As its name implies, Movavi Video Editor (MVE) is a video editor that allows you to cut a movie from existing clips. Although it is a paid app, the developers let you download a seven-day trial version for either the Mac or Windows, which should give you enough time to explore its features and decide if they are for you.
Like any editing app, the first thing you need to do when starting a new project is import media. MVE is very flexible in that regard, and allows you to import video, photos and audio stored on my computer, or external drives. You can also gain access to your computer’s built-in camera and start recording straight from within the application.Read more: GoPlay Video Editor
It doesn’t appear to be possible to import videos from an AVCHD camcorder however, which is quite frustrating and forces you to find another way to get the footage out prior to being able to import it into MVE.
There’s further disappointment in the shape of a false “Record Screencast” button in the import panel. Sadly this feature (which would record your computer’s screen, a must for those making computer tutorials or recording game sessions, for instance) only works if you’ve purchased the more expensive Video Suite. Clicking on that button merely opens your browser and takes you to Movavi’s online store.
Importing and editing
Contrary to most other editing apps, importing media doesn’t add it to a section in the interface where you can preview it, choose which parts to use, and likely discard the rest. Instead, MVE adds any clips you import directly into your timeline. This is not a good way to edit a video, since the order you chose them may well not be the order they need to go together. Therefore the best way to use MVE’s import feature is to select the clips as you need them, which makes for a poor interface.It’s however very easy to move clips around the timeline. In a manner similar to Final Cut Pro X’s magnetic timeline, deleting clips will shunt any others on its right to the left to close the gap between all remaining clips. This process works when reordering clips on the first, and primary, layer. This does not apply to any other layers above it.Editing clips is as you’d expect: you can trim their In or Out points by clicking and dragging their edges inwards. Alternatively, you can click on a clip to select it, move the play-head over the desired area and click on the Split button (the one shaped like a pair of scissors). These actions are non-destructive and dragging a clip’s edges outwards will restore the previously cut segment.There is no obvious key-framing process but that’s because a lot of effects you would animate are actually automated in MVE, like fading in or out, or panning and zooming. You can find all this and more in the clip’s Tools section. This process works very well.In order to help you create frame-accurate edits, MVE allows you to navigate your work on a frame by frame basis using keyboard shortcuts, although those that are included could be simplified, and there sadly isn’t enough of them.The developers had an extremely puzzling decision to not breakdown the time-code by frames, but rather by hundredths of a second. To make matters worse, this division isn’t consistent. Try this yourself: move the Timeline’s playhead forward one frame, then make it go back one frame. Repeat this two or three times, and you’ll see the hundredth of a second value is different each time even though you revisit the same frame over and over again. This is not acceptable for precision work.
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