iMovie+09+and+MediaEdit+3+Mac+Video+Editing+Software+Showdown

=I will be reviewing iMovie 09 by Apple Computer and MediaEdit 3 by Mien Software.= = = =[|iMovie 09]=

iMovie 09 was a radical departure from previous versions of iMovie. It was developed from the ground up by an Apple engineer who was an amateur videographer, not a professional. The new version was even easier to use than the original, if that were possible. But the trade-off for ease of use was a lack of fine control. To further complicate matters, the 2 versions file systems were not compatible.

There was an understandable uproar from people using the previous version. Apple has made the previous version available at no cost on it’s website and changed the name to iMovie HD. I will review iMovie 09 since that is the version that has shipped with all recent Macs.

Importing video from a camera couldn’t be easier, assuming you have the hard drive space. You hook up you camcorder and iMovie automatically imports the video and stores it as an “event”. It also senses each time the camera was turned off and saves them as individual “clips”.

When you launch iMovie it prompts you for a title and whether you want the project to be widescreen or standard ratio. You can also choose a theme and even have cross dissolve, the most commonly used transition, added automatically.

For this review I will be importing clips of my daughters on a swing that I recorded previously and saved to the computer. To do this, I need to go to File/Import to get the clips into iMovie.

Creating the video is now as easy and intuitive as word processing. The clips appear at the bottom of the screen. This is the “raw material” to make the video. You simply drag and drop the video to the box at the top of the screen to create the video. I dragged the video up there so I could begin editing. Editing the individual clips is a simple matter of selecting the sections you don’t want and clicking delete. As you mouse over the clip it plays in real time so you can select exactly what you want. You can also move clips around just like you would move blocks of text in word processing.

Once you have the clips you want, click on the Transitions button to add it between clips. You can preview each transition to see what it looks like. I added “cross dissolve” between the clips and then “fade to black” at the end.

I then went to the “Title” button and selected the title screen I wanted. I typed in the the information in the text box. Many of these have moving text effects. Then you can add the ending credits in the same way.

To add music or sound effects go to the sound button. From there you can select music from iMovie, your iTunes library, and sound effects. You drag and drop them onto the clips in the editing screen.

That’s it for a simple video like mine. Now you can go to “Share” and it gives you various options for exporting your movie. You can send it to iTunes, YouTube, or iDVD. You can also export it as a quicktime file to email, use in a web page, or upload to Facebook.

In summary, iMovie is great, easy to use video editor that will allow anyone with basic computer skills to be create movies that won’t have people falling asleep. Add in that it is ”free” with every Mac and it can’t be beat.

Here is the iMovie I created:media type="file" key="EDLD 5363 Video - Large.m4v" width="270" height="270"

=[|MediaEdit 3]=

The power and simplicity of iMovie begs the question of why do you need another entry-level video editor? Sure when you are ready to move beyond the basics, you can spend hundreds of dollars or more and get prosumer or professional editing software by companies like Adobe or Apple. But in the under $100 market, what is the point? Is it worth it to spend money on another basic video editor?

To try and answer this question, I am going to review MediaEdit 3 by Mien Software. This is a $60 program with a 30 day money back guarantee. The distinguishing features of this software are unlimited media layers along with text and painting tools. In this review I will be comparing MediaEdit’s features to iMovie 09.

I loaded the video clips of my daughters into the program. The first thing I noticed is the interface is much simpler than iMovie. This is not necessarily a good thing as it seemed unfinished to me.

The only clips that are displayed are the ones that are actually in the project. Unlike iMovie there is no place to view clips you may want to import. The transitions are adequate but applying them requires you to select the clips that you want to transition between. This is not as intuitive as simply dragging them between the clips as in iMovie.

Making a title is basically creating a text box and applying it over a clip. This feature seems primitive and there is no preview. A series of presets are much needed. Applying audio is also sparse. There is no access to your iTunes library, no jingles, and no sound effects. You can however record audio using the computer’s microphone the same as in iMovie.

One of the features I was very interested in was applying effects over the video clip. The program has a number of built in effects. These are much like the photo effects you might find in a photography program such as blur, mosaic, blur, invert, etc. These are fine, but just as in photography they have their place, but can easily be overused. I tried a few of them such as oil paint and blur motion. They worked fine. There is also a preview so you can see what they look like. If you don’t like it simply click “undo”.

Another feature I wanted to try was the “paint”. This allows you to “paint” or “draw” on the video clip. I found this feature to be confusing. I began to draw on the clip but it was only in black. I couldn’t find a way to change the color. I went to software forums and could not find the answer. I have to say that it looked as if the software was languishing based on the number and date of the posts. But I don’t know why changing the color should be so hard to find. Drawing software has been able to do this for ever.

It was at this point that I gave up on MediaEdit. I am sure that the programmer is very talented and the product has a couple nifty features. But it is not worth paying $60 to get a primitive editing program that just happens to have effects. And may or may not have the ability to draw in colors other than black. I think it goes back to what I wrote earlier, why? iMovie is such a great program and it’s free, sort of. There doesn’t seem to be a need for another under $100 basic editing program unless it has a “killer feature” that makes it worth it. Unfortunately, MediaEdit does not have it. Do yourself a favor, stick with iMovie for the basics. If you need more control switch to iMovie HD or upgrade to Final Cut Express from Apple. If that is still not enough, you need to look at the Professional stuff, which is WAY beyond me. Hope this helped!