The U on iTunes - Terms
Non-linear Editing System (NLE)
A non-linear editing system (NLE)
is a video editing (NLVE) or audio editing (NLAE) system which can
perform random access on the source material.
n non-linear editing, the original source files are not lost or
modified during editing. Professional editing software records the
decisions of the editor in an edit decision list (EDL) which can be
interchanged with other editing tools. Many generations and variations
of the original source files can exist without needing to store many
different copies, allowing for very flexible editing. It also makes
it easy to change cuts and undo previous decisions simply by editing
the edit decision list (without having to have the actual film data
duplicated). Loss of quality is also avoided due to not having to
repeatedly re-encode the data when different effects are applied.
A computer for non-linear editing of video will usually have a video
capture card for capturing analog video or a FireWire connection for
capturing digital video from a DV camera, as well as video editing
software. Modern web based editing systems can take video directly
from a camera phone over a GPRS or 3G mobile connection, and editing
can take place through a web browser interface, so strictly speaking
a computer for video editing does not require any installed hardware
or software beyond a web browser and an internet connection.