AVS4YOU Video Editor

[pgoelz]

I've been struggling with the quirks and limitations of Adobe PE3 and now PE7 while editing h.264 clips and in my frustration I did a search for other editors. And turned up "AVS Video Editor" from AVS4YOU.

http://www.avs4you.com/AVS-Video-Editor.aspx

This is an interesting piece of software, and is remakably complete (with some exceptions... see below). Right off the bat, the layout looksfamilair, intuitive and is easy to use. It has most of what you would need for editing video (timeline, sceneline, trim, import, export, etc) and some of what you need for authoring DVDs. But in my mind its main claim to fame is that it seems to edit compressed h.264 (MP4) files natively. It does not create the flurry of rendered files and preview files and media cache files that PE does, so your hard drive is not filled as you save multiple versions of a project. And the resouce usage is VERY light. I placed about 30-40 h.264 clips on the timeline (totaling about 2.5 hours) and according to Task Manager, the RAM usage was still under 1GB. And stayed there as I edited, scrolled, etc. This is on a 3GHz C2Duo but it runs just as well on my 1.5GHz Centrino laptop.

The download is free, fully functional and unlimited except for a logo on all saved files. The cost is $39 for a one year registration or $59 for an unlimited registration that does not expire. And either registration includes the use of ALL software from AVS4YOU.

Here is a quickie list of the pros and cons I have uncovered as I play with it.

Pros
1. Appears to edit h.264 (and possibly others) natively.
2. Supports just about every video format.
3. Very low resource usage (my system reports <1GB total while editing a large project consisting of all h.264 clips).
4. Practically no temporary files are generated during editing so saving multiple versions of a project does not take up additional hard drive space with rendered files etc. .
5. On a 3GHz C2Duo, h.264 previews look very smooth.
6. Many useful and intuitive features including timeline, sceneline, trim, etc.
7. Huge selection of video transitions and video effects.
8. Rudimentary DVD authoring built in.
9. Cost is very reasonable. Registration includes the use of ALL programs from AVS4YOU.

Cons
1. No audio effects. Video transitions produce a simple audio crossfade of the same duration but no audio processing beyond that such as keyframe based level shifting.
2. No editing / control over DVD menus beyond the ability to change the background image…. what you get in the supplied templates is what you get.
3. Chapter thumbnails use the first frame in the chapter by default, with no ability to select the frame. The program considers the first frame of a transition between chapters to be the “first frame” so the thumbnail ends up being the last frame of the previous chapter.
4. All edits, transitions, etc are saved with the project but the DVD menu structure and setup are not. Accordingly, the DVD template and background image(s) have to be reset every time the DVD authoring section is entered.
5. Does not seem to support DV-AVI unless I missed it.

I'd be interested what others think about this software.

Paul

[Chuck Engels]

Thanks for the review Paul, we are always looking for other video editors.
The fact that it will edit H.264 files is good but not something that would interest me.

I would be interested in knowing if it truly does edit DV-AVI or not and if there are a limited number of tracks.
Looks interesting though and may come in handy for some users.

[pgoelz]

I'll have to see if it can input DV-AVI. I think it can. I just could not find a way to output DV-AVI.

I believe it only has two tracks. There is the main track and one that is called Video Overlay. Not sure how you transition from one to the other.... if you can. It may be strictly an overlay function.

As long as you are working with DV-AVI I guess packages like Adobe's are fine. But the cameras I use shoot in cmopressed formats and I find Adobe's products to be excessively resouce intensive unless I pre-convert. Which carries its own resource issues.

In my (very inexperienced) opinion, if Adobe continues down the current path they are taking with the Premiere products, they will be missing a large and fast growing market share..... consumers with consumer cameras, shooting in compressed formats. As soon as they try to assemble their vacation clips, they start to run into the quirks and limitations of programs like Premiere (Elements in my case) when editing those clips.

While I am not yet ready to abandon PE in favor of AVS4YOU..... a couple of the "Cons" above are (unfortunately) deal breakers for me..... I can't tell you how refreshing it was for me to be able to dump my clips into it and edit (within its limitations) without ANY issues AT ALL. I worked with Task Manager open for a while (habit from PE) and never saw the RAM in use budge regardless of what I was doing. Say what you want about the inadvisability of editing compressed clips like h.264 and AVCHD, it is the way the market is going unless you are talking professional video.

Paul

[Chuck Engels]

Have you burned any of the video to DVD yet? How is the quality compared to standard MiniDV editing and burning with Premiere Elements?

[pgoelz]

No, I have not actually burned a physical DVD. I have, however, viewed the contents of the VIDEO_TS folder and they looked OK on the PC monitor. I did not view it super critically though. My h.264 video is from a little Sanyo HD700 camera that is 720p but is limited by its optics and is not terribly sharp to begin with so it is hard to see subtle differences.

Paul