09-23-2013, 09:47 AM
Video Pad Video Editing Software
Download Here
VideoPad is NCH Software's answer to Windows Movie Maker and all those other "entry level" editing programs. I say "entry level" because it does support a lot of very basic features, but has some nice slightly more advanced skill set features as well.
I've chosen to list it here because it actually has a pretty nice capture option for recording from an external device... and it's a program I've used many times in the past to record from a console.
Multitrack video and audio processing, picture in picture, 3d video editing, transitions, overlays and chroma key. All pretty nice stuff to have... if you know how to use it.
Dozens of options for output formats and presets... plus custom options... mean you can save your video however you'd like it.
The Good
Much like Debut (and 99% of all other NCH software), VideoPad comes with either a Free or Premium package. There's next to no difference between the two other than, like Debut, your options of containers to save your video into. It uses the same codec library as Debut so there's no need for separate downloads of codecs and all that when saving your video.
Multitrack video and audio editing is a very nice feature to have if you're trying to make a compilation type video. Say you and a buddy 8 states away are trying to make a talk show type video for reviews or a parody of some entertainment news type show. You record your video, they record theirs. Whoever edits the video puts both files on separate tracks and trims out what isn't needed from each so there's a seamless cut from You to Cowboy Joe Jangles, your dear friend.
Same thing with audio too. It's very easy to edit multiple clips together in this software. Say you and Cowboy Joe Jangles, your dear friend, and yourself are doing some post commentary over Skype on a terrible video you recorded but you, darn it all, can't record the call audio for some reason or another. C.J.J., y.d.f, sends you his recorded audio for you to edit along side your own recorded audio.
Well, drop that video and the two audio clips into VideoPad... synch em up... adjust volume for all the clips till it's just right and save it to any one of a ton of output formats or upload it directly to YouTube, Facebook or Flickr from the software itself.
Tons of effects and transitions and options to fancy up your video if you're needed em are built in to the software... plus it has the ability to work with popular plugins for other software like VirtualDub.
And we can't not talk about the capture option in here. It's pretty darn good. Defaulting to save into an mp4 container with either an mpeg4 codec (my favorite) or an h264 (good but slower), with great sound and a nice high (but not too high) bit rate means your video capture will be quick and clean and have very little chance of desynch (based on your system performance of course). The program can then just pop that video you recorded into VideoPad and you can add effects, captions or even record narration (post commentary) right over top of it, adjust your levels and upload right from the software. How neat is that?
The Bad
Well the interface isn't super great. It takes a little getting used to and the "zoom in" can be a bit weird often going from not close enough to waaaaay too close. It's not a deal breaker but can make precision editing a bit annoying.
The default time options for putting in static images are a little too short. I haven't seen a place to change the default (3 seconds) to something longer, though you can change it before you add the clip to the time line... just when you know most of your projects are 20+ minutes, it can be a tad annoying.
The editing in the program for things like cropping is a bit weird and I'm not terribly fond of it. Though if I spent more time with it I could figure it out and make it work for me.
The Chroma Key is a neat feature, as is the picture in picture, for free software and it works fairly well. This would be something you face cam kids should be all up into. Again, I don't play with it much so it's a bit unfamiliar to me. I do know when I tried it in the past I had some color issues but that may be fixed in the newer versions.
The Last Word
Well... do you like Windows Live Movie Maker but wish it could do just a little bit more when it comes to editing? Sony Vegas and Pinnacle a bit too complicated? Don't have 8 Brazillion dollars for Adobe stuff? This is a great alternative. The program is fast, it's cheap (or free!) and can almost fit on a couple of floppy disks.
It's not "power software" by any means, but it'll get the job done. And, I might add, get it done well.
Sure there's a lot of features that I, as a Let's Player, never use but in the past when working on music video projects or other little things that require more precision editing then I can get with Movie Maker it's always been a great bit of software.
And the capture works wonderfully. Though sometimes you'll need to find something to run it through to deinterlace the video depending on what you're recording.
All in all if you're looking for some new editing software to try... this is great. Didn't like recording console stuff with Debut? Try this. Sick of other programs taking a million years to compile a video? This can do it for ya.
Overall: A-
Download Here
VideoPad is NCH Software's answer to Windows Movie Maker and all those other "entry level" editing programs. I say "entry level" because it does support a lot of very basic features, but has some nice slightly more advanced skill set features as well.
I've chosen to list it here because it actually has a pretty nice capture option for recording from an external device... and it's a program I've used many times in the past to record from a console.
Multitrack video and audio processing, picture in picture, 3d video editing, transitions, overlays and chroma key. All pretty nice stuff to have... if you know how to use it.
Dozens of options for output formats and presets... plus custom options... mean you can save your video however you'd like it.
The Good
Much like Debut (and 99% of all other NCH software), VideoPad comes with either a Free or Premium package. There's next to no difference between the two other than, like Debut, your options of containers to save your video into. It uses the same codec library as Debut so there's no need for separate downloads of codecs and all that when saving your video.
Multitrack video and audio editing is a very nice feature to have if you're trying to make a compilation type video. Say you and a buddy 8 states away are trying to make a talk show type video for reviews or a parody of some entertainment news type show. You record your video, they record theirs. Whoever edits the video puts both files on separate tracks and trims out what isn't needed from each so there's a seamless cut from You to Cowboy Joe Jangles, your dear friend.
Same thing with audio too. It's very easy to edit multiple clips together in this software. Say you and Cowboy Joe Jangles, your dear friend, and yourself are doing some post commentary over Skype on a terrible video you recorded but you, darn it all, can't record the call audio for some reason or another. C.J.J., y.d.f, sends you his recorded audio for you to edit along side your own recorded audio.
Well, drop that video and the two audio clips into VideoPad... synch em up... adjust volume for all the clips till it's just right and save it to any one of a ton of output formats or upload it directly to YouTube, Facebook or Flickr from the software itself.
Tons of effects and transitions and options to fancy up your video if you're needed em are built in to the software... plus it has the ability to work with popular plugins for other software like VirtualDub.
And we can't not talk about the capture option in here. It's pretty darn good. Defaulting to save into an mp4 container with either an mpeg4 codec (my favorite) or an h264 (good but slower), with great sound and a nice high (but not too high) bit rate means your video capture will be quick and clean and have very little chance of desynch (based on your system performance of course). The program can then just pop that video you recorded into VideoPad and you can add effects, captions or even record narration (post commentary) right over top of it, adjust your levels and upload right from the software. How neat is that?
The Bad
Well the interface isn't super great. It takes a little getting used to and the "zoom in" can be a bit weird often going from not close enough to waaaaay too close. It's not a deal breaker but can make precision editing a bit annoying.
The default time options for putting in static images are a little too short. I haven't seen a place to change the default (3 seconds) to something longer, though you can change it before you add the clip to the time line... just when you know most of your projects are 20+ minutes, it can be a tad annoying.
The editing in the program for things like cropping is a bit weird and I'm not terribly fond of it. Though if I spent more time with it I could figure it out and make it work for me.
The Chroma Key is a neat feature, as is the picture in picture, for free software and it works fairly well. This would be something you face cam kids should be all up into. Again, I don't play with it much so it's a bit unfamiliar to me. I do know when I tried it in the past I had some color issues but that may be fixed in the newer versions.
The Last Word
Well... do you like Windows Live Movie Maker but wish it could do just a little bit more when it comes to editing? Sony Vegas and Pinnacle a bit too complicated? Don't have 8 Brazillion dollars for Adobe stuff? This is a great alternative. The program is fast, it's cheap (or free!) and can almost fit on a couple of floppy disks.
It's not "power software" by any means, but it'll get the job done. And, I might add, get it done well.
Sure there's a lot of features that I, as a Let's Player, never use but in the past when working on music video projects or other little things that require more precision editing then I can get with Movie Maker it's always been a great bit of software.
And the capture works wonderfully. Though sometimes you'll need to find something to run it through to deinterlace the video depending on what you're recording.
All in all if you're looking for some new editing software to try... this is great. Didn't like recording console stuff with Debut? Try this. Sick of other programs taking a million years to compile a video? This can do it for ya.
Overall: A-
==========
Support The Groove Machine!: https://www.patreon.com/jasonsgroovemachine
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jasonsgroovemachine
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JasonGrvin
Support The Groove Machine!: https://www.patreon.com/jasonsgroovemachine
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jasonsgroovemachine
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JasonGrvin