looking for free video editing software

[George2]

Hello everyone,

I am looking for free (better open source) video editing software. I want it to have two major functions,

1. I can easily cut a part of the video, the major video format I am dealing with is wmv/asf;
2. When I have two videos as input, I can "encode" them to play overlap -- i.e. one video play on top (as foregroup video) of the other video (as backgroup video), and I want the video on top to locate to the corner of a small portion of the backgroup video.

Any recommended software? I want to run on Windows Vista/XP platform.

thanks in advance,
George

[guns1inger]

Windows Movie Maker, which comes free with both XP and Vista, is about the only thing that matches your description.

[George2]

guns1inger, I am so stupid.

After play with Windows Movie Maker for 10 minutes, I did not find an option to cut a portion of video and keep reminding portions. Could you advise me how to do it please?

Windows Movie Maker, which comes free with both XP and Vista, is about the only thing that matches your description.

[Safesurfer]

guns1inger, I am so stupid.

After play with Windows Movie Maker for 10 minutes, I did not find an option to cut a portion of video and keep reminding portions. Could you advise me how to do it please?

Windows Movie Maker, which comes free with both XP and Vista, is about the only thing that matches your description.

Look under Clip in the menu for splitting a video.

WMM doesn't come with a PIP effect, but it can be done. See Papa John's site http://www.papajohn.org/MM2-Editing-Video-Transitions.html (scroll down) for how to code a custom PIP effect with XML

or a Third party effect can be had at http://www.rehanfx.org/products.htm

[George2]

Thanks Safesurfer!

1. the clip function works cool! But are there any functions to merge two video clips?
2. From Papa John's site, which document do you mean? Could you share the URL you refer to please? Too many documents on Papa John's site.

guns1inger, I am so stupid.

After play with Windows Movie Maker for 10 minutes, I did not find an option to cut a portion of video and keep reminding portions. Could you advise me how to do it please?

Windows Movie Maker, which comes free with both XP and Vista, is about the only thing that matches your description.

Look under Clip in the menu for splitting a video.

WMM doesn't come with a PIP effect, but it can be done. See Papa John's site http://www.papajohn.org/MM2-Editing-Video-Transitions.html (scroll down) for how to code a custom PIP effect with XML

or a Third party effect can be had at http://www.rehanfx.org/products.htm

[poisondeathray]

Another option for the PIP effect is avisynth to do editing and script the overlay , and WMNicEnc (which accepts avs scripts) to do the encoding

[Safesurfer]

Thanks Safesurfer!

1. the clip function works cool! But are there any functions to merge two video clips?
2. From Papa John's site, which document do you mean? Could you share the URL you refer to please? Too many documents on Papa John's site.

Hi George:

I gave you the direct link to the page above! Scroll down to the heading "Picture-in-Picture (PIP) Transitions."

What do you mean by merge?

[George2]

Safesurfer, merge I mean suppose I have two videos, I want to add the first video as header and the second video as trailer, and produce them into one single video. How to do this in Windows Movie Maker?

Thanks Safesurfer!

1. the clip function works cool! But are there any functions to merge two video clips?
2. From Papa John's site, which document do you mean? Could you share the URL you refer to please? Too many documents on Papa John's site.

Hi George:

I gave you the direct link to the page above! Scroll down to the heading "Picture-in-Picture (PIP) Transitions."

What do you mean by merge?

[Safesurfer]

Safesurfer, merge I mean suppose I have two videos, I want to add the first video as header and the second video as trailer, and produce them into one single video. How to do this in Windows Movie Maker?

Thanks Safesurfer!

1. the clip function works cool! But are there any functions to merge two video clips?
2. From Papa John's site, which document do you mean? Could you share the URL you refer to please? Too many documents on Papa John's site.

Hi George:

I gave you the direct link to the page above! Scroll down to the heading "Picture-in-Picture (PIP) Transitions."

What do you mean by merge?

WMM imports videos into separate "Collections." Choose View>Collections if you can't see them all, or use the dropdown box to switch between them. Add the first video to the track, then just import the second video and add to the track after the first.

[George2]

"to the track" you mean to the storyboard?

BTW: I read the PIP section from http://www.papajohn.org/MM2-Editing-Video-Transitions.html, but I am confused about what means "Pixelan's transition Pack T2"?

Safesurfer, merge I mean suppose I have two videos, I want to add the first video as header and the second video as trailer, and produce them into one single video. How to do this in Windows Movie Maker?

Thanks Safesurfer!

1. the clip function works cool! But are there any functions to merge two video clips?
2. From Papa John's site, which document do you mean? Could you share the URL you refer to please? Too many documents on Papa John's site.

Hi George:

I gave you the direct link to the page above! Scroll down to the heading "Picture-in-Picture (PIP) Transitions."

What do you mean by merge?

WMM imports videos into separate "Collections." Choose View>Collections if you can't see them all, or use the dropdown box to switch between them. Add the first video to the track, then just import the second video and add to the track after the first.

[Safesurfer]

"to the track" you mean to the storyboard?

BTW: I read the PIP section from http://www.papajohn.org/MM2-Editing-Video-Transitions.html, but I am confused about what means "Pixelan's transition Pack T2"?

Actually I meant the Timeline view, but you can do it in Storyboard mode by dragging the clips to separate boxes.

The Pixelan reference is to a third party plugin, you can see at http://www.pixelan.com/mm/packT2.htm

[George2]

Thanks Safesurfer!

Your solution of using timeline view for Movie Maker works, cool!

A further question, I am looking for a free software (better open source) which could cut/merge video, and also do PIP. Since standard Windows Movie Maker does not offer function to do PIP, are there any other free (better open source) which could cut/merge video, and also do PIP?

"to the track" you mean to the storyboard?

BTW: I read the PIP section from http://www.papajohn.org/MM2-Editing-Video-Transitions.html, but I am confused about what means "Pixelan's transition Pack T2"?

Actually I meant the Timeline view, but you can do it in Storyboard mode by dragging the clips to separate boxes.

The Pixelan reference is to a third party plugin, you can see at http://www.pixelan.com/mm/packT2.htm

[George2]

Hi poisondeathray,

I find avisynth/WMNicEnc is very comprehsnsive, but needs scripting skills. What I target to do is, finding GUI based solution for non-computer professionals to edit video to make PIP. Do you have any recommendations for my requirement?

Another option for the PIP effect is avisynth to do editing and script the overlay , and WMNicEnc (which accepts avs scripts) to do the encoding

[guns1inger]

There are freebies such as Wax2 or Jahshaka, but they will take some learning and are not exactly stable. At least AviSynth is stable.

[poisondeathray]

Yes it can be done in Debugmode Wax, but it doesn't natively accept wmv formats , and only exports vfw avi formats. You can use an avs script as input however, and a simple 1 line script will suffice.

e.g.
DirectShowSource("file.wmv")

Just open the 2 clips on separate tracks, drop the VL windows preset of your choosing onto the top track.

WMV isn't the best capture format either (if this is a continuation from your other threads), especially since you are re-encoding with 2 rounds of quality loss. If you do choose this route, use a higher bitrate for the inital capture. It's meant to be a final distribution format, so it's not edit-friendly either.

For simple editing of WMV clips (cutting, joining), you might try movica or asfbin

[George2]

Hi guns1inger, I heard Microsoft Expression Encoder could do what I want, but I do not find a free edition, just a trial edition. Do you know if Expression Encoder offers a free/Express edition?

There are freebies such as Wax2 or Jahshaka, but they will take some learning and are not exactly stable. At least AviSynth is stable.

[George2]

Hi poisondeathray, 1. I want to confirm Wax does not support wmv format natively as input and still needs some scripting? If yes, I think it is not what I am looking for. I need a pure GUI application which could be used by non-computer professionals. 2. I heard Microsoft Expression Encoder could do what I want, but I do not find a free edition, just a trial edition. Do you know if Expression Encoder offers a free/Express edition?

Yes it can be done in Debugmode Wax, but it doesn't natively accept wmv formats , and only exports vfw avi formats. You can use an avs script as input however, and a simple 1 line script will suffice.

e.g.
DirectShowSource("file.wmv")

Just open the 2 clips on separate tracks, drop the VL windows preset of your choosing onto the top track.

WMV isn't the best capture format either (if this is a continuation from your other threads), especially since you are re-encoding with 2 rounds of quality loss. If you do choose this route, use a higher bitrate for the inital capture. It's meant to be a final distribution format, so it's not edit-friendly either.

For simple editing of WMV clips (cutting, joining), you might try movica or asfbin

[poisondeathray]

Correct, wax does NOT accept wmv natively, and the workaround is to use avisynth scripts. If you were to record in the any of the commonly used avi formats for windows, it would accept any vfw avi format natively without scripts. And it doesn't support export of wmv formats either, only vfw avi formats.

Expression 2 doesn't have a free version.

The problems with wmv is that it isn't open source; it's a proprietary Microsoft format. So you will NOT likely find a FREE utility that does what you want, because licensing fees must be paid. Yet another reason why capturing in wmv format is not recommended.