If you’re looking for an easy-to-use no-frills set of programs for editing audio and video files, you may already have heard of AVS Video Editor or some of the other programs in the AVS4YOU software suite. Would these programs meet your editing needs? Let’s find out.
Features
AVS4YOU is a full-featured suite of simple software programs designed to handle a wide range of audio and video processing jobs. A very refined piece of software that’s been upgraded and re-released repeatedly since its first publication in 2003, AVS4YOU gives you full control over media editing tasks and works with virtually every common input and output format used today.
The flagship component of the suite is probably the AVS Video Editor. Besides full support for all common file formats and codecs, the Video Editor also gives you access to a comprehensive library of transitions and visual effects. It also includes image-stabilization features to smooth out amateur video. AVS Video Editor works perfectly — and quickly! — with Blu-ray and HD video files. The editor even has direct sharing options allowing you to seamlessly post videos online once you’re done creating them.
On the audio side, the AVS Audio Editor performs a similar array of functions for audio files in a wide range of different formats. (It even supports the M4R format used for iPhone ringtones.) The program has sufficient capacity to perform plenty of basic track-mixing and editing tasks, with a good selection of basic filters and effects.
Other programs included in the AVS4YOU suite are a disc burner, conversion tools for audio, video, image, and other types of files, a basic registry cleaner, and a pretty nice media player. One notable little extra is the AVS Video ReMaker, a handy editing utility that lets you perform basic edits (cuts, re-ordering, etc.) in video files without the time-consuming process of reconverting them to another format.
Advantages
The biggest advantage of the AVS4YOU software is far and away its simplicity. Over its 12 years of operation, the interfaces and features have been carefully tweaked and perfected so that the software is as intuitive as it can possibly be. Learning to use AVS4YOU programs is incredibly easy, and you can get high-quality results out of the software soon after you start working with it.
The fragmentary nature of the software suite is actually a feature in its favor. AVS4YOU offers over a dozen different programs covered by a single subscription license, and you need to download and install only those programs you actually use. This makes it a handy software suite for extremely space-sensitive devices.
Users frequently sing the praises of AVS4YOU’s customer support. Any questions or problems you have with the software receive prompt and helpful answers — with one important exception (see below).
Disadvantages
There are two complaints you could hold against the AVS4YOU suite. One of them is simply that this is not free software. You can download and play with the software all you like, but it will leave an unmissable video or audio watermark on its output unless you pay the subscription fee. At $39 for a one-year license or $59 for a permanent license, many consider the price steep for software that does not go much beyond the capabilities of various free alternatives.
More seriously, many users are taken by surprise by the fact that the AVS4YOU subscription is licensed on a per-computer basis. The software license can’t be transferred to another computer. While this little detail isn’t exactly hidden away, it runs so contrary to your experience with other software purchasing models that it comes as quite a shock.
Ultimately, AVS4YOU is a nicely-integrated and easy-to-use set of editing tools for use with every sort of audio and video file. The suite’s hefty price tag and restrictive license policy makes it a pass for users who are short on funds, though. As noted above, you can find almost every feature available in the AVS4YOU suite duplicated in a free alternative.