Moyea FLV Editor Review: Trim and Join Flash Video Clips

Moyea FLV Editor Review: Trim and Join Flash Video Clips
Page content

Most video editors do not provide facility for working with FLV (flash video) files. If you have downloaded flash videos from the Internet and would like to cut or join them, then Moyea FLV Editor is a Windows program worth considering. Also if you would like to export your FLV files to SWF, with or without HTML code, Moyea FLV Editor could handle the job for you. Download Moyea FLV Editor Lite for free at https://www.moyea.com and give it a test run to see if it suits your needs. If it does, you would want to upgrade to the Ultimate version.

Project Feature Disabled

Moyea FLV Editor’s interface comes with drop-down menus and also quick launch icons below the menus to help you get start right away. If you’re familiar with video editing programs, you’ll have no problem getting going. If you’re thinking of starting by creating a prohect, you’ll be disappointed. The free version; doesn’t allow you to activate the Project button. You can’t create a project, save a project or open a saved project. You would have to upgrade to the Ultimate version for that.

Limited Import Options

The AV formats you can import into the FLV Editor are FLV, F4V and MP3. As for FLV, you could import from the media library or from the Internet Explorer cache.

Media Library is the area where FLV clips are stored in the YouTube FLV downloader program. If you choose this option, you’ll be taken to the free YouTube FLV Downloader, which you can download and install.

Files you download through the downloader could easily be imported into the FLV editor. For your information, the YouTube FLV downloader captures flash videos from MySpace, Dailymotion and other major video sharing sites.

Resource List Limitation

The moment you import a FLV file, it will be stored in the resource list – the white panel, towards the left of the interface. You can line up your clips here before you start editing.

The properties of the files in the resource list are displayed. For video files, the resolution, duration, frame rate, audio bit rate and file formats are displayed. In the Lite version, only 5 files can be imported and edited at any one time.

Tedious Editing

You start editing by dragging the clips on to the timeline. You work in a similar fashion as you would with Windows Movie Maker. There are only two tracks on the timeline – video and audio tracks. Clips that are placed on the timeline are highlighted in dark brown. You can line up one clip after another and they can easily slide alongside each other.

To remove a clip, just click on it and hit the delete key. To trim a clip, you have to move the slider to the point you want to delete and hit the scissors icon. The main clip will now be split into two parts. You then move the slider to the out point and click on the scissors icon again. Then you select the clip to be deleted and hit the `Delete’ key.

This is a rather tedious way of trimming clips as there isn’t the mark in and mark out feature available in most video editors. It’s made more tedious because you can’t use the arrow keys to select your cut points. Nor can you use the spacebar to move the slider to a desired point in the clip. You would have to drag the slider instead. This doesn’t bode well if you want to do frame accurate editing.

Also, if you’re thinking about adding titles, transitions or effects for your videos, you’ll be disappointed as the editor provides you with nothing more than inserting, trimming and removing clips.

Export Options

Once you’re done with your `editing’ you can export your video as a FLV file, SWF or MP3 file.

For FLV export, you can export it as a FLV file to your hard drive or to Moyea Video Converter 2 (a separate program) if you need your file in other video formats like DVD, MP4, 3GP or WMV.

The next option is to export to SWF if you’re going to embed your video into your website or blog. Choosing this option brings you to the skin setting window where you can customize your web video player.

You start off choosing the player skin. Since you’re in the free version, you’re only allowed to choose one of the three common skins. If you upgrade to the Ultimate version, you get to pick between classic, opaque, transparent and translucent skins.

You can also choose special effects filters to use with your video and also choose a preloader for your video. Done with your selection, you are ready to export to SWF.

In the free version, you can’t change your video output folder. It has to be in the FLV Editor Lite folder. Your file will be exported as SWF with FLV and you could choose to generate the HTML if you want to embed the player into your website or blog.

The drawback is there are no automatic folders created for every video you export. If you’re exporting several video files, they’ll all be lumped together on a single directory. To overcome this problem, you could create folders manually after each export, so that you will not be faced with the problem of having to locate your files.

Upgrade to Ultimate Version

If you can’t put up with the limitations in the Lite version, you may want to upgrade to the Ultimate version for $49.95 available at https://www.moyea.com/flv-editor-ultimate.

The Ultimate version allows you to save your projects, import more than five media files at any one time and have more than 2 cut points on the timeline, not to mention a wider choice of web video player skins.

Conclusion

Although you could upgrade to the FLV Editor Ultimate to remove the limitations in the Lite version, the editing controls of the program is bound to leave you with much to be desired. But then if you just want to trim FLV files and compile them into watchable videos, you’ll be happy with Moyea FLV Editor. If you’re a webmaster or a blogger, the export to SWF with HTML code simplifies the process of embedding video into your website.