Best Free Video Editor

[Spiralagnus]

My apologies if this is a frequent thread topic, but I'm new, and my searches didn't turn up anything useful for my purposes.

I own a PC with Windows 7. I'm looking for a good, solid, free video editor with roughly the same level of functionality, interface and ease of use as iMovie on a Mac. I've done some nosing around online, but most of the suggestions seem to come back to Windows Movie Maker, which is really lousy compared to iMovie. I also tried to download and install the Premiere Elements trial, only to discover that it puts an ugly watermark on all of my videos.

Unfortunately, I can't afford to purchase any software. Can someone recommend a good video editor that fits the above description? Thanks.

[redwudz]

What format of video? There are many editors out there, but most are format specific. But you might try AVIDemux as it can handle several formats. If you want transitions, effects and advanced editing, you will likely have to look for a payware solution.

If you can detail your needs a bit better, you may get more replies.

And welcome to our forums.

[1337assassin]

i'd try these ones, in this order, but i've never used any of them.

Zwei-Stein
Videospin (Pinnacle)
Wax
Avid FreeDV

Windows moviemaker is quite powerful, the best feature is the 'save to file size' feature.

u could output the largest WMV filesize possible, then use a free converter, like SUPER, to get it into the final format and size

[guns1inger]

Zwei-Stein and Wax aren't editors. They can be forced to edit, but they are aimed at effects and compositing, not editing.

Avid Free DV is, I believe, no longer available, and was very much hardware dependent. You didn't have the right sound card or video card, you couldn't use it.

Videospin is large unstable bloatware with a lot of limitations.

[PuzZLeR]

Have you ever considered learning AviSynth?

It's a script language and quite resourceful with the more experienced folk here. It can cut, fade, join, change framerates, add filters, deinterlace, and probably a million other things. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a learning curve but, as many will agree with me here, totally worth learning (and free).

If you want to learn it, I can recommend AvsP to set up your script. As well, I find MeGUI, although an encoder GUI, is also a good teacher for intro scripts where I first learned it years ago. You don't have to memorize anything and retype constantly. Just keep a text file of commands that worked for each scenario and cut and paste as you need from then on.

Due to its nature as a frame-server, it doesn't do any "smart render" type of thing (that I know of) other than with lossy codecs, only re-encodes. For (virtually) lossless linear editing, I can recommend:

VirtualDub/VirtualDubMod for DV for cuts and joins.
VirtualDub for DivX, Xvid (the later versions have smart render)
Cuttermaaran for MPEG edits.
Avidemux for alot of other stuff (but can be flaky)

Other than that, there is no general-purpose free editor that I know of. Open Source Project idea? Hmmmm....

If you must spend money - IF - then two fabulous full featured editors that are the most inexpensive for what they do are: VideoStudio (for many acquisition sources) and Womble (if you only do MPEG).

[ronnylov]

KDEnlive is quite good. But it is for Linux. But don't let that stop you. You know Linux is free too...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ohKkEK280w

[yoda313]

u could output the largest WMV filesize possible, then use a free converter, like SUPER, to get it into the final format and size

Better still is to output to dv-avi. When you go into publish mode choose the other tab and select dv-avi. That way you get the best possible output quality available in wmm. - for standard definition material that is

[DarrellS]

For being able to use transitions, WMM probably is the ticket.

I use Virtualdub for almost everything. It saves natively to AVI but the experimental version has a built-in external encoder feature that lets you output H264/AAC in an MP4 or MKV container, H264/AC3 in an MKV container, H264/MP3 in an MKV container or MPEG. You need to have ffmpeg, X264 CLI, Lame and NeroAacEnc installed.

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/VirtualDub-1.9.X-test30.zip

It has a bunch of different plug-ins to be able to open non native file types. You can do simple transitions using filters in blend mode with the curve editor. It has a smart copy mode for frame accurate editing of avi files without having to recode the whole file.

Input Plugins

MPEG2 (by fcchandler)
WMV (by fcchandler)
AC3 (by fcchandler)
Flash Video, including H264 and AAC (by fcchandler)
QuickTime (by tateu)
Flash Video, no H264 or AAC (by Moitah)
DirectShow (by phaeron)

MKV (by fcchandler) http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/Plugins/Matroska

How to use the external encoder feature

http://forums.virtualdub.org/index.php?act=ST&f=3&t=18840&


How To Open Non-avi Files In Virtualdub

Here a brief explanation is given of how to use the input plugin system to open some file formats that VirtualDub doesn't handle natively.

WMV, M2TS/MTS, MP4 and Matroska (and potentially many other types) via DirectShow

Requirements:
DirectShow input driver (place this in .\VirtualDub\plugins\)
Haali Media Splitter (for MP4, M2TS/MTS and Matroska)
ffdshow-tryouts (for MP4, M2TS/MTS and Matroska)

All you have to do is simply open the file in VirtualDub like you normally would. In case your file doesn't show up, select 'All files (*.*)' from the file type list and after selecting your file, select 'DirectShow input driver' from the file types list.

[handyguy]

download.com has tons of software you can try.

[bendixG15]

download.com has tons of software you can try.

So has this place ---> https://www.videohelp.com/tools

[Spiralagnus]

Well, there are several things that I'm trying to do with video:

1. Add black space to the beginning and end of a video file.
2. Fade out or simply delete pieces of the audio track without affecting the video track.
3. Switch out one scene for another in the video track without affecting the audio track.
4. Do a freeze-frame on a video and make it last for several seconds.
5. View the wave forms of the audio track.
6. Convert compressed .avi to DVD-ready .mpg and fix any minor audio sync issues.

The problem is that any free solutions I find for Windows involve bouncing the file around different programs (avidemux, VirtualDub, Audacity, etc.), whereas when I used to work with Macs, I could do almost all of this in iMovie, which comes freely bundled with the Mac OS. I tried Windows Movie Maker, but I don't like the way the preview pane skips frames, and it didn't seem to handle anything other than .wmv very well. Is there a free, all-in-one solution for Windows?

[lordsmurf]

iMovie wasn't free -- you paid out the ass for the privilege of owning a Mac, which came with that software. At least $100 went towards that "free" tool. The difference between Apple and non-Apple is Apple more or less forces you to buy the "free" software with their twice-the-price systems. You can't opt out.

The same $100 range can buy great editors in Windows, such as Adobe Premiere Elements.
It's available at http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2F...reative=390957
The "old" version is $75 (not like it's really obsolete)
The latest version is $90

[1337assassin]

you really only need cross dissolve and the fade in and out ability to both white and black at either end of the color still, at varying speeds, flash to slow.

those two effects alone is all u should really look for in an editor

[1337assassin]

Premiere has the added advantage of being used seamlessly with Illustrator or photoshop element. and even after effects, should u go want to pursue advanced editing and video creation much further, in the future

[1337assassin]

i would imagine there are a large number of people sitting on a copy of adobe premiere 6.5 that they'd be willing to part with for 20 or 30 bucks

[intracube]

Lightworks might be worth considering:
http://www.editshare.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=155&Itemid=203

It's due to be released as a free open source project in the next few weeks (no specific date has been set though).
It used to be a commercial program used in high end productions - so I'm hoping it will be a more reliable and polished product compared to most free editors.

[Spiralagnus]

Lightworks might be worth considering:
http://www.editshare.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=155&Itemid=203

It's due to be released as a free open source project in the next few weeks (no specific date has been set though).
It used to be a commercial program used in high end productions - so I'm hoping it will be a more reliable and polished product compared to most free editors.

Awesome! That's the kind of thing I've been looking for, and I put my name on the list for the official release. With so many other professional open source software applications out right now, I'm surprised it's taken so long for someone to come out with a professional open-source video editor.

[intracube]

I'm surprised it's taken so long for someone to come out with a professional open-source video editor.

Agreed. Professional video editors are a niche product - as well as being complex to develop, and having to keep up with technology in a fast moving area. Which makes it particularly difficult for an open-source project to start.

Theses videos might be of interest:
Demo of Lightworks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gCDFfXUcGk
CEO Andy Liebman discussing the project:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpf-ZR4X5oI

[chowmein]

(no specific date has been set though)

November 29th - but exclusive to those who sign up on their download page!

[intracube]

November 29th - but exclusive to those who sign up on their download page!

Thanks for the update - I don't check the email address I gave them that often.

Also exclusive to Windows users.
From the email: 'We are still receiving questions regarding OS support for Lightworks. Currently, Lightworks runs on Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit, and Windows XP 32-bit. We are looking to port it to Linux and OSX, but this won’t happen until late 2011.'

I was expecting that, tbh.

[burnman99]

KDEnlive is quite good. But it is for Linux. But don't let that stop you. You know Linux is free too...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ohKkEK280w

Kdenlive IMO is the best free editor period. Yes, it's linux, but you can always use a live dvd or avlinux or artistx, and save the results to you windows drive i think, or if not, then to a flash drive, really good program.

[deadrats]

I'm surprised it's taken so long for someone to come out with a professional open-source video editor.

"professional" and "open source" are contradictory terms. one expects a "professional" caliber application to be of a certain quality and it takes education, skill, good tools and hard work to code such an application; open"source" then demands that said work be given away for free, or more accurately, the instructions (recipe) that make(s) up that application, be given away for free.

some companies have tried to give the application away for free and make money off of support contracts, but there hasn't been a single company that has really shown any sustainable business model with such an approach.

about the only path to "open source" that can benefit a company is if it's initially a closed source application and they sell licenses to use it and after a certain version number they start releasing the older ones as open source, then maybe such a company could survive.

but imagine if main concept or microsoft were to open source their work they would be out of business inside of a year, this reality is what prevents any true pro caliber open source video editing software from seeing the light of day.

[chowmein]

"professional" and "open source" are contradictory terms.

Tell me Blender isn't a "professional" 3D production suite.

[deadrats]

Blender isn't a "professional" 3D production suite.

how about you tell me how many Hollywood movies or TV shows have used Blender in their development. give blender a test spin then give any of the following a shot and then we'll talk:

http://www.ulead.com/c3ds/features.htm

http://usa.autodesk.com/maya/

http://www.reallusion.com/

http://www.daz3d.com/

Blender may just be one of the most over hyped pieces of software ever, it's biggest appeal is that it's free, if they decided to charge a per license fee like closed sourced proprietary software then we'd see if people held Blender to the same level of esteem.

[chowmein]

how about you tell me how many Hollywood movies or TV shows have used Blender in their development.

Spiderman 2, Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark, also used extensively in TV advertising... Do your own research before blabbing off.

Blender may just be one of the most over hyped pieces of software ever

What nonsense.

it's biggest appeal is that it's free, if they decided to charge a per license fee like closed sourced proprietary software then we'd see if people held Blender to the same level of esteem.

If Blender went commercial & started charging a fortune, then maybe snobs like you would suddenly embrace it. Reaper gets the same snobby rap from Pro-Tools & Cubase wankers.

[fooledagain]

Windows Live Movie Maker is a good one.

I second that opinion. It works fine for the talents that most hobbyists possess.

[chowmein]

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