Videoguys' Real-Time NLE

Videoguys' Real-Time NLE

Never before have we seen such a wide choice of top-notch, powerful and feature rich video editing software choices. We are entering a golden age of digital video editing & production. A time when the power and performance of your computer are leveraged by innovative video editing software that delivers real-time performance that just a year or two ago required proprietary hardware accelerators and the complexities that come with installing new hardware in your computer. Adobe Premiere Pro, Pinnacle Liquid Edition, Sony Pictures Vegas 4 and Avid Xpress Pro are all great products loaded with all the tools and features you need for even the most complex long format video productions. This article will point out some of the particular strengths of each product and what I like most about them.

System Requirements
Before we get into these hot new video editing software titles, lets talk about what you need to get the most out of them. All of these products have one crucial thing in common – they take full advantage of today's blazing fast computers. They are optimized for Hyperthreading, dual processors, the latest Direct X 3D graphics cards, fast Ram and even faster front side buses. The more power you give them, the more impressed you will be! Conversely, putting any of these apps in a sub-standard PC will leave you wondering what all the fuss is about. So I suggest you avoid using a system that barely meets the minimum recommended system requirements. Here are my recommended guidelines for a minimum system configuration that will leave you very satisfied without breaking the bank.

2.4 + Ghz Hyper-Threaded P4 processor or Dual 1.8 Ghz P4/ Athlon
512+ Megs of RAM
A dedicated 7200 RPM drive for video (can be EIDE, FireWire, SCSI or Serial ATA)
A decent 3D graphics card with 64+ Megs of RAM. (I recommend a dual head card - once you go dual you'll never go back)

Rather than compare the products head-to-head, I'm going to take a different approach. First I'm going to give a quick comment on the real-time performance of the software. Next I'm going to list the features I feel are most outstanding. Finally I'll also include a couple of wish list items that I'd like to see added or fixed in the next versions. But first I'd like to talk about a very important feature that all of these NLEs excel at – Color Correction.

Color Correction
Color Correction is a very important feature and one that I am happy to say all of the products featured in this article do exceptionally well. In fact, I'd say that the color correction tools offered go far beyond what many users need or would actually use.

And let me tell you – if you shoot video like I do, you are going to need color correction. I can't even begin to tell you how often I shoot video that has poor white balance, or is too dark, or back lit. In the past that footage would end up on the cutting room floor. With the color correction tools provided by these new apps you'll be able to clean up your bad footage and use it. That alone makes it worth upgrading for.