Mbps)
• H.261 - Used primarily in older videoconferencing and videotelephony products.
• MPEG-1 - Used for Video CDs, and also sometimes for online video.
• MPEG-2 - widely used as the format of digital television signals that are broadcast by over-the-air, cable, and satellite systems.
• H.263 - Used primarily for videoconferencing, videotelephony, and internet video.
• Sorenson Spark - for Flash Player 6
• MPEG-4 - commonly used for streaming video on the internet, videophone style conversation, broadcast television, and CD distribution.
• DivX, Xvid, 3ivx - popular due to its ability to compress lengthy video segments into small sizes while maintaining relatively high visual quality.
• WMV - Microsoft's family of video codec.
• RealVideo - RealNetworks codec. Not so popular any  more
• Complete List of Codecs

Video File Formats

• My List
• File Formats Glossary