Howdy,VHS to DVD and I want edit to get rid of the dross and add voice over

[rabbithutch]

Just found and joined this forum. I'm a complete newb to video editing and need a lot of help. I hope you will tolerate my dumb questions. I promise to listen, but I'm a slow learner sometimes.

Recently I acquired a Magnovox VHS/DVD bi-directional dubbing player-recorder. I will use it to take old VHS tapes to DVD. Because I'm not a very good photographer (worse years ago) there is a lot of dross on the tapes. I was too dense and too impatient to learn anything about editing with the technology available 20+ years ago. Now I want to edit the video to get rid of the dross and possibly add voice over and maybe titles and other features, but I need to learn a lot before I can really begin.

I have successfully dubbed VHS tapes to DVD using the Magnavox. I've even found and installed Avidemux2 on my core-duo laptop. I copied the DVD directories to my hard drive and was able to get the files ripped using Avidemux2. Now I'm pretty much at the end of my string. I've searched the web for tutorials on using the software and found some good ones that describe how to do specific tasks. Now I need to learn more. I've identified 2 areas for further learning: general terminology and processes involved in video editing; and specifically how to use Avidemux2.

My reasoning in choosing Avidemux is that it is free, it has a good reputation, it seems to have all the power I can use at the moment. If I find that I can do this and that Avidemux no longer meets my needs, then I will consider investing in software; but I need to get some experience and learn many things before the investment would be worthwhile.

So here are the questions: Can you give me pointers for making the best use of the forum? Can you recommend (preferably free or very cheap) resources (books, web articles, etc.) for increasing my knowledge? Can you point me to a book or other source for learning Avidemux? (The Help file is pretty bare. Did I miss downloading something?)

TIA for any assistance you can give. It will be greatly appreciated and gratefully received.

[Baldrick]

You wont find any books for avidemux. What kind of editing do you have in mind? avidemux is good for simple cutting,joining and adding some filters but it's not really an "advanced" non linear editor.

Advanced editors:
https://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/video-editors-advanced . The free ones like windows dvd maker are very limited and has very bad dvd source support.



And I changed your thread title.

[rabbithutch]

Hello Baldrick,

Thank you for the response. I want to do simple cutting, joining for now but I also plan to use Avidemux as a tool to learn basics about video editing before investing more money in software. I'm almost 70 years old and retired; so funds are a big issue. I've already ordered a basic book about editing - one written 40+years ago so that I can separate the process knowledge from the tools knowledge. I'm hopeful that Avidmux will serve to give me basic tools. I suspect that each software product uses different techniques to accomplish similar actions thus requiring relearning many tools. I want to exhaust the limits of Avidemux and avoid attempting anything too complex lest I am overwhelmed.

Thank you again for the response.

[qpskfec]

If the source material is dvd, then you are better off using a product like Videoredo, which will let you cut/join dvd mpeg2 files frame accurate. It has a free trial and the website has a user guide.