This is a comparison of non-linear video editing software applications. See also a more complete list of video editing software.
General information
This table gives basic general information about the different editors:
|
| Adobe Premiere Pro | Windows, Mac | Adobe Systems | 1991 | 2012
| CS6 (6.0.3)[1] (September 27, 2012; 5 months ago (2012-09-27)) [±] | Trialware |
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| Adobe Premiere Elements | Windows, Mac | Adobe Systems | 2004 | 2011 | 11 [2] (September 25, 2012; 5 months ago (2012-09-25)) [±] | Trialware |
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| Avid Free DV | Windows, Mac | Avid | ? | ? | 1.8 | Discontinued (Commercial) |
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| Autodesk Smoke | Mac, Linux | Autodesk | ? | ? | 2013 | Commercial |
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| Xpress Pro | Windows, Mac | Avid | 2003 | ? | 5.8 | Discontinued (Commercial) |
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| Media Composer | Windows, Mac | Avid | 1989 | 2012 | 6.5.2 (December 19, 2012; 3 months ago (2012-12-19)) [±] | Commercial |
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| Avidemux | Windows, Mac, BSD, Linux | Mean | | 2012 | 2.6.1 | GPL |
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| AVS Video Editor | Windows | Online Media Technologies Ltd. | 2004 | 2013 | 6.3.2 | Commercial |
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| Blender (VSE : Video Sequence Editor) | Windows, Mac, Solaris, Irix, Linux | Blender Foundation | 2002 | 2013 | 2.66a | GPL |
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| Cinelerra | Linux, Mac | Heroine Virtual | 2002 | 2012 | 4.4 | GPL |
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| Corel VideoStudio | Windows | Corel Corporation | 1993 (Under Ulead) | 2013 | x6 | Trialware |
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| PowerDirector | Windows | Cyberlink | 2001 | 2011 | 11 (October 19, 2012; 5 months ago (2012-10-19)) [±] | Trialware |
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| Montage Extreme | Windows | Dayang | 2007 | 2009 | 1.2 | Commercial |
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| EditDV | Windows, Mac | Radius | 1997 | 2002 | 3.0 | Discontinued (Commercial) |
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| Edius | Windows | Grass Valley Canopus | 2002 | 2013-02-21 | 6.53 | Commercial |
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| Final Cut Express | Mac | Apple Inc. | 2003 | 2007 | 4.0.1 | Discontinued (Commercial) |
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| Final Cut Pro | Mac | Apple Inc. | 1999 | 2013 | 10.0.8 | Commercial |
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| FORscene | Cross-Platform (Java) | Forbidden Technologies | 2004 | ? | 15 April 2007 | Commercial |
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| iMovie | Mac | Apple Inc. | 1999 | 2010 | 9.0.8 | Commercial |
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| Kdenlive | Linux, BSD, Mac | Open Source Community | 2002 | 2012 | 0.9.2 | GPL |
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| Kino | Linux, BSD | Open Source Community | 2000 | 2009 | 1.3.4 | GPL |
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| Lightworks | Windows | Editshare | 1989 | 2012 | 11.0.3 | Freeware, Commercial |
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| LiVES | Linux, BSD, Mac | Open Source Community | 2002 | 2012 | 1.6.2 | GPL |
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| Magix Movie Edit Pro | Windows | Magix | circa 2001 (VideoDeluxe 1.0) | 2011 | 17 plus | Commercial |
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| MainActor | Linux, Windows | MainConcept | 2004 | 2007 | 5.5 | Discontinued (Commercial) |
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| MoviePlus | Windows | Serif (Europe) Ltd | 2000 | 2011 | X5 | Commercial |
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| MPEG Video Wizard DVD | Windows | Womble Multimedia | ? | 2012 | 5.0.1.105 | Trialware |
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| VideoPad | Windows, Mac | NCH Software | 2008 | 2013 | 3.02 | Commercial |
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| Nero Multimedia Suite | Windows | Nero AG | 2002 | 2011 | 11.0 | Commercial |
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| OpenShot Video Editor | Linux | Open Source Community | 2008 | 2012 | 1.4.3 | GPL |
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| Pinnacle Studio | Windows | Pinnacle Systems | 1999 | 2012 | 16 | Commercial |
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| Pinnacle Videospin | Windows | Avid | 2009 | 2009 | 2.0 | Discontinued (Freeware) |
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| PiTiVi | Linux | Open Source Community | 2004 | 2012 | 0.15.2 | LGPL |
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| Sony Vegas Pro | Windows | Sony Creative Software | 1999 | 2012 | 12 | Commercial |
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| Sony Vegas Movie Studio | Windows | Sony Creative Software | 2000 | 2011 | 11.0 | Commercial |
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| Ulead MediaStudio Pro | Windows | Ulead Systems (now Corel) | ? | 2006 | 8.1 | Discontinued (Commercial) |
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| VideoThang | Windows | VideoThang LLC | 2007 | 2008 | 2.0.1 | Discontinued (Freeware) |
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| VirtualDub | Windows | Avery Lee | 2000 | 2012 | 1.10.2 | GPL |
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| VirtualDubMod | Windows | | 2002 | 2006 | 1.5.10.2 b2542 | Discontinued (GPL) |
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| Windows Movie Maker | Windows | Microsoft | 2000 | 2012 | 2012 (v16.4.3505.0912) (August 7, 2012; 7 months ago (2012-08-07)) [±] | Freeware |
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System requirements
This table lists the operating systems that different editors can run on without emulation, as well as other system requirements. Note that minimum system requirements are listed; some features (like High Definition support) may be unavailable with these specifications.
"Unix" includes the similar Linux, BSD and Unix-like operating systems.
High definition import
The table below indicates the ability of each program to import various High Definition video formats for editing.
Feature set
|
| Adobe Premiere Pro | Yes | Yes | Yes, By hitting ctrl+~ (CS6 only) | Yes | Unlimited | Unlimited | Yes | Yes |
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| Adobe Premiere Elements | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 99 | 99 | Yes | ? |
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| Avid Xpress Pro Media Composer | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 24 tracks, unlimited layers | 24 tracks, unlimited layers | Yes | ? |
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| Avidemux | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | 1 | 2 / ? | ? | ? |
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| AVS Video Editor | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 1 | 1+ | Yes | ? |
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| Blender (VSE : Video Sequence Editor) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unlimited | Unlimited | Yes | ? |
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| Cinelerra | Yes
(any resolution) | Yes | Yes | No | Unlimited | Unlimited / 16 | Yes | ? |
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| Corel VideoStudio | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 6 | 4 | Yes | Yes |
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| CyberLink PowerDirector | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 100 | 100 | Yes | Yes |
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| Dayang Montage Extreme | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 99 per sequence | 99 per sequence | Yes | ? |
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| EDIUS | Yes | Yes | Yes, on both PC & TV monitors in realtime | No | unlimited realtime layers | unlimited realtime layers | Yes | ? |
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| Elecard AVC HD Editor | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | Yes | ? |
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| Final Cut Express | Yes | Yes | Yes, with "external video" | Yes, in the Media Browser | 99 per sequence | 99 / 2 per sequence | No | ? |
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| Final Cut Studio | Yes | Yes | Yes, | Yes, in the Media Browser | 99 per sequence | 99 / 24 per sequence | Yes | Yes |
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| FORscene | Input only | Yes | Yes (podcasts) | Beta test | 2 | 4 | Yes | ? |
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| iMovie HD | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 1 | 2 | Yes | ? |
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| PiTiVi | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Unlimited | Unlimited | ? | ? |
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| Kdenlive | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unlimited | Unlimited | Yes | ? |
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| Kino GTK | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
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| Lightworks | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unlimited | Unlimited | Yes | Planned |
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| LiVES | Yes
(any resolution) | Yes
(multitrack mode) | Yes
(on first, second or all monitors, configurable) | No | Unlimited | audio per video track + backing audio / 2 channels | Yes | ? |
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| MainActor | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
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| VideoPad | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unlimited | Unlimited | ? | Planned |
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| MPEG Video Wizard DVD | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 1 | 3 | Yes | ? |
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| Nero Vision Xtra/Nero Video Premium HD | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unlimited | Yes | Yes | Yes (CUDA) |
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| OpenShot Video Editor | Yes | Yes | No | No | Unlimited | Unlimited | Yes | ? |
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| Serif MoviePlus | Yes | Yes | Yes, & on separate monitor or TV | Yes, partial | Unlimited | Unlimited | No | ? |
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| Sony Vegas Pro | Yes (any resolution) | Yes | Yes | No | Unlimited | Unlimited/Max Channel 16 | Yes | Yes (as of 11) |
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| Pinnacle Studio | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unlimited | Unlimited | Yes | ? |
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| Ulead MediaStudio Pro | Yes | Yes | Yes, on separate monitor | ? | 99 | ? | Yes | ? |
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| Ulead VideoStudio Plus | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 7 | 9 | Yes | ? |
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| VirtualDub | ? | Yes | No | No | 1 | 1 | Yes | ? |
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| WeVideo | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 1 | Unlimited | No | ? |
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| Windows Live Movie Maker | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
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| Windows Movie Maker | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 1 | 2 | Yes | ? |
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| HD | Non-destructive | Full-screen | Storyboard | Video tracks | Audio tracks | Timecode display | GPGPU with OpenCL acceleration |
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Output options
Please note that recording to Blu-ray does not imply 1080@50p/60p . Most only support up to 1080i 25/30 frames per second recording. Also not all formats can be output.
See also
References
