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Filed under: Cameras •Distribution •Editing •GentryMedia Sister Sites •Apps4Phones •Mobile Devices •Software •

1st Video ships bringing more video editing to the iPhone

There’s another entry into the iPhone video editing app category that has just hit the iTunes app store in the last day or so. VeriCorder Technology’s 1st Video (which I previewed here thanks to HandHeld Hollywood just after NAB) aims to one up the previous king of iPhone video editors, ReelDirector, by providing a bit more functionality and moving it beyond a novelty or a toy.

UPDATE: 1st Video has received an update to output better video:

This is good news if you’re planning on buying the app as the video quality was one of its weakest points.

VeriCorder is looking to take this piece of technology beyond the casual iPhone users and integrate it more as a possible platform for reporting and news gathering rather than just the shooting of the kid swinging as I did in this little test edit with 1st video. The VeriCorder website makes some interesting bullet points about the software:

• Basic version exports h264 .mov video files at 480 X 360 resolution (YouTube quality).
• Pro version can edit and send HD video, broadcast ready.
• Renders on or off the iPhone.
• Automated transcoding to multiple formats, including flash video.
• Automated workflow for posting videos to IPTV.
• Automated workflow for adding station IDs, animations, advertisements.
• Ability to send to multiple destinations.

Currently when you hit the app store there’s the $9.99 consumer version of 1st Video. (iTunes link) For that you get a resolution of 480x360 and the ability to send a completed video to the camera roll, email a piece up to 10 MB and wirelessly share with the desktop or other device.  In addition to the consumer versions there’s a $49.99 education version as well as the professional version that runs $300 per year. There’s obviously a lot more features and newsroom integration in the pro version. All the info and detailed bullet point can be found on the VeriCorder Technology products pdf download. If you’ve watched the news from a disaster zone lately you’ve probably seen all the cell phone video and UStream reporting so these guys might be on to something here. (There also seems to be a free version on iTunes as well [iTunes link] though I don’t know anything about this version or its possible limitations. It says it’s the Networks Edition so this might be part of a larger package. Some clarity for those surfing iTunes would be nice).

This post is about the consumer version and how well it actually edits video. No too bad.

How does it work?

When you launch the app you can choose to work live via the iPhone’s camera for video, still images or to record audio. The main screen lets you choose which to use or lets you open existing projects, get help or choose the app’s settings.

The folder icon is how to access projects or import existing media into the app for editing.

Video is loaded into the app via either the camera button where you can shoot live from the phone into the app itself (you can also shoot stills or record audio) or load video from the camera roll.

First load video clips into the video tab that you want to edit in the app.

If you’ve got some video loaded you can then start a project under the Project tab and get right to editing. What you’ll find in the main editing window is a video track, two audio tracks and a tool bar.

The main interface consist of the video track on top and two audio tracks. Tap the track to enlarge it for easier editing.Notice the green SuperCursor that is the playhead.

It’s pretty clever in the way they’ve designed the timeline operation. When you hit the play button or scrub the playhead you get a tiny window that displays either the scrub frame or the video playing back.

When scrubbing or playing back in the timeline you get a small, orange video window that displays the playback or the scrub frame.

If the playhead can’t move then the timeline itself scrolls in the background sort of like the Avid Media Composer ‘scroll while playing’ setting. With the two audio tracks you can import audio into an edit that’s been loaded into the app or record live right to the timeline. That’ll be handy for those news reports. What you can’t do is import a track from your iTunes library. When you start a project and import your first clips you’ll use what VeriCorder calls the Bungee build editor to import clips and mark IN and OUT points.

When in a timeline you’ll see the green SuperCursor which acts as your playhead. At any point you double tap the SuperCursor and it splits into a blue IN point cursor and yellow OUT point cursor.

The above Bungee editor is where you can mark clips and build an edit. Splitting the green SuperCursor via a double tap yields blue IN point and yellow OUT point cursors.

When in Bungee build mode you mark IN to OUT points and drag the marked clip into the Bungee blocks at the bottom to build an edit. When out in the timeline you can mark IN to OUT points and then use a two finger tap to bring up Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete options to work with existing clips in the timeline.

Cut, copy, paste, delete functions come from a two-finger tap on the timeline. Many of the tools also have multiple options noted by the up arrows on some of the tools in the toolbar at the bottom.

It’s a pretty robust way to work with video on a small iPhone screen. Don’t expect to be lightning fast or super precise and you’ll be able to achieve some decent results. Once you have placed clips in the timeline you can still trim edit point via little thumb sliders that allow you to adjust IN and OUT points or you can move back to the end of your current timeline to again import clips via the Bungee build editor.

And then there’s audio.

The audio support is also very strong with the two audio tracks in the editing screen. There’s waveforms for imported audio as well as the ability to view the waveforms for imported video. A mixer mode allows adjustment for levels via a single clip or the entire edit and those levels are shown by the fattening or thinning of the waveforms. There’s even the ability to use rubber banding to adjust levels complete with keyframing of the levels and adjustments for the kinds of curves on fades in and out.

There’s also the ability to rubber band audio for level adjustments and fades. Also notice the thumb tabs on either side of the green SuperCursor. In either a selected audio or video clip you can trim IN and OUT points by dragging the thumb tabs, but the changes don’t ripple through the entire edit.

Plus there’s several levels of Undo. That’s pretty cool for an iPhone. And if you have to jump out of the app during an edit via the Home button 1st Video will ask if you want to reopen the edit with changes intact the next time you launch.

A few things missing.

What’s missing as far as editing features go? There’s no transitions to move between or in and out of clips. There’s no way to precisely trim the video once on a timeline. An on-edit trimming mode would go a long way toward allowing for more frame accurate edits once media is on the timeline. And I couldn’t find a way to move multiple clips at once on the timeline. After deleting one clip I had to manually move all of the clips to the right to close the gap. Good thing there’s snapping. With the multiple tracks in the editor I expected you might be able to perform a split edit (J-cut) with existing clips but that doesn’t seem possible either. And there’s no titling options though there is a script feature which I assume is geared toward news so the editor can type out a script while playing back the video. The maximum length is 60 minutes and boy would I hate to try and transcribe 60 minutes of audio on an iPhone keyboard!

But let’s be honest, we’re doing all of this on an iPhone and for that it’s a pretty robust editor. Once finished you can render out an edit and save it to the camera roll.

I did notice 1st Video does churn through some battery power so be aware of that if you plan to use it away from a power outlet. Seeing this little app on the iPhone got me intrigued as to how it could be adapted to the iPad. If there was a way to shoot the video on the iPhone and transfer the clips via wifi or Bluetooth to the iPad then the editor could work on a much larger interface while the shooter went back out with the phone to gather more footage. That’s really an interesting thought for the mobile video delivery arena.

Here’s a quick edit I tossed together with a few shots from the iPhone and the 1st Video app with just a casual glance over the in app help menu. I was quite disappointed in the final YouTube quality of the video that had been rendered out of 1st Video, sent to the iPhone camera roll and uploaded directly to YouTube. It looks quite a bit more blocky than most similar iPhone uploads and I guess that’s par for the course if it’s limited to 480x360. That really kind of sucks with a $9.99 app and considering ReelDirector looks quite a bit better. I hope the developer will up the resolution in a future update because once this video hit YouTube it’s pretty blocky. But I was able to get the edits pretty precise. For a version 1.0 product VeriCorder’s 1st Video app seems pretty good for an editing standpoint if not so good for video quailty.

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Thanks for the review.

Have to agree that the final video quality was pretty poor in comparison to ReelDirector. I’m wondering if it is a problem with the compressor used? It doesn’t seem to handle motion to well. For the resolution it used, it seems it should be better.

Maybe the higher priced versions use a more expensive compressor?

Posted by lightprism  on  05/11  at  08:54 AM

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I don’t know what causes the lower video quality. It does work at a lesser Rez than the iphone can handle so it doesn’t make sense it doesn’t operate at full Rez. Maybe an update could fix that. Good thing it’s only $9.99

Posted by Scott Simmons  on  05/11  at  05:05 PM

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