The focus of this category is on software designed for digital video and film.
There's a lot of video editing software available, from that intended for beginners or occasional users to that designed for professional use, and everything in between. Some of it can be quite expensive or offered only through a software-as-a-service model. Free software can also be found, although most of the free video editors are limited either in features or in the documentation. You might find that the free or inexpensive software is either too basic to meet your demands or too difficult to understand.
A decade or two ago, there was a large learning curve for most of the video editing software on the market but, while that's still true for a lot of it, some of the newer stuff is marketed to beginners, given that more and more people are producing videos at home.
Video editing software is used in post-production. It is the software used to edit digital video sequences on a non-linear editing system, replacing the traditional celluloid film editing tools, as well as linear video editing techniques. Non-linear editing refers to offline editing of audio, video, and images, in which the original content is not modified. Non-linear editing uses specialized software to edit and modify the content.
Video converters are computer programs used to change the format of the video file. This may involve transcoding, which refers to the process of recompressing the video to another format, or it might simply change the container format while leaving the video format as it is. With transcoding between lossy compression formats, there is a loss of quality, and the process is CPU intensive.
Whatever the specific function or functions, software designed for use with digital video or film are appropriate for this category. Resources listed here may serve only one or a few functions, or they might have been created to serve as professional video editors. Whether free and open-source, freeware, or proprietary, the focus of this category is on digital video and film software.
Recommended Resources
Developed by Adobe Systems, Premiere Pro is a timeline-based video editing application that is included as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud licensing program and geared towards professional video editing, while its Adobe Premiere Elements targets the consumer market. Based on ReelTime, it supports high-resolution editing, audio sample-level editing, VST audio plugin support, and surround-sound mixing. Its features are highlighted, and films created with it are showcased.
https://www.adobe.com/products/premiere.html
Free and open-source (GNU General Public License), and written in C++, the video editing program is capable of non-linear video editing, applying visual effects to video, transcoding video into various formats, and inserting or extracting audio streams into or from a video file. Development notes are posted to the site, along with screenshots, documentation in wiki format, and a user forum powered by Simple Machines. Downloads are available for Linux, Mac, or Windows.
http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/
Blaze Media Pro: Convert Video to Flash
Blaze Media Pro is a multimedia software suite that includes a media converter, editor, burner, and ripper software applications, as well as flash conversion software, offering an easy way to convert video files (AVI, MPEG, WMV) to Flash (SWF or FLV), available as a feature of Blaze Media Pro. A description of the feature is given, along with a screenshot, and a trial version of the program can be downloaded from the site, while the full version, or some of its other programs, may be purchased.
http://www.blazemp.com/convert_video_to_flash.html
Blaze Media Pro: Digital Video Creator
The all-in-one multimedia software features a video maker for AVI, MPEG, and WMV, allowing the creation of video from JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, and other graphic files, as well as audio and video conversions, CD and DVD burning. The software's direct video creation feature is available for MPEG-1, MPEG-2, AVI (compressed or uncompressed), and WMV. Its full features are listed, along with screenshots, purchase options, and online help options.
http://www.blazemp.com/video_creator_software.htm
Originating in 2000, the free and open-source (LGPL 2.1, GPL 2+) software suite of libraries and programs for handling video, audio, and other multimedia files is dominated by FFmpeg itself, its core program designed for command-line processing of video and audio files, transcoding, basic editing, video scaling, post-production, and standards compliance. The source code is available, along with documentation, a support wiki, and an online support forum.
https://ffmpeg.org/
Created by Apple for its macOS and iOS devices, iMovie is included free with the purchase of a new Mac or iOS device. The program includes options to modify and enhance video color settings, crop and rotate a video clip, stabilize shaky videos, add transition effects, and change the speed of video clips. Movie projects can be imported from iOS to macOS or to Final Cut Pro X. Other features include the creation of movie trailers through templates, and other features, which are highlighted here.
https://www.apple.com/imovie/
Created for Unix-like operating systems, the free and open-source (GNU General Public License) non-linear video editing and post-processing program have been tested and known to run on Ubuntu and Debian Linux distributions. The editor operates with a wide range of file formats, frame rates, frame sizes, video codecs, and video containers. It is available for download from the site, which also features user documentation and a user discussion forum.
http://www.openmovieeditor.org/
Developed on the MLT Multimedia Framework in 2011, the free and open-source (GNU General Public License) video editor can be installed in FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows platforms. The program supports video, audio, and image formats via FFmpeg. Its wide-format and audio features, video effects, editing features, and hardware support are highlighted on its site, and it may be freely downloaded. A video introduction and other tutorials are posted, and a support forum is included.
https://www.shotcut.org/
Founded in 1987, TechSmith is a software company that focuses on screenshotting, screencasting, and video editing software for Windows and macOS platforms, licensing them to corporations, educational institutions, government agencies, and small businesses. Its primary products include Snagit and Camtasia, which may be licensed individually or as a bundle, along with stock photos, video, and custom assets, video and content hosting, and a collaborative feedback tool.
https://www.techsmith.com/
VideoLAN develops software for playing video and other media formats, its original programs being VideoLAN Client (VLC) and VideoLAN Server (VLS), although most of the features of VLC have since been incorporated into VLC, which is now known as VLC media player, which is an open-source, cross-platform multimedia player and framework that supports most multimedia files, as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.
http://www.videolan.org/
