In last week’s webinar, Aaron asked: “Are you aware of any video editing software that allows editing offline; that is, without connecting to the Internet? We need to edit classified technical information and can’t run any risk of it leaking onto the web.”
Interesting. I had never considered this. Time for some homework.
Courtesy: Nicholas Githiri, Pexels.com
A computer which is disconnected from the web – by disconnecting its Ethernet cable and turning off Wi-Fi – is called “air-gapped” – because there is a “gap” between the computer and the web.
There are several benefits for doing this:
Clearly, any cloud-based editing or review software is instantly ruled out. But, what’s left?
All computer-based NLEs require access to the Internet for installation and authentication. Once installation is complete, the computer is disconnected from the web.
Here are the results of the three NLEs that I cover.
Apple Final Cut Pro. Final Cut does not require an Internet connection to work.
DaVinci Resolve. Once installation is complete – whether using Resolve Studio with a hardware dongle or an access code – if the system is taken offline Resolve will still work, though web-based features like transcription won’t work.
Adobe Premiere Pro. Normally, Premiere can be disconnected from the web for up to 90 days without signing in, however, web-based features like transcription or Frame.io won’t work.
Adobe also offers Feature Restricted Licenses (FRL Offline) available to government entities to us our products “offline” behind a firewall and not attached to the web. Government IT specialists prepackage our software & expiration certifications so that Premiere doesn’t have to be re-packaged or checked for 1 year.
Here’s Adobe’s relevant KnowledgeBase document.
Now you know.
4 Responses to Is It Possible to Edit Video Without Connecting to the Web?
Aaron’s question reminded me there’s a big world out there.
I’ve never had a reason to edit while online, I don’t use web-based features.
I edit on a Mac that came with FCP preloaded & I’ve never “signed in”, never turned on Wifi, never opened Safari or taken the Mac online – ever. I have other Macs for that.
The only video editing software I’ve ever used is Final Cut Pro. While I do have to take it to an Apple Store to get OS & FCP updates, using their secure internal server, that’s not very often … new features can wait.
What are other reasons to always edit online?
Martin:
Some software, like Premiere, needs to log into an Adobe server every 90 days to verify your subscription is still current. If it can’t log in, it won’t work.
Other features, like automatic text transcription, require web access.
FCP is unique in that it doesn’t need Internet access for all its features to work.
Larry
Well, FCP is unique in all it’s ways! Uniquely the best! (For me)
I am really old school. I have done over 100 films without any connection to the web other than to download the install packages for the software.
Advantages are better, more reliable playback, original storage under my total control as well as supporting my backup strategy which is all local.