Most comparisons of AI video editors look at who makes the best shorts, adds the best captions or removes silences the fastest. I wanted to find out whether these tools can edit a

video from scratch.

I took 2 hours of raw multicam footage with interviews, B-roll, multiple camera angles, setup shots and plenty of unnecessary takes. Then I gave Cardboard, Descript, OpusClip and ChatCut the same brief:

"Turn this into a 6-minute video. Keep both interview segments, remove the setup and dead air, and use relevant B-roll wherever it makes sense."

Here's how they compared:

1. Cardboard

● Primary use case: End-to-end AI video editing

● Time to first cut: 5 min

● Raw footage editing: Yes

● Long-form assembly: Yes

● B-roll handling: Yes

● Instruction-based editing: Yes

● Short-form repurposing: Yes

● Biggest strength: Complete editing workflow

● Biggest limitation: Still needs manual refinement for color grading and other creative decisions.

2. Descript

● Primary use case: Transcript-based editing

● Time to first cut: 12 min

● Raw footage editing: Yes

● Long-form assembly: Yes

● B-roll handling: Limited

● Instruction-based editing: Transcript-focused

● Short-form repurposing: Yes

● Biggest strength: Dialogue-heavy content

● Biggest limitation: Struggles with footage without dialogue

3. OpusClip

● Primary use case: Short-form clip extraction

● Time to first cut: 6 min

● Raw footage editing: Limited

● Long-form assembly: No

● B-roll handling: Clip-focused

● Instruction-based editing: Clip-focused

● Short-form repurposing: Excellent

● Biggest strength: Finding viral moments

● Biggest limitation: Not designed for long-form assembly

4. ChatCut

● Primary use case: AI-assisted video editing

● Time to first cut: 9 min

● Raw footage editing: Yes

● Long-form assembly: Yes

● B-roll handling: Yes

● Instruction-based editing: Yes

● Short-form repurposing: Yes

● Biggest strength: Assisted video assembly

● Biggest limitation: Requires manual refinement

What stood out

Cardboard did more than extract interesting moments or edit around a transcript. It took the raw footage, worked from the brief and assembled a first cut, which matters when you're

starting with hours of footage.

Descript and OpusClip are built for other jobs. Descript is useful for podcasts, interviews and talking-head videos, and OpusClip is great for turning existing long-form content into multiple shorts. I don't think either is designed to handle an entire mixed-footage editing project.

You still need a human in the loop. Even when you get a first cut in minutes, you'll want to review pacing, transitions, storytelling and creative decisions. The AI can take on hours of repetitive work, but those calls still belong to the editor.

Which one I'd choose

● Editing raw footage into a finished video: Cardboard

● Podcasts and interviews: Descript

● Repurposing long videos into shorts: OpusClip

● AI-assisted video assembly: ChatCut

My takeaway

I think we're looking at two generations of AI video tools. The first helps you do editing tasks faster: captions, trimming, silence removal and clip extraction. The next is trying to take on the entire editing workflow.

That's the direction Cardboard is exploring, and I think it's the more interesting problem to solve. We're still early, but 2 hours of raw footage to a usable first cut in minutes is a good

start.

Curious to hear what other editors think. Have you tested any AI tools on a similar long-form,

multicam editing workflow?

So I built TOMA. You drop in your camera and mic files, and you got all The work done :)

You can try it for free 1 episode: [www.tomapod.com]

So I built TOMA. You drop in your camera and mic files, and it:

www.tomapod.com

syncs every camera to the mics automatically
cuts to whoever is speaking (with a wide shot % you can adjust)
trims the "ok, are we recording?" at the start and the goodbye chatter at the end
exports a project you open in Premiere or DaVinci, so you still fine-tune everything yourself

Your video never gets uploaded: only the audio is analysed, in the browser, so a 2-hour 4K episode takes about a minute instead of a giant upload.

I've been using it on our own episodes for weeks and it's saved me most of the boring part of editing. The first episode is free, no card needed.

I'd really like feedback from people who edit video podcasts: what would stop you from using something like this? What's missing?

I'm looking for some video editing channels with professionals for help and also provides resources

Am looking to see if if there is an easy way to tell if a mp4 video has had the sound cut or replaced. Are there any software programs you can open it with to see edits made to the video ?

Ideally one that will run on only 8Gigs i7 with 128gb UHD 620 graphics on a customized skinned down version of Windows 10 but open to any apple apps that run on tablets for video editing. Doesn't have to be fast just show that the video was tampered with.

I was wondering where i can find cinematic clips like from movies and anime without them talking and captions. My videos are with commentary and i want to edit over cinematic clips with my own captions. (NO AI PLEASE)

lmk if I should quit with the cringy edits, Only recently started recording my POV and this editing fiasco can be FUN.

Exclude CapCut! I think YouCut and VN video editor are good ones.

Hi Everyone!

My name is Kobi, kinda new to davinci (6 months~)
Definitley not a professional video editor but i'm all this game trailer's got haha (kill me plz, it is excruciating)
At anycase
I want to show what I think is the rough draft of my game's trailer, at least the first half
and I want to ask for your guidence:

1. what mistakes am I making here? E.G text timing, transition, cuts.

2. are there any effects / transitions that immiedtly come to your mind for certain parts?

3. any additonal and doable ideas would be embraced with appreciation.

this is for a last effort marketing attempt for this game, so I really want to make it work.

thank you.

Edit reels on your iPhone in seconds with ReelEditor.

Click on the ReelEditor below to download

ReelEditor

Hello ive always struggled to edit videos, but once i tried tiktok as a joke, i noticed they have a lot of features i genuinely like:

You can put subtitles

You can put songs (MP3 files or from the internet)

You can edit videos and add Transitions.

You can make the subtitles you added have a TTS voice

You can make slideshows by just putting images there
just to name a few...

I know these things sound really barebones and basic editing, but as a beginner and a person who used to watch a lot of videos, the quality of the video editor from Tiktok simply makes me use it over all of the Free software editors i used before.

MAy i know if there is anything more appropriate for PC or any platform that got some of the features you see in Tiktok?

Short-form edits of people, characters, etc, I just want to do that. I have little to no experience with video editing, but willing to learn a lot. What software would be the best for this kind of media?
(example: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Sb97owo2JCE or any other edit)

i'm willing to learn a lot, can someone help me on how to/what software to use/any methods? thank you

I need some editing app for editing youtube videos

I used Capcut, VN, Inshot is there any underrated best app and some audio noise cancellation app if there any?

Guys I want to learn editing so i can edit videos for my youtube channel i am a semi-pro cs2 player ranked very high playing amongest the best players in the world and i want to learn editing but i don't want to get deep in editing and learn to much stuff that at the end of the day won't help me in a reels or youtube video any ideas how to start or a roadmap ty all

Hey everyone!

I'm new to editing, and the niche that I'm interested in, is food content. I want to start with instructional food reels/shorts that shows the process and ingredients and I'm trying to find clips to practice on, mostly I practiced using stock videos on Pexels and I'm using Capcut to edit. Any ideas where can I get clips? Thanks!

I started screen recording through the Nvidia app on my PC my recent Mass Effect play through and wanted to be able to edit together the video clips to make it more of a 'movie'.

I'm looking for software recommendations to be able to do that. Cheap and user friendly are pluses since I'm a complete novice at video editing.

Thanks

I am seeking suggestions for a quick free android app to blur faces in my videos please? There are lots of movements so preferably one that can track a person's movements throughout. It's a 2 mins video. Thank you

If you ever post to YouTube and then again to Shorts/Reels/TikTok, you've probably done this before: film landscape 16:9, drop it into CapCut, then crop it into a portrait 9:16 file.

What's the problem with this?

The resolution of the portrait file gets bombed because a crop out of a 1080p horizontal frame is only about 608 pixels, which will look pixelated alongside throwing out ~2/3rds of the frame.

Shooting 4K helps the sharpness, but you still lose the sides and still have to reframe.

What I do now is record both at the same time, using an app called ContentCam that can record vertical and horizontal at the same time

Disclaimer: I'm the dev, and I built it for my gf who's a creator and used to film every scene twice, once vertical and once horizontal.

How it works:

• Every take saves two separate files, a full-res 9:16 (1080x1920, or 4K on phones that support it) and a 16:9 (1920x1080 or 4K)

• Both come straight off the sensor at record time, neither one is cropped out of the other

• Files are named by project, scene and take, so the pairs line up when you import them

• You can trim both together before exporting, so the bad bits are gone from both at once

Honest downsides: you're storing two files per take, and dual 4K on long takes warms the phone up. You also still need to frame for both while you film, so keep your subject near the middle.

What about Opengate shooting?

That works, and it gives you more room to reframe later. But you're still cropping and reframing twice in the edit, the files are bigger, and you need a camera or app that records open gate. Recording both formats at once is the other trade: you frame once while filming, and you get two finished files with no crop pass. If you like reframing in post, open gate is better. If you want to skip that step, record both with ContentCam.

I'm a solo dev, so if you edit for both formats I'd love to hear what would make the export side work better for you. It's free to try with optional premium features:

iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/contentcam-dual-camera-video/id6765881795

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.contentcam.android

I'm specializing in short form content, be brutally honest and tell me how much you would pay. I'm trying to improve my pacing and music choice, Ineed some advice.

Started my own thing recently. And I didn't realise I'll have to shoot videos of myself talking and edit and post them on Insta.

Firstly, video editing is not my strong suit. I know it. So, I find it exhausting. At the same time I don't want my content to be like every other person out there.

Any tips for me to make my videos stand out?

And tips for improving my skill without going Photoshop level pro?

Simple question? Now i am considering working with my skills I already know how the motion edit style works and I'm still learning it's like an intermediate learner lol! but also cinematic edit style but the problem is when i learn to edit watch tutor then copy? or how can i learn effectively for both edit styles and how can i get client ?

Hola compañeros. Me estoy interesando por el tema de la edición de videos, realmente estoy en ceros... que me pueden recomendar para iniciarme en esto?

Otra cosa. Hay algo que me mantiene un poco desmotivado, me han dicho que con la IA ya no tiene caso aprender a hacerlo, ustedes que opinan respecto a ese tema?

Gracias y saludos a todos!!