One of the benefits, some might call it a side-effect, of being a Mac user since Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had hair, is, well, we’ve seen it all. Film to DSLR to smartphone. Videotape to digital videography and video editors to iPhone 4K video capture.
That also means I have waded through more than my fair share of every Mac media application and utility on the planet; many I tried, a few I recommend, and a smaller list of what I prefer to use myself. If you do any form of video work then here is a must-have utility to try.
Apple takes videography and sound to near-professional levels with iMovie and GarageBand but moves the YouTube video generation forward with Final Cut Pro. iMovie is very good for basics but just does not have the power and utility of apps like VideoProc, one of the newest on my list of keepers.
Everyone who works on video beyond schoolkids knows the value of editing, file conversions, resizing videos, and the kind of hardware you need to do the job right. VideoProc is a single video and audio conversion utility, hardware-accelerated for speed, and packed with tools that go beyond the basics of cut and include segment merge, subtitles, crops, effects, and all the extras you need to make your YouTube presence obvious.
The option to convert MKV video to MP4 is worth the price of admission alone.
Simple Controls
VideoProc starts with a simple interface with four basic options, simple Settings, and a great Toolbox. The options are obvious– Video, DVD, Downloader, and Recorder. The latter lets you record whatever is on your Mac’s screen and save it as a movie. The Downloader can pull videos from YouTube, Facebook, and elsewhere, then save them to your Mac in whatever resolution or format is available.
DVD does what you expect. It rips DVD movies to your Mac. Drag and drop or select the source DVD on your Mac and convert to any one of a dozen video file formats. It’s a good way to get your DVD collection fully ripped and stored on your Mac.
Those are utilities you will use. The options are simple and straightforward, and fast if you have a Mac that can handle hardware acceleration. My favorite function is Video because it does so much in such a simple interface.
Toolbox
This is where the built-in Toolbox comes in handy; complete with options for video clips– Deshake, Denoise are favorites, of course. But basics like Merge, Trim, Split are easily applied to a video clip. So are effects from Fisheye to Mirror and Flip, from ExportSubtitle to Rotate, GIF, and Snapshot. Select the video clip. Click to apply the effect.
As a sidebar, VideoProc isn’t just about video and you get options to convert audio files, too– from MP3 to AAC, but also PCM, Flac, OGG, PCM, and more. GarageBand can’t do much of that. In some respects, VideoProc is easier to understand and use than iMovie, and definitely more so than Final Cut Pro. That improves workflow and I have yet to find a utility which chews through video conversions as fast.
Hundreds Of Conversion Options
Where else can you find a utility that handles over 420 output formats and 370 input codecs. Why so many? We live in a complicated technology world with gadgets that collect audio and video on many file formats.
That means you can pull in video from a DJI, your iPhone or iPad, GoPro, or any one of dozens of video cameras and point-and-shoot cameras that grab video, too, then convert, edit, add effects, and process the video without having to monkey around inside iMovie first.
Many people don’t know that new iPhones capture 4K video.
That’s right. Slow-motion, time-lapse, and 4K video on your phone. That’s higher quality than broadcast video. VideoProc has the ability to speed up video conversions and processing by relying on the Mac’s built-in GPU (depends upon which Mac you use, of course). That means a finished video file can be much smaller than the original and that makes VideoProc perfect for converting and uploading YouTube videos.
What about recording video?
You get that, too. On the Mac. Record whatever you see on the Mac’s screen then use the built-in tools and Toolbox to edit as needed. That makes VideoProc a good tool for training and education materials without the expense of a specialized app, Final Cut Pro, or others.
My favorite list of functions are in the Toolbox, including the ability to add a watermark, stabilize a video, and remove audio noise. There is much to like with VideoProc, including the fact that the interface sits somewhere between Mac-like and Windows-like. It’s not clumsy like many Windows apps. Simplicity rules, but I would like to see slightly different colors on each utility window.
Otherwise, if you have a need for more utilities and conversions than you’ll get with iMovie and need quick and easy changes, cuts, edits, and some effects– not to mention the option of ripping a DVD movie to your Mac– VideoProc is a worthy utility to consider; priced right, free trial, subscription at the base level, but an inexpensive purchase option.
UPDATE: Found a link to a time-limited VideoProc Anniversary Special Offer I missed earlier.