Home video producers have never had it so good, when it comes to editing their work.
During the last decennium or so the possibilities for the home video enthusiast to bring about really spectacular end results have seen steady improvement. The personal computers available to home users in the beginning of the 1990s, where nowhere near what is required to work with video. Today is a different story of course, as PCs capable of editing video more or less like the pro's do is available at affordable prices. What follows is a basic walkthrough on what modert video editing solutions can do.
Non-Linear Editing
Non-linear editing is the term used for the process used by contemporary video editing software. What that implies is that all of the material is available all the time - regardless of where in the original footage it is - unlike the older (tape based) linear editing where you had to go to the specific location of a particular shot manually.
Besides being much more convenient and a lot swifter than the old tape based editing systems (think ordinary VCR), the non-linear software based editing system also preserves the quality of the original footage. The linear editing method involves at least two copies of the material; the first time when it is edited and then a second time when it is transferred to the master tape. Each time the information is copied a certain generation loss happens, which means that the quality becomes worse.
When editing in a non-linear system the quality is maintained, as it is really the original material that is played back in the sequence the editing software dictates
A Computer Fast Enough
When it comes to editing video faster is definitely better, particularly if you have intentions of editing material shot in high definition. Nonetheless, provided that your PC isn't many years old, chances are that it can become a good platform to run video editing software on. Or at least you may upgrade your machine to the required horsepower by investing in more RAM and a bigger hard drive.
Weather you prefer to edit video on a PC or a Macintosh is mostly a matter of personal preference these days, as newer incarnations of both plaforms are well up to the task.
Building Your Own Videostudio
Depending on your level of ambition, your private little videostudio can be reasonably affordable of quite expensive. Basically manitaining a more modern version of the family photo album may perhaps not call for the latest, professional grade appliances. But Then, if the end result has to be of commercially viable quality, it will require a bigger investment on your part.
Nonetheless, as there is no video editing software capable of doing what was reserved only for professional movie people a few decades ago, and there really is not reason for buying a camera that records in SD any more, home video producers have never had it this good.
