CNET Editors' review
NCH Software's VideoPad Video Editor Professional is a full-featured video-editing tool that is surprisingly easy to use. It can combine numerous clips and soundtracks in a wide range of video formats into movie projects, or build an entire production out of a single clip. It supports drag-and-drop editing, real-time effects previews, format conversion, importing and exporting files, captions, narration, and more. It can burn DVDs, HDs, and Blu-ray discs and output video to portable devices. It can also capture video from camcorders and other devices.
It's a rare video editor that you can just fire up and start making movies with, but that's what we did with VideoPad Pro. We browsed to a cartoon saved as an MPG file. VideoPad Pro scanned it and displayed it in the left half of the split main view, with its frames running sequentially along the bottom of a main preview window in a scrollable, time-marked view, and also displayed its information in the left-hand Media List panel. Pressing the Play button played the clip normally. Extracting clips from the main clip was incredibly simple; using the timeline, we selected an In Point and an Out Point and clicked the green down arrow. VideoPad extracted the clip and displayed it below in the Video Track section, which is just above the similar Audio Track. In this manner, we quickly cut up and rearranged the cartoon out of sequence, and then previewed it in the right-hand pane. The transitions between merged clips were seamless. We could save our finished clip or subject it to a wide range of processing and production tools. Toolbar icons let us quickly insert blank spaces or add narration, captions, and other effects. Clicking Build Movie called up a dialog that let us select the video format and whether to burn a disc, send it to a portable device, upload it to YouTube, and other choices.
With smartphones, video sharing sites, and Webcams everywhere, there's no lack of raw video resources, just a need for a powerful, easy-to-use tool like VideoPad Video Editor Professional to put your projects together, polish them up, and present them in the format of your choice. More than just fast and competent, though, we also found it fun to use.
Editors' note: This is a review of the full version of VideoPad Video Editor Professional 2.2.0. The trial version is limited to 14 days.
Publisher's Description
From NCH Software:
VideoPad Plus is a is a video editing application which allows you to create movie projects from various video clips or a single video file. VideoPad allows you to import various file formats including .AVI, .WMV, .3GP, .WMV, .DIVX and many others and then apply effects, cut frames, add captions, voice-overs and soundtracks. Touch up or enhance your video clips with color and brightness effects. Stunning Transition Effects: Fade transition effect gives your movie that professional touch. Preview the effects in real time. Customize the duration of the effect. Complete Video Optimization: Fine tune brightness, saturation and color for your video. Add still photos and digital images with a click of a button. Apply effects such as black & white, sepia tone and negatives. Add text captions to individual clips. Amazing Audio Tools: Add up to 255 music tracks to your video project. Record narrations with the click of a button. Import pre-recorded narrations. Share With Your Family and Friends: Burn to DVD and watch in your living room on your TV. Show off your latest pics and clips on PSP, iPod, iPhone, 3GP mobile phone or Pocket PC. Explore the most advanced way to burn HD DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs. Output video files and share your creation with more friends on computer or through Internet. Input Formats: Video: avi, mpeg, wmv, divX, Xvid, mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg4, mp4, mov, asf, vob, ogm, .3gp, H.264, RM and many more. Image: bmp, gif, jpg, jif, jiff, jpeg, exif, png, tif . Output Formats: Disc export: DVD, CD, Blu-ray Discs, HD-DVD. Video export: avi, wmv, asf, mpg, 3gp, mp4, mov, iPod, iPhone, PSP, Mobile Phone, Pocket PC. About NCH Software: NCH Software is a leader in audio, video, telephony, dictation, business, and computer utility software for Windows, Palm, Pocket PC and Mac. NCH has released over 80 products since 1993 and have received many awards for software excellence.
What's new in this version: Version 2.41 added overlay track with easier indication for adding text.
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All versions:
3.2 starsout of 117 votes
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Current version:
3.0 starsout of 29 votes
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My rating:
Write review
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"Not worth the price"
Version: VideoPad Video Editor 2.41
Pros
Good for basic editing, fairly easy to use.
Cons
Have to keep the files you want to use open in teh sidebar, which clutters it.
Doesn't always work as you want it to.
Audio doesn't always sync to the video.Summary
On first impression, I thought this was fairly good software, but after a few days I got frustrated and I've given up on it.
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"Won't sync audio to video, not worth it"
Version: VideoPad Video Editor 2.41
Pros
Free; Has lots of options.
Cons
Audio from added clips is not in sync with video.
Summary
I'm no expert, but I can use Windows Movie Maker Live. I wanted more options, so I tried VideoPad Video Editor. Utter crap! When you import a video clip, the audio is out of sync with that video by a few seconds. Looking online for a solution told me 1) many other people have this problem, 2) it just happens sometimes with this software, and 3) there's no fix. Sorry, but sometimes free isn't worth it.
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"Doesn't get the basics right!!"
Version: VideoPad Video Editor 2.41
Pros
Easy to learn.
Easy to import media.Cons
Outputs movies out of synch!!
Videopad outputs movies with video and audio out of synch regardless of which format you output it into.
There is not option in the program that fixes this. The same problem recurs and other people have documented the same thing.Summary
What's the use of a program that puts together your video and audio clips if the result will be automatically be messed up??!?
Synchronization is the very most basic necessity in editing.
This program was a horrible time-burner. -
"It's a pretty good editor."
Version: VideoPad Video Editor 2.41
Pros
Relatively intuitive, easy learning curve, does everything you want an editor to do.
Cons
Some functions could be faster, but for the price, you can't complain.
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"Be ready for some frustration"
Version: VideoPad Video Editor 2.41
Pros
Seems very versatile and runs well.
Cons
Looks pretty standard when you open it but the functions are not clearly labeled. "Project" files must be kept open which can get quite cluttered when clipping/joining segments of multiple files. Far too easy to lose an entire project, requiring you to repeat all your previous work. Definitely not the intuitive point & click controls of Movie Maker.
Summary
Experienced videophiles may breeze through it, but the average user will curse it more than a few times.
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"Good for what it does but..."
Version: VideoPad Video Editor 2.41
Pros
Easy to use, flexible and clear interface, good tutorial.
Cons
No DVD menu creation feature
Summary
You CAN add chapters to your DVD but you CAN NOT (according to their FAQ's) create a menu to display them or navigate around the DVD. Menu screens are common to just about any DVD you buy and I can only think they have yet to crack their technical challenges or this feature would be there. Sorry but I create stand-alone DVD based instructional videos and the finished product is incomplete without a menu.
If you simply want to create a start to finish movie with interesting effects, it works fine but I, and others who require a full DVD feature set, will find this version lacking. I will be happy to purchase it when it has a menu function as it seems to work pretty well in all other respects. -
"Not bad, works w/other components like wave editor"
Version: VideoPad Video Editor 2.41
Pros
Fairly easy to sue
Allows editing of the music via wav format in audio component, this is cool
Has basically all you needCons
Has BASICALLY all you need
output has be unpredictable
- no video
- cut off
Upload settings confusing
Entered wrong FB password now no way to change and no way to connect to FB
NO SUPPORT or very inadequate support! If context searchable help is available I couldn't find it. If a user manual was accessible I couldn't find it. I did find one of those horrible useless frustrating forums!
I was thinking of buying this and the audio editor but after hours of seeking resolution to FB access issue the Help and Support is just not acceptable. -
"very very useful program"
Version: VideoPad Video Editor 2.41
Pros
no problem
Cons
nothing try it
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"Very Good, except for one problem..."
Version: VideoPad Video Editor 2.41
Pros
It was easy to use for me. Stop motion is easier than using video clips.
Cons
The one problem it had was that it DIDN'T PLAY VIDEOS AT ALL ON MY MACHINE! I don't know if it was an issue with my graphics card or anything, but if it isn't then it should be one thing they should fix. Also, rendering is completely messed up. Quality is good but the clips are either black or don't play for the first 5 seconds, and you know when you split a clip? The preview stops on those, for 5 seconds.
Summary
Overall, it is fantastic though, and I encourage the makers of this software to add EVEN MORE effects, transitions and such!
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"Very good!"
Version: VideoPad Video Editor 2.41
Pros
Easy, safe and powerful. Before that, I used Windows Movie Maker. VideoPad Editor is has a bunch of more features. Also, you can download effects, many of then completely free.
Cons
It could be more user friendly and have more keyboard shortcuts. It would if it had a feature to mask portions of image.
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