Simple, Native Video Editor?

[iamse7en]

I do video editing where I will take a 2 hour clip and make about 40-50 edits, taking out half-second clips here and there.

I'm looking for a video editor that does not require a long importing process, and if possible, a fast save/export process as well. In other words, a native video editor.

For many years, the best application has been SimpleMovieX. It's quick, lightweight, and does native editing (supports all files that QuickTime supports). I can open a movie in SimpleMovie with no importing process, make a bunch of quick, precise edits, and it saves within minutes.

However, the app hasn't been updated in awhile and isn't supporting 1080p/5.1 files, which my videos now are.

Does anyone know of a great video editor that would satisfy these requirements? It looks like there are quite a few unknown video editors in the Mac App Store, but hoping someone around these parts would know of one to try. Thanks!

 

[Dave Braine]

I take it that you're not interested in iMovie?

 

[26139]

Quicktime Pro

Quicktime Pro can, I believe.

Though the import process to iMovie shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

 

[campyguy]

Look at DaVinci Resolve Lite 11 by Blackmagic - very powerful software at no cost. It was formerly color correction software, now updated for editing.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve - two of my friends swear by the Lite version, you might want to check to see if its output is sufficient. Resolve Lite is pretty easy to learn IMO - I got the hang of it in about a week and I don't know much about NLEs or other video editors.

 

[iamse7en]

iMovie is so terrible. I can't figure out how to do very basic things such as: enter a timestamp, select 1 second, then delete it. That's all I need to do. It doesn't even show the time bar. Plus I need to make very precise edits, down to the millisecond/frame.

QT 7 cannot get very precise, but even beyond that, it won't even open up one of my 1080p movies (though QT 10 will).

I just tried DaVinci Resolve, but it was soooo slow. It wouldn't even play the 1080p movie smoothly - went at a snail's pace that made it unusable. I have a 2013 Retina MBP with 8GB RAM, and it wouldn't even run smoothly on that. Beyond that, I also couldn't figure out how to do something as simple as enter in a specific time stamp, select the next second of frames and then delete them.

 

[campyguy]

Sad that Resolve is a dog for you. The Mac I tried it on is a top-of-the-line late 2013 rMBP. The two editors we use here are Premier and FCPX - Resolve is a product we just dabble with but two of my friends love it using i7 iMacs. If I come up with something else I'll pass it on.

 

[dollystereo]

Probably you are using files directly from a camera. You need to "decompress" them to be able to edit them fluently. Specially if it is 1080p footage.
Imovie does that, and I think resolve can do it to. After the files are decompressed (transcoded in a larger-lighter format) it should run fast and responsive.
GoPro files are an example of super compressed slow editing files.
Usually I do my editing in FCPX and I transcode on import, sure you have to wait, but then even an older machine can edit them.

 

[iamse7en]

They are already very compressed. 2 hour 1080p is only 4 gb, and Resolve was an absolute dog. Pretty silly, really.