Edius Neo v2.5 Booster NLE
Many of you would know that I’ve been a Grass Valley/Canopus fan for many years having graduated through the ranks of most non-linear editing packages. Some would ask how I assess my needs and what are my guidelines for choosing the video editing software that suits most purposes?
Firstly, you need to determine the outcome you need from a video editing package and what other tools you have available already to reach that goal. Let me clarify this point.
Where do you stand in the scheme of things, are you an enthusiast, a person that uses any of the most common DV, HDV or AVCHD consumer or prosumer camcorders that proliferate the domestic market? Maybe you’re a budding professional but at this point of time you don’t want to make a huge investment in video hardware and software. If you fall into either of these broad categories and you want a creative video editing tool to match the masters your attention should be firmly focused on the Edius Neo v2.5 Booster package.
Videography is not unlike photography and the urge to take up the hobby is driven by impulse. A shiny new camera with a huge “sale” sign strategically placed behind the package and a reference to your family that says if you don’t buy me you’re in strife. So the purchase is made, we roll off a few hours of footage either to tape or one of the many new capture cards and then we hit the wall. How do we keep that footage to show our family and friends and at the same time reuse our media? How do we cut out all those useless shots that drive friends to fury? We edit.
Okay, so you know all that, let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Making video is a process. Shoot the footage, capture that footage to a computer, assemble the footage in some sort of creative order and transfer the result to an output device so you can watch your handiwork. Easy as!
Let’s look at the components. You’ve already got a camera that shoots DV, HDV or AVCHD so we won’t go down that path just now. You have a computer? Probably, but is it suitable for video editing? With Edius Neo just about any computer built in the last two or three years will do the trick providing it’s not an absolute base model. Here’s what you should have as a minimum, dual core processor, at least 2Gb’s of RAM and a hard drive running at 7200rpm and as big as possible. In fact the best solution for video editing with Edius Neo is two hard drives around 500Gb each, one for your programs and the other to hold your video files. The minimum computer requirements and options are found at http://www.grassvalley.com/products/edius_neo_2_booster
Although there are a number of ways to display your creations the most common is on DVD. Any computer hardware you have should obviously include a DVD burner or for the more advanced editors a blu-ray burner. Of course you will also need a blu-ray player attached to your television set to display the end results.
Not so long ago you would need a catalogue of software to achieve capture of your footage, editing and DVD authoring and the learning curve was steep. Edius Neo has not only achieved the goal of incorporating all these tools in one package but has simplified the process. From capture to output is one very creative and easy to learn step that not only makes editing pleasurable but also very cost effective. And above that, for the more advanced editors, Edius Neo includes a whole range of tools normally only found in expensive software packages. I won’t describe all these tools because you can discover that for yourself by simply downloading a fully operational demonstration package free of charge from http://www.grassvalley.com/products/edius_neo_2_booster
Tools aside Edius Neo v2.5 Booster includes some outstanding features such as...
- Real-time Multi-Layer AVCHD Editing
- Real-time, mixed-format, SD/HD editing, including DV, HDV, AVCHD, MPEG-2, Windows Media, and QuickTime video
- Direct to Blu-ray disc and DVD timeline export with menus
- Quick Titler software, for real-time titling, including rolls and crawls
- Upgradeable to higher-end EDIUS software
- Real-time SD/HD effects, keyers, transitions, and titles, including new GPUfx (GPU-accelerated transitions)
- Supports Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP
- Image Stabilization Software
- Additional transitions and video filters from proDAD
Summing up, in my opinion as a professional editor for twenty five years, I would confidently recommend Edius Neo v2.5 Booster NLE as the package of choice for any videographer falling into those categories I mentioned above. If at a later stage you need to move on to a highly professional package the transition to Edius 5.5 or later will be seamless.
For more information, specifications and a list of retailers you should contact...
Grass Valley - Australia
Unit 4/310 Ferntree Gully Road
Notting Hill, VIC 3168
Telephone: 1 300 721 497
Current street price is $299.00 including GST
John Westwood.