Easy Video Editor 3.0 (*** out of four) is a newly-released video editor for beginners. If have hours of videos of your children’s soccer or hockey games, birthday parties, recitals and the like, you’ll soon realize that you really don’t want hours of video to archive or share with family and friends. What you want is those parts that are most memorable or exciting or have special meaning to you. Enter the video editor.

The first order of business is to capture the video clips you want. The program allows you to capture video clips directly from your DV camcorder or from your HD camcorder. The program supports both SD and HD video editing. You can also import video clips from files on your hard drive or from memory cards. The video clips captured or imported will appear on screen in the Video Clipboard window. From this window you can drag a clip into the Preview window for viewing or editing. The extent of editing here is limited to splitting a clip into one or more clips. This allows removal of accidental recordings of your feet or the sky and the like and to include only the most interesting or relevant parts of the video clips in your finished projects. The original video clip remains unchanged; only the edits stay in your project.

Now you can start building your video story by dragging and dropping the edited video clips from the Video Clipboard to the Storyboard. On the Storyboard you can add, remove or rearrange the clips to suit the story. A title clip and end credit clip can also be added in the Storyboard. Text entry is somewhat awkward, and there is no option for centered or right justified text (only left justified). Also, annoyingly, the text doesn’t appear in the clip on the Storyboard and only shows itself when you use the text editing window or preview the project. There are, however, several text effects, such as text sliding in or out, dancing on screen and the like, and you can add an outline or shadow to the text if wanted. Control of background color and duration is provided. No provision is made to caption a video clip or overlay text on a video clip.

Included in Easy Video Editor 3.0 are 24 different transitions that can be used between video clips, and you can choose a different one between each clip. There are splits, spins and side slides, both vertical and horizontal, that can transition one clip to another. These options can add interest to a project, but missing from the selection of transitions is, in our opinion, one of the most useful: a simple cross fade from one clip to another. You can choose to have no transition so that the next clip begins where the previous one ends.

Also included are some artsy effects that can be applied to a video clip located in the Storyboard. These effects will produce a blurry, swirly, pixelly or other pattern. Unfortunately, these effects are applied during the entire length of the clip, with no way to limit them to just the first or last few seconds of the clip. The program does not include an option to add your own music or narration or to control soundtrack volume or add fades in or out. The only soundtrack control you get is to mute audio during an individual video clip.

Once you’re satisfied with your video creation, the final step is to Publish the project. Easy Video Editor 3.0 offers several options. Creation of a DVD is one option, and the program allows creation of a menu. You can publish your project to a file on your hard drive in a number of common formats such as AVI, DV-AVI, MPEG 1, 2, or 4, VCD, SVCD, WMV, or Blu-ray Disc. You can also publish/burn a DVD or Blu-ray Disc, complete with menus, or directly upload your creation to YouTube or save the project in a format suitable for an iPod or a PSP.

In creating the menu structure, you’ll have to select chapter points in your project. These points become selectable when playing the DVD to make it possible to jump directly to that point. This can be done automatically by the program, where the beginning of each video clip in the Storyboard becomes a chapter point. Alternately, you can select the chapter points manually at any place in your project or select a set number of points evenly spaced throughout the video.

Next comes selecting a theme from the 20 included, and this will determine the overall look of the menu. Themes vary from simple to elegant to funky, so you’re sure to find something suitable. You’ll want to select a background image for the menu from the several provided, or you can use one of your own images. There is a provision for adding background music to be played while the menu is displayed, if desired. No music selections are provided, so you’ll have to use your own favorite song, narration or even sound effect.

The limited options in Easy Video Editor 3.0 make it easier to use and thus a useful video editor for the beginner.

From Honestech, www.honestech.com, Windows XP/Vista, Pentium IV 2.4 Ghz, 1GB RAM, 10GB free hard drive space for DVD creation, 25GB for Blu-ray Disc creation, $49.99