Best Mac Video Editing Software to replace PD

[Cwalker173]

Hi all, I am using Power Director for Windows on my PC but am getting Mac and want to purchase a similar program for it since PD is not available for Mac. I am not a professional but do hour long movies with lots of effects, music etc that I burn onto disk mainly for hockey teams and so edit a lot of video, need something that is fast while rendering during edit if that makes any sense. Also need it to import different types of media file formats (ex. mvi, mp4) Sorry I am not very tech savvy when it comes to terminology lol. Any recommendations are appreciated

This is iMac I am getting if that matters(I am assuming the system that you have affects performance of the software)
late 2015
27-inch (diagonal) Retina 5K display with IPS technology; 5120x2880 resolution
32GB memory
3TB Fusion Drive
AMD Radeon R9 M395X

 

[gian8989]

Hi all, I am using Power Director for Windows on my PC but am getting Mac and want to purchase a similar program for it since PD is not available for Mac. I am not a professional but do hour long movies with lots of effects, music etc that I burn onto disk mainly for hockey teams and so edit a lot of video, need something that is fast while rendering during edit if that makes any sense. Also need it to import different types of media file formats (ex. mvi, mp4) Sorry I am not very tech savvy when it comes to terminology lol. Any recommendations are appreciated

This is iMac I am getting if that matters(I am assuming the system that you have affects performance of the software)
late 2015
27-inch (diagonal) Retina 5K display with IPS technology; 5120x2880 resolution
32GB memory
3TB Fusion Drive
AMD Radeon R9 M395X

Take a look at Final Cut Pro X. When it comes to video editing on a Mac it should be the best.

 

[joema2]

Hi all, I am using Power Director for Windows on my PC but am getting Mac and want to purchase a similar program for it since PD is not available for Mac. I am not a professional but do hour long movies with lots of effects, music etc that I burn onto disk mainly for hockey teams and so edit a lot of video, need something that is fast while rendering during edit if that makes any sense....

You could use iMovie or FCPX for this. iMovie is free, and despite the "entry level" positioning it is actually very capable and often used by professionals. FCPX is obviously a higher end product with more capability.

Re "lots of effects" FCPX has a number built in plus there's a very active market for 3rd-party plugins. Here are some examples:

FCPEffects: https://www.fcpeffects.com
FxFactory (like an app store for plugins): https://fxfactory.com/
MotionVFX: www.motionvfx.com

There is a huge amount of high-quality on-line training available for FCPX. Two examples are:

Ripple Training: http://www.rippletraining.com/
Lynda.com: https://www.lynda.com/

Some of Ripple's training is free on MacBreak Studio: http://www.pixelcorps.tv/macbreak_studio

You will probably need additional external storage, at least eventually. The render files and temp files used by FCPX take up a lot of space. Also neither iMovie nor FCPX has much ability to author DVDs. I think Roxio Toast can author DVDs on a Mac.

Since you are probably shooting 1080p or above, a DVD (which is only 720 x 480) throws away 5/6ths of the pixels. DVDs were a nice convenient release form, but increasingly people have mobile devices or thin laptops without an optical drive. In general I'd recommend exploring other distribution alternatives such as streaming video or even bulk low-cost USB thumb drives.

 

[gevalt]

Take a look at Final Cut Pro X. When it comes to video editing on a Mac it should be the best.

well i AM a professional video editor and while i don't use it on a regular basis, when it comes to being able to throw any file type at it, the best i've seen is adobe premiere.

unfortunately it's only available on adobe's CC subscription basis.

 

[Cwalker173]

You could use iMovie or FCPX for this. iMovie is free, and despite the "entry level" positioning it is actually very capable and often used by professionals. FCPX is obviously a higher end product with more capability.

Re "lots of effects" FCPX has a number built in plus there's a very active market for 3rd-party plugins. Here are some examples:

FCPEffects: https://www.fcpeffects.com
FxFactory (like an app store for plugins): https://fxfactory.com/
MotionVFX: www.motionvfx.com

There is a huge amount of high-quality on-line training available for FCPX. Two examples are:

Ripple Training: http://www.rippletraining.com/
Lynda.com: https://www.lynda.com/

Some of Ripple's training is free on MacBreak Studio: http://www.pixelcorps.tv/macbreak_studio

You will probably need additional external storage, at least eventually. The render files and temp files used by FCPX take up a lot of space. Also neither iMovie nor FCPX has much ability to author DVDs. I think Roxio Toast can author DVDs on a Mac.

Since you are probably shooting 1080p or above, a DVD (which is only 720 x 480) throws away 5/6ths of the pixels. DVDs were a nice convenient release form, but increasingly people have mobile devices or thin laptops without an optical drive. In general I'd recommend exploring other distribution alternatives such as streaming video or even bulk low-cost USB thumb drives.

Thank you joema2 for all the info, I will look into both