Test three: Applying effects
Adding titles, transitions and effects helps you put the final touches to your project. YouTube Editor is severely lacking in that department, offering you just a handful of transitions and barely any effects to speak of.
Moso isn't far behind, despite the fact that the available effects are quite original and fun to use.
What lets MediaEdit down is the fact that you have to render every single effect that you apply to your clip. It's like using a program from a decade ago.
Boinx's effects are very versatile and fun to use, and considering the fact that they all happen live, they're very impressive.
iMovie's effects suffer from a lack of customisation and by the fact that you can only add a single video effect to each clip. Its titles and transitions however are very slick.
For sheer versatility and quantity, Premiere goes to the top of the class (you can also download free additional content from Adobe's website should you find the default bundle lacking).
Test results
Test four - Sharing your work
When it comes to sharing your project, YouTube Editor can't get much easier: you're already on YouTube, so save your work and it's available instantly. You also have the unique advantage of being able to work on the same project with any computer since everything's done online. The major drawback however is its inability to offer other exporting options.
All other programs let you upload your work to YouTube, but you can also save your project to your hard drive either at full resolution or compressed. You can then export it at your leisure to any number of online sharing sites.
iMovie comes with a plethora of additional online sharing options, like being able to upload your project straight to Vimeo, CNN iReport, Facebook or even MobileMe. But again, Premiere Elements tops this by also letting you create a basic DVD or Blu-ray disc, making it a one-stop shop for your project, from capture to burning to disc.
Test results
The best cheap Mac video editing software is: Premiere Elements
If you're after great versatility when editing, don't look any further than Adobe Premiere Elements.
Even though it's the most expensive program tested, it's still an excellent low-budget application that offers many advantages over its competition. For one, it's versatile enough to let you work with multiple layers. You can apply as many effects as you like to each clip. but most important of all, it's the only program on the list that works natively with the most popular HD format, namely AVCHD.
Its closest rival, iMovie - and even Final Cut Express, a program nearly twice its price - has to convert clips into a format it can work with, leading to lost time waiting for the process to finish and less disk space as the files are larger.
Final results
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First published in MacFormat Issue 236
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