software options to zoom/crop on a low-end laptop?

[lee09]

I've got a Pentium dual-cpu @1.73ghz with 2gb system ram + 4gb Readyboost ram.

What is the best software for cropping video on such a system?

I tried AVS Video Editor 5.1, but its 'Ken Burns' (zooming) effect was very awkward, as you couldn't click & drag to select your zoomed area -- it required you to select 'right middle' or 'bottom middle' etc.

Any other software that has a better zooming function that i could try?

I am planning on using Avidemux or Super to convert my source video into lossless format (eg. Huffyuv + PCM ) in order to make it as easy as possible for the editor to crop/zoom.

Then when I've prepared a bunch of zoomed clips, I'll join them all together. Surely that won't be too much of a task for my underpowered machine? Or maybe I'm far too optimistic?

[guns1inger]

You can do it, it may just be slow and take hours.

I am unclear - are you zooming video clips, or creating video clips by zooming stills ?

Zooming stills works because you usually have much more resolution in the photos that you need for video, which gives you room to move around withint he frame without actually having to resize the image. Zooming video rarely works unless you have HD source and are working at SD resolution and you keep the zooms modest. If your source is the same resolution as your output then you have to resize to zoom, and the results will blurry, pixelated video.

Regardless, try Vegas Movie Studio and the Track Motion effect. It will do what you want, within the bounds of physical reality.

[lee09]

Thank you for your suggestion!

Yes i am talking about video-zooming, and I don't mind that the result might end up blurrier or pixelated -- it's more important to 'focus' in on the action (a Judo match).