Top 10 Digital Video Editing Systems Rundown 2005

WANTED !
Video Editing Addicts
Who Need Help,
Who Have Questions,
Who Wanna Showcase,
Who Can Help Others,
Who Want To Meet
Fellow Video Editors...

Join Now
Video Editing Forum

Professional Digital Video Editing Systems

Although this web site is mainly for home video makers rather than professional video editors, I'll list the most popular professional video editing systems here for completeness anyway.

You may want to upgrade to professional solutions someday. Yes, video editing is an addiction. Or maybe you want to start your own production house and make your living on it.

For now, you don't have to worry about the price. They range from 20k to half million. Just make yourself informed on what the professionals are using.

Avid has a lot going for it, not the least of which is a user interface that's been around so long it's emerged as the de facto industry standard. Powered by Avid's Meridien Video subsystem, another great benefit of Avid's vast stable of editing choices is the ease with which all Avid products work with all their brothers and sisters around a production facility. With an industry full of trained editors and freelancers who would not consider working on anything less, Avid has become what IBM was a decade or two ago: Nobody ever got fired for buying Avid. That is, unless you can't afford it.

Avid Media Composer delivers dual-stream compressed and uncompressed 601 images, real time 3D effects plus real time 9-stream hardware multicam and 24P Universal offline editing.

Avid Symphony, capable of real time, multilayer, uncompressed editing and special effects, including color correction, keying, compositing, paint, character generation, 3D effects and audio editing and mixing. Symphony includes the full Media Composer feature set and adds the conforming, real-time finishing and multi-format mastering tools required for high-end film and television editorial work.

Avid Film Composer is the system of choice of editors of virtually every major motion picture today. Providing 23.976P, 24P and 25P Universal offline editing, real-time 3D-FX and precise matchback to every major film format; if you're editing film and not working with an Avid Film Composer, your clients will probably wonder why not.

Discreet, a division of Autodesk, was established in 1999 after Autodesk acquired Discreet Logic Inc. and merged its operations with Kinetix®. Discreet develops systems & software for visual effects, 3D animation, editing and production - crucial to the creation of digital moving pictures in feature films, video, HDTV, broadcast graphics, interactive games and the web. Discreet products are used extensively in film and video post-production, games, animation and multimedia, television programming, and news & event coverage.

Discreet Fire, a Unix-based nonlinear editing, conforming and finishing system for digital cinema and HD production.

Discreet Inferno, most commonly used for high resolution commercials and sophisticated film compositing, this Unix-based software runs on SGI's Onyx 3000.

Discreet Flame, positioned as a compositor for smaller boutiques, independent post houses and network/cable broadcasters creating effects for commercials, music videos and promos, offers a slightly reduced feature set compared with Inferno.

Discreet Smoke, Fire's little brother, runs on the SGI Octane2 platform, and works in 2K, HD or traditional standard definition formats on a single unified system. Smoke offers 24p 2K playback and an expanded 3D DVE module with real time interactivity at full RGB 4:4:4 resolution.

Matrox DigiSuite MAX, designed for broadcast and post-production facilities, delivers maximum editing power and creative freedom with more real time features than any other platform in its class. The complete spectrum of analog and digital inputs and outputs is supported to enable professional editors to work in their formats of choice.

Media 100 844/X, a full-featured editing system integrated with fast unlimited-layer compositing, 844/X packs some serious effects processing power. 844/X delivers real time image processing on up to four concurrent 10-bit uncompressed video stream and key pairs, along with 31-bit internal precision to support the arrangement and editing of complex and numerous layers.

Pinnacle Liquid Blue is Pinnacle Systems' multi-format broadcast editing system. Pinnacle Liquid blue offers end-to-end native digital production in all formats, supporting DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO 25/50, MPEG-2, MPEG IMX, and uncompressed, all with faster than realtime SDTI transfer, both 2x and 4x.

Pinnacle Liquid Chrome is designed for effects-intensive post settings where time and quality are at a premium. Liquid Chrome brings together three of Pinnacle's components into one editing and compositing system -- Pinnacle's Liquid editing application, the TARGA 3000 compositing engine and Pinnacle's K2 single-chip 3D DVE

Pinnacle Liquid Silver is an MPEG-2 post editing solution aimed at long form or corporate editing. Liquid Silver uses MPEG-2 4:2:2 and uncompressed formats, offering the same quality as traditional MJPEG systems for 40% less disk usage.

CinéWave is software and hardware working together to deliver more speed and flexibility on the Mac G4. CinéWave, the first uncompressed editor for Final Cut Pro, provides non-linear editing, unlimited layering, uncompressed real-time effects, motion tracker, paint, and compositing tools. CinéWave is designed to work in DV, DigiBeta, uncompressed 601, PAL, NTSC, 1080i, 1080p, 4:3, 16:9, DVD, and the Web.

Quantel Quantel has been at the forefront of the use of digital technology as a creative tool for the last 25 years and it is now using its vast experience to create tools for the new digital age - covering everything from terrestrial and multi-channel television, to broadband internet, DVD and e-cinema.

Quantel iQ sits at the head of the class of the generationQ line of products. An entirely new technology, iQ provides a completely integrated working environment where Quantel's unique hardware meets the openness of a standard PC.

Quantel eQ, Quantel's new HD nonlinear editing and effects system offers interactivity and performance that might be expected from SD nonlinear systems.

Quantel QEdit Pro, next generation multi-format editing and effects system delivers real 10 bit non-compressed quality AAF-compliant SD/HD PC-based NLE with a high-end creative toolset for the mainstream finishing market.