Computer Video Products (page 2)

Video editing software is becoming so popular that many standard computer systems now come bundled with simple video editors. Editing software allows you to arrange your footage, add music, narration, special effects and titles. Everything you need to complete a video project. It also allows you to choose various formats for output.
Sometimes the hardware you buy includes editing software. There are software bundles that accompany many digitizing/capture cards and there is always software included with turnkey systems.
The best way to figure out which software is best for you is to assess your editing goals. Do you just want to do basic, no-frills editing for family and friends, or do you want to do some more advanced titling, transitions, effects and be able to layer lots of video and audio tracks? Once you figure these things out, look over the Editing Software grid and compare the abilities of each program. Price is often a good indicator of sophistication. As a rule, the more you pay the more features you get. Though you can accomplish quite a bit with many of the less expensive programs, anything under $400 is generally for beginners or hobbyists.

CD-ROMs and DVDs are some of the latest vehicles of distribution for videographers. Never before has authoring video for CD or DVD been as easy or affordable.
There are two aspects involved in the creation of CD-ROMs and DVDs: hardware and software. The hardware consists of an actual CD-ROM drive or DVD drive that can burn video onto a disk. In our grid, we focus on the software side of disc authoring. These programs let you format and prepare the video file(s) for CD or DVD. Disc authoring software allows you to create the menus and button pointers so you can navigate through the content of your CD or DVD, and save the project in a format that is ready to burn. As CD and DVD burners proliferate, the market for disc-authoring software continues to grow.

Streaming video is one of the most popular ways to distribute video on the Internet. Streaming allows the viewer to start watching video while the download is in progress through use of a buffer. To create streaming video, you need encoding software to compress and optimize your files for the Web.
In an effort to make video publishing on the Web as simple and inexpensive as possible, several manufacturers have made extremely user-friendly programs that are very inexpensive - some are free.
However, if you're looking for more advanced Web video compression software, you can find a variety of products that range from $100 into the thousands. What you get for the extra cash are features that allow fine tuning of your video to optimize the viewing experience. Advanced codecs (compression/decompression schemes), VBR (Variable Bit-rate Sampling), Watermarking and Before/After previews are just a sampling of tools and enhancements that you can expect to see in the upper end of this product line.

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