Easy Chroma Key Video Overlays

Often during editing you will want to remove the background from a video. This is commonly seen with television newscasts or interviews where the video of the person is overlaid onto a different video backdrop, or a logo animation is overlaid on a background. Chroma Key is also commonly referred to as green screen. Sometimes videos will have a transparency or alpha channel that you can adjust to remove the background, but more often than not, you will have to utilize Chroma Key tools in video editing software to remove the backgrounds.

Proper lighting makes using Chroma Keys far easier. Ensure the subject(s) and background are both well-lit. Solid color backdrops work the best. You can buy professional blue or green fabric backdrops or special Chroma Key paint. Avoid having shadows or hot spots on the background or unnecessary detail in the background as it will make it harder to “pull a key” later. Natural sunlight can often make the foreground subject bleed into the background when trying to key a color, so it’s best to use artificial lighting.

NCH Software’s VideoPad Video Editor has the ability to select a Chroma Key color with its Overlay feature. Add the video as an overlay track, and select the Use Chroma Key checkbox to bring up the Chroma Key preview window.

Select the Chroma Key color by clicking on the color you want to key out in the preview image. Then, using the preview image as a reference, adjust the Background and Foreground sliders until the desired transparency is achieved. Note you can click different positions on the timeline to see how the video will look. Click OK to apply changes.

If you would like to make changes later, first select the overlay in the list on the Overlay tab, and then click the Change button next to the Use Chroma Key checkbox.

Below is an example video we made using the Videopad Chroma Key feature. Download VideoPad for yourself to try this and the other easy video editing features for yourself.

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Award-Winning Software from NCH

The true test of a software program is how well it works for the people who install and use it. The number of people downloading and using NCH programs everyday (roughly 3 million downloads every month) suggests our focus on creating powerful, easy and intuitive software is working well for a lot of people out there. And while you have the final word on if a program is right for you, we still appreciate the feedback of reviewers recognizing the work that has gone into making our software programs both powerful and easy-to-use.

Here is a peek into our trophy case, and just a small sample of the award-winning software titles in the NCH Software collection:

WavePad Sound Editor

WavePad has long been praised by reviewers for its easy and powerful, yet lightweight interface for audio editing.

"In spite of its tiny size, WavePad packs a big audio punch."
     - CNET

"WavePad has a lot to offer to the amateur audio editor, while still providing enough tools to make it a useful program for more seasoned audio editors."
     - TopTenReviews

Switch Audio Converter

Switch is not only easy to use, it supports more audio formats than the competition, making it a clear winner.

"Switch is just as useful for professionals that need to convert many songs into multiple formats as it is for the average person who knows they want to convert an AAC file to MP3. Switch is able to handle many different audio formats and has the largest selection of output formats of any program we reviewed."
     - TopTenReviews

VideoPad Video Editor

VideoPad has quickly become a major player in video editing with upgraded features, putting even more advanced options at your disposal.

"NCH Software's VideoPad Video Editor Professional is a full-featured video-editing tool that is surprisingly easy to use... It's a rare video editor that you can just fire up and start making movies with, but that's what we did with VideoPad."
     - CNET

PhotoStage Slideshow Software

PhotoStage lets you bring your digital photos to life and make easy-to-share presentations of every memorable occasion.

"PhotoStage Slideshow Producer shows that slideshow makers don't need to be difficult to use to produce great results."
     - CNET

"PhotoStage is intuitive and savvy photo slideshow software that enables you to assemble artistic, personalized picture slideshows with total ease."
     - TopTenReviews

Zulu DJ Mixing Software

Zulu is the complete DJ software solution for both amateur and professional DJs alike.

"In an extremely competitive field of DJ software, Zulu stands just a bit taller than all of the rest. The intuitive and advanced features of this program, including a user-friendly, simple and straightforward interface, helped it rise to the top of our rankings."
     - TopTenReviews

Inventoria Inventory Management

Inventoria allows businesses of all sizes to efficiently track all their inventory processes, whether for one small retail outlet, or a chain of stores and warehouses across several locations.

"The versatility of Inventoria is an excellent reason to purchase this product. It offers numerous helpful features such as the ability to add notes and photos to each item in your inventory. In addition, you have the opportunity to allow more users to access the program, which can increase productivity and ultimately enhance your bottom line."
     - TopTenReviews

Check out the complete range of NCH Software programs for more easy-to-use and award-winning software solutions for all your software needs.

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Editing Video from a Cell Phone

With the majority of cell phones today coming with not only a built-in camera but also video recording capabilities, the amount of video the average home user takes is skyrocketing. It's just one of the many reasons there are so many videos being posted to YouTube every day. But not every video you record is going to be ready for the big time right away, so if you need to do a little bit of editing here are two extremely useful tools you should using try to clean up your cell phone videos.

Rotate Video

With the variety of flip phones, slide phones, and other shapes of phones, keeping track of which way is up while filming could be a challenge. You may quickly find out all your video needs to be rotated so that you don't have to watch it with your head tilted to the side. Prism Video Converter offers an easy solution. Not only can you convert your video from 3gp, a common video format recorded on phones, to something more computer friendly like avi you can also choose to rotate the video by going into "Effects" before hitting Convert.

Stabilize Video

Another common problem you might have—that you might not have even known you can fix—is with video clips that are shaky from an unsteady hand. If your video reminds you a little too much of The Blair Witch Project, you can stabilize your video with the stabilization feature in VideoPad Video Editor to eliminate jitter. See an example of video stabilization in action in our post A Quick Fix for Shaky Video Clips.

If you are really feeling your inner movie director come to life there are a lot more video editing transitions and effects available in VideoPad, but I think you will be surprised how big a difference even just a few adjustments like these can make to your videos.

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Video-Sharing from Software to Site

Where do you share videos?

It should come as no surprise to anyone that the use of video-sharing sites is on the rise, which is why we are working on making it as easy as possible to share your finished video projects from our video software, including VideoPad video editor and PhotoStage. Most recently we added direct uploading to Facebook and Flickr in addition to YouTube to the export options in VideoPad. All you have to do is set up your account information the first time, and VideoPad will do the rest. By automating the uploading process, we allow you to post more videos online.

But are there any other video-sharing sites that should be added? You tell us. We want to make sure that our software is as easy to use as possible. Post a comment to this post and we’ll take your suggestions to the developers. Thanks for the feedback!

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VideoPad Video Editing Tips & Tricks

One of the blog entries that is consistently getting a lot of traffic is our post announcing the speed changing feature to VideoPad. Not surprising since that was such a long-awaited feature to be added to our popular video editing software. Since it has been a popular post, I decided to expand on the topic with several Tips and Tricks for editing video with VideoPad. If you have any tips of your own please comment and add them to our list. And for those of you new to video editing you may want to get started by checking out the VideoPad video tutorials.

Title Screen and Ending Credits

Add a blank slide to the beginning or end of the timeline. Add text to the slideslide by clicking the green plus button on the Overlay Track, and a fade transition to create a dramatic opening or closing effect to your movie. For ending credits, select the vertical scrolling option and adjust the clip duration to control the scrolling speed.

Text Overlays

Adding captions, title screens and credits is a cinch. See our post on Adding text to your videos for some tips to help you get started using the Overlay Track to add text to video clips.

Video Subtitles

Subtitles are another way of adding text to your video projects. See our post on adding subtitles to your video for a quick overview on importing or creating an .ssa subtitle file in VideoPad, or for more detailed instructions go to our video subtitles tutorial.

Image Overlays

To create a watermark effect or add images to your video for presentations, use image overlays. Click the green plus button on the Overlay Track, select the Image or Video radio button, browse for a file and apply it to the sequence. Once it’s on the sequence, you can select it and edit its size, opacity, positioning and more.

Control Effect Duration

To apply an effect to only part of a clip, try slicing the clip in two. Apply an effect to only one slice, and place a cross-fade between the slices for a seamless transition.

Change Video Speed

Speed up or slow down video clips by selecting a clip and selecting the Speed effect from the Effects tab, then use the slider to select the new speed for the video clip, (i.e. 50% for half speed, 200% for double). You can also choose to play the clip backward.

Video Stabilization

One possible problem you may have with videos you have recorded on your camcorder is video clips that are shaky or unsteady. This is a common problem when you film without a tripod to keep the camcorder still no matter how steady you think your hands are. The video stabilization feature is an easy solution to eliminating camera jitter in your videos, giving you a final video that won't make you seasick to watch.

Upload Videos to YouTube

VideoPad has a wide range of output options for saving your final video, and if you are creating your video for YouTube you can even skip a step and upload to YouTube from VideoPad by entering your YouTube account information and other details, which is just one of the many choices available when saving your finished movie. VideoPad also has automated upload options for Facebook and Flickr.

Sound Effects

VideoPad comes with a Sound Effect Library. You can preview and download sounds from the Sound Effects Library by going to Edit → Sound → NCH Sound Effect Library. And since VideoPad has unlimited audio tracks, you have plenty of room to add and mix in the sound effect to your movie soundtrack.

Greenscreen Video Editing

For shooting those scenes you can’t do on location, use the chroma-key feature to transport yourself to another locale. To use chroma-key, click the green plus button on the Overlay Track, select the Image or Video radio button, click the Record button, click the Remove Background button, and follow the onscreen instructions.

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Localization Efforts Pay Off in NCH International Offerings

It has been about a year and a half since NCH Software put in place a localization initiative in order to offer our most popular software applications in French, German, Japanese and Spanish. The challenges have been many but we now provide numerous applications, including WavePad Sound Editor, VideoPad Video Editor, Prism Video Converter, and several more, in the 4 languages mentioned. Working in cooperation with NCH developers, the localization specialists at NCH translate the general user interface (GUI), test functionality for country-specific appropriateness, suggest changes to implement to better adapt NCH applications to non-English speaking markets. They also translate a significant number of web-based material to make sure that French, German, Japanese or Spanish-speaking Internet users can find relevant information, download and purchase products securely in their own languages.

Bucking the current trend of outsourcing translation and localization and relying instead on "in-house" linguists allows NCH to leverage a valuable internal product knowledge and capitalize on direct interdepartmental relationships to produce more accurate translations, faster.

Please click on the language of your choice to find out more about NCH Software's localized software applications.

• Français
  
• Deutsch
  
• 日本語
  
• Español

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How to Add Subtitles to Your Videos (P.S. It's not difficult)

Adding text to a video is one of the most common reasons why people use video editors, and VideoPad video editor is an easy way to add any kind of text to your video projects. Previously, I blogged about how to use VideoPad video editor to add overlay text to your videos, which is a great primer for adding short bursts of text like captions, title screens, and credits. For more ambitious text projects, you might be better off using the subtitles feature, which allows you to either upload a subtitle file or create your own subtitles.

Import Subtitles

For movies and shows, many people like to have the words—whether they speak the same language or not—so they can easily follow the dialog. If you have a subtitle file in .ssa format, you can easily import the subtitles to attach to your movie or show.

1. Click the Subtitles icon in the toolbar of VideoPad.
2. In the upper left corner of the Subtitles dialog, click the Open folder button. Browse to your .ssa file and open it to load it into the Subtitles dialog.
3. Click the Play button to preview the subtitles with your movie.

Create Subtitles

If you don't have an .ssa file for your movie, or you want subtitles as back up to the audio of a tutorial or video project, you can create your own subtitles.

1. Click the Subtitles icon in the toolbar of VideoPad.
2. Use the preview window to cue the video where the first subtitle will start.
3. Click the green Plus button in the lower right to add a new subtitle, then type the subtitle in the input field, which is the bottom pane. The subtitle will be added to the list of subtitles.
4. To set the end of the subtitle, cue up where the subtitle should end and note the time from the sequence clock under the preview window on the right. Select the subtitle from the list and click within the Hide field. Enter the time the subtitle should end and click OK.

Any time you make changes to your subtitle file, be sure to save it by clicking the
Save button in the upper left corner.

Working with text is easy with VideoPad, and so is working with the rest of the program. Try VideoPad out now for free, or view our other video software. You can also view our subtitles tutorial for more help with importing and creating subtitles to your VideoPad projects.

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Making A Music Video

Over on Review Explorer Chris McGivern posted a detailed interview with Singer-songwriter Andy Fosberry of Ironlight River about making a music video. Fosberry took a do-it-yourself attitude and made a great video without sacrificing his creativity or breaking the bank. And we were particularly thrilled that Fosberry turned to NCH Software using Switch Audio Converter, Prism Video Converter and VideoPad Video Editor to help him along the way.

"As a musician, I use a piece of software call Switch by NCH Software which converts audio formats. And it’s brilliant. To convert these video files I used their A/V equivalent which is called Prism. When it was downloading, I had the option on loads of other things and saw something called VideoPad, which was billed as editing software. I figured it would be like WavePad and, therefore, just for clips etc, but it’s a fully working, kind of mid-level piece of editing software ... Its just so beautifully usable. So much so that I had a working edit in about 8 hours. All the effects, are nicely editable in themselves. So you can really make significant changes to what you are working on."

– Andy Fosberry

If you're interested in making your own music video(s) we would encourage you to go over to Review Explorer and read How To Make A Music Video – For Free for more details on what Fosberry did for his video, and to see the results.

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Convert your Favorite Movie Line to a Ringtone

Do you ever hear famous lines from movies as ringtones and get secretly jealous? Or even obviously jealous? Lucky for you, any line can become a ringtone in just a few short minutes...and you can do it yourself.

What you'll need:
Switch Audio File Converter
WavePad Audio Editor

Nope, that is not a typo—using Switch audio file converter, you can extract the audio from any video file and convert it into a workable audio file format. However, if you think you'll get more use out of video file conversion software, Prism Video File Converter also allows you to extract audio from video files and convert to mp3 or wav files.

Step One:
Extract the audio. Load the video file into Switch, select the format you want to convert to (wav will work fine for now), and click the Convert button. Whew! That was too easy.
Tip: If you don't want to convert such a long audio file, you can trim the video file to a smaller size, isolating the clip you want using VideoPad Video Editor first.

Step Two:
Edit the audio. Now that you have an audio file, load it into WavePad using the Open File icon in the toolbar, browse to your new audio file and open it. Now, isolate the movie line by clicking and dragging to highlight the audio you want to keep in the file. You can make adjustments to the edges of the selected portion by clicking and dragging the edges of the selection. Don't be afraid to preview how the line sounds by pressing the spacebar to play the selection. When everything is just as you want it, press Ctrl+T to trim away everything but your selection. Now save the file in a format appropriate for your phone, load it on your phone and set it as your ringtone.

Voilà! Now who's jealous of your movie ringtone?

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Add New Dimension to your VideoPad Projects

Two dimensions got you down? Wishing you could add a little something extra to your videos to make them stand out? In addition to new chroma key options, VideoPad now lets you export your finished movie for stereoscopic 3D viewing, yet another example that big things do come in small packages. Simply select the "Stereoscopic 3D" icon at the far right of the "Save Movie" window and set your options below - it's that easy. You'll have several options for stereoscopic output depending on your preference, although the default anaglyph imagery selection is the often the most effective way to produce a stereoscopic 3D.

While you won’t need a fancy new television to view your eye-popping creations, you will need two things: one is a set of 3D glasses with red and blue lenses and the other is a suitable way to view your content. For desktop viewing, I recommend Steroscopic Player. It’s both free and is well suited to view any 3D content you export out of VideoPad.

For more information about VideoPad or any other of our acclaimed video software products, visit www.nchsoftware.com/software/video.html

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Now In 3D

One of the favorite comics here in the office is xkcd, a somewhat geeky webcomic with math, science and technology themes.

For April Fool’s Day the site went 3D (XK3D). Since this foray into the third dimension lined up so closely with NCH Software's own 3D addition, with the new stereoscopic 3D video content support that was added in the most recent release of VideoPad (version 2.30), I thought it was the perfect opportunity to introduce any of our readers who are not familiar with xkcd to its wonders.

Note: if you're new to xkcd, make sure you don't to miss the hover over text on each comic as you surf through their archives.

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Acclaim for VideoPad Video Editing Software

We are very grateful that the editors at CNet recently took the time to review NCH's VideoPad Video Editor. They wrote a very nice review and awarded it with 5 out of 5 stars, highlighting how easy VideoPad is in their comments, "It's a rare video editor that you can just fire up and start making movies with, but that's what we did with VideoPad." They went on to say:

"With smartphones, video sharing sites, and Webcams everywhere, there's no lack of raw video resources, just a need for a powerful, easy-to-use tool like VideoPad Video Editor Professional to put your projects together, polish them up, and present them in the format of your choice. More than just fast and competent, we also found it fun to use."

– CNet

You can read the complete review of VideoPad video editor on download.com, but the best way to really get a feel for how user-friendly and fun video editing can be, download VideoPad and try it out for yourself.

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Adding Text to Your Videos

Every now and then, you might find the ocassion to add text to your video. There are only certain times you'll want to add text—afterall, a video should speak for itself—but text can appear as titles, subtitles, captions, overlays, as credits, or a watermark on your video. Adding text is easy to do, you just need a user-friendly video editor like VideoPad Video Editing Software.

Part One: captions, title screens and credits

Text can be added to your videos as captions to describe scenes or to provide commentary to the current action. You can also insert a title screen at the beginning of your movie, and credits at the end.

To add a caption or overlay text to any clip, first select the clip in the sequence, then click the green plus button on the Overlay Track. Make sure the Text option is selected, then type the text for the clip in the text field and click Add when you are done. The text will be added at the 'In Point' position, and you'll see a 3-second-long box added to the Overlay Track on the sequence. You can move this box anywhere in the movie along the overlay track, and you can change its duration by dragging out the left and right edges of the box. Select the text overlay to view it in the Clip Preview panel, where you can change the size, opacity, font, color, and more, as shown below.


Creating a title screen is very similar, but first you have to add a blank clip to the movie. Click the 'Insert Blank' icon in the toolbar and choose to add the clip to the beginning of the movie. Next, add a new overlay by clicking the green plus sign on the Overlay Track and type the title into the text field. Select the overlay on the sequence to view it in the Clip Preview panel, where you can position the text in the middle of the screen using the Alignment buttons, and adjust the size using the Size Slider.

To add credits at the end, add another blank clip to the end of your movie. Create a new Text overlay by clicking the plus sign on the Overlay Track. Then type the credits into the text box, placing each name on its own line, and click OK when you are done. Select the text overlay on the sequence to make it appear in the Clip Preview panel. From the panel, select Bottom to Top from the Scroll drop menu. Preview the credits. If they go by too quickly, increase the duration of the text overlay. If they stop in the middle, you need to increase the duration of the blank clip so the credits have enough time to scroll off the page.

For visual demonstrations of all the text-tips discussed in this blog, you can view the video tutorial VideoPad Video Editor Tutorial - Part 2 and watch the beginning sections on working with text. Part two will talk about working with subtitles in VideoPad.

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Video Stabilization – A Quick Fix for Shaky Video Clips

One extremely cool feature in VideoPad Video Editor is video stabilization. If you've done much hand-held video recording without a tripod, then you have undoubtedly had videos turn out "shaky" because, despite your best efforts, it is near impossible to keep your hand steady. So if you aren't going for that Blair Witch Project feeling, you should give the video stabilization feature a try. This feature uses a deshaker filter to eliminate camera shakiness and makes panning, rotation and zooming smoother.

To show you the video stabilization feature in action, we put together the video below which is a split screen of a video clip showing the before and after results of the video stabilization filter:


To apply video stabilization, right click on your video clip in the Media List and select "Stabilize video(s)...". This will allow you to select a location to save the new stabalized video clip, and once it has finish running the filter, VideoPad will give you the option to replace the original video clip in your project with the new stabilized version. You can adjust the advanced settings of video stabilizer by clicking "Configure Deshaker" button on the Plugin Filters tab of the Options dialog.

Video Stabilization is just one more thing that makes VideoPad such a wonderful video editor. So the next time you record a home movie that is a little shaky, remember that you can use VideoPad to help stabilize the final result, whether you are going to be doing more editing or just to polish the original video.

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Be a VideoPad YouTube Export Expert

One of the neat things about our VideoPad Video Editor is the ability to not only output a YouTube-ready video, but the ability to upload a video directly to YouTube, making the transition from local to internet viewing quick and easy, eliminating much of the upload hassle on your part. How? Take my hand, friend, and we'll walk across this avenue together.

Inside VideoPad (and once you’re happy with your finished video), go up to the top menu and select the "Save Movie" button. This will bring up a dialog box with export settings for a variety of formats at the top. From this menu, scroll over to the rightmost selection, (YouTube), and select the YouTube icon. Once selected, you’ll notice that you have new, YouTube-specific options below, such as where to save your file locally, YouTube login details, places to add details about your movie, keyword information, etc. Fill in the blank fields and hit "OK". From here, VideoPad goes into autopilot and will remotely login to YouTube, encode your movie and upload it for you; all you have to do is sit back and relax.

This is just one of the many small innovations that make VideoPad one of the most user-friendly video editing packages available. If you’d like to jump into the editing arena, VideoPad offers an intuitive, simple interface so you’ll be editing your own masterpieces in no time. Try VideoPad free, and if you’re new to VideoPad or looking for a more in-depth look at the finer points of editing, watch our VideoPad tutorial series to help get your feet wet.

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Video Editing Is Easier Than You Think

Are you guilty of using your video camera to record and then letting all of those videos sit unused in a closet or on your hard drive? If the reason you put off doing anything with all of those video recordings is a fear of how much work it will be, then we have the answer for you—VideoPad Video Editing Software.

In early December we released a new version of VideoPad with more transitions and effects, plus a variety of other improvements including a new overlay track that will allow you to extend the same text over one or more video clips, making things like scrolling credits a breeze. And now we have just updated a two-part VideoPad video tutorial series to walk you through many of the features you will need to transform all that video footage into truly memorable home movies to cherish and share. VideoPad is easy to use in itself, and with these tutorials it’s now even easier.

The new tutorials cover the basics: adding media to your movie, working with the sequence, and exporting your finished movie. They also cover the fun stuff, like placing transitions between clips, and adding effects. You’ll also learn some tips for working with VideoPad, so you’ll always be able to achieve the finished product you imagined.

So what are you waiting for? Check out the VideoPad video tutorials, download VideoPad, collect up your SD Cards and other video recordings out of hiding, and get started. You will be making your own movie masterpiece within minutes.

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Give A Gift of Memories

If you are looking for a really special gift idea, why not give new life to your home movies? Whether they are on VHS cassettes or just taking up disk space, you can easily edit them together and create a memorable home movie DVD for a truly priceless gift to give your loved ones.

First, collect together all of the home videos you want to use. If you have any old analog home movies stored on an old camcorder or VHS tapes you can use a Golden Videos VHS to DVD Converter with a video capture device to connect your camcorder or VCR to your computer and digitize your home movies in no time.

When you have all your video clips collected you are ready to start editing with a quick and easy video editing program like VideoPad. Trim down clips, arrange on the timeline and select transitions. Add a soundtrack or record your own narration to share your memories about the recorded events. VideoPad also has a video stabilization feature to help clean up shaky video if your hand wasn't very steady when you were recording. And for a little extra emphasis you can even adjust the speed of video clips to add in an instant replay of that first home run or other momentous event. VideoPad is very user friendly so editing your home movies really only takes a little time and a little creativity.

Once your editing is complete you are ready to package everything together. Give your video the finishing touch by burning to DVD and adding a custom DVD label for a polished and professional looking final product.

See our software gift ideas page for more ideas on software programs to give, or other ways to add a little personal flare to your gifts.

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More Transitions and Other VideoPad Video Editing Improvements

The latest release of VideoPad video editor is making it even easier to do more with your video files. Version 2.20 was a significant and exciting release, adding even more of the features you've been asking for. If you have used VideoPad before, you will notice that the main screen has tabs for easier access to the additional transitions and effects that we have added. Now you can make your clip look like it has an old film quality, transition between clips with a wipe or a page curl, and play around with the numerous other transitions and effects for a video that’s all your own.

VideoPad also features a new overlay track that will allow you to extend the same text over one or more video clips, with options for making things like scrolling credits a breeze. VideoPad fans won't want to miss these improvements, and people new to video editing will be amazed at how easy making movies can be. Be sure to keeping feeding us your comments and suggestions on all of our software products so we can tailor them to better suit your needs.

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Raking in Awards for NCH Software Applications

The good folks over at TopTen Reviews have been busy and have recently added a few new reviews of some NCH Software favorites to their site. Most notably, they have added VideoPad video editor to their video editing line up, highlighting the extreme ease of use of this small but powerful movie making program.

"Learning to use VideoPad requires very little effort. Indeed, it’s intuitive enough that we were performing some basic functions before even taking a look at the user manual. Drag and drop technology is at the heart of the simplicity. All of the most fundamental processes, including moving clips from the media list to the video and audio tracks or rearranging split clips, can be accomplished in this manner. Other processes are simple too, generally requiring nothing more than clicking a button or selecting an option from a menu. Even adding transitions and effects is just a mouse click away."

– TopTenReviews video editing software review

Test drive our easy video editing software for yourself. We think you will agree with TopTenReviews and be amazed at how easy it is to make your own movies with VideoPad. To help get you started you can also check out our VideoPad video tutorial for a quick tour of the program and some of the features you can use when you are editing your first masterpiece.

VideoPad wasn't the only product to get recognized. Express Burn is polishing a new bronze for cd burning which is only one of the many features of the powerful disc burning software. And WavePad can now boast at having a gold, two silvers and a bronze award from TopTenReviews in different categories, with a new silver in mp3 editing and a bronze for voice recording.

"NCH Software is well-known for its broad range of super multimedia software. WavePad, their entry into the MP3 editing software category, has all the same looks of a quality NCH program. With WavePad, you can do everything you would possibly want to do with an audio file with their assortment of editing tools and effects."

– TopTenReviews MP3 editing software review

We design all of our software with the user in mind, and winning awards is just an added perk, but it is nice to be recognized for some of the things we strive for like ease of use. We hope you will agree with the reviewers at TopTenReviews and fall for our simple and award-winning software solutions.

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Scary Halloween Tutorial: Spookify Your Screen Saver

3 Easy Steps for Making Your Own Halloween Screen Saver

With Halloween on the horizon, you might want your screen saver to reflect a serene cemetery scene, or a haunting moonlit evening. Follow these easy steps and we'll show you how to create your own personalised screen saver free.

1. Create a short Halloween movie or slideshow using VideoPad video editor and your favorite Halloween images and video clips. If you're new to VideoPad or video editing see our VideoPad tutorial to help you get started.

2. Save your movie as a wmv file in its own folder. To do this, click the Save Movie icon in the toolbar, choose the Computer / Data output format, and then select the wmv file format. Click the Browse button to choose the save destination. Don't forget to create a new folder for your screen saver movie.

3. Under the Screen Saver settings in Windows, select the Photos option, and click Settings. Browse for the folder where you saved your movie, click Save, then click Apply. Next time your screen saver comes on, you'll be spooked!

Now that you know how easy it is to make your own seasonal screen saver you can add easily add a little fun and flair to any occasion.

Check back soon for another Halloween tutorial: Make a Howling and Haunting Halloween Soundtrack.

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