[SOLVED] No-brainer Windows application to slice videos?

[yetanotherlogin]

Hello,

For someone who just doesn't have the skills + patience required to learn and use more sophisticated applications, I need to find a super easy Windows application to simply slice videos.

Currently, he just plays a video on his laptop with VLC, records the bits he wants holding his smartphone, and tweets them. It does the job, but the audio+video quality could be better

Ideally, it would allow the user to select multiple parts, and re-encode the whole thing into a single video file. So that rules out AviDemux, whose interface might be too complicated anyway.

Are there free applications I should look at?

Thank you.

[Iamback]

Check VDub2
It might do what you want, maybe

[yetanotherlogin]

Thanks.

It doesn't seem to support multi-selection, just like AviDemux.

[jagabo]

It doesn't seem to support multi-selection

You cut out the parts you don't want. Use Set Selection Start, Set Selection End, Delete repeatedly, leaving only the parts you want to keep.

I believe the procedure is the same with AviDemux.

[lingyi]

Yes, Avidemux works the same way, delete the sections you don't want. But I understand where the OP is coming from as I have difficulty with time-space projects (I'm terrible at chess because I can't think more than one move ahead) and find video editing counterintuitive which I why I've given up on even editing out commercials. I start out editing out the parts I don't want, but inevitably lose track and cut the parts I want to keep. I've played with Premiere a couple of times and it's a little easier since it has timelines where you can cut and paste what you want, but even then I get lost after a short while.

Oddly, I can work well in Photoshop since it's single dimension, depth. I can happily work with layers imagining as I add or remove these layers, I'll see what's beneath. But add length to that, for example trying to do an animation, I get lost.

[yetanotherlogin]

You cut out the parts you don't want. Use Set Selection Start, Set Selection End, Delete repeatedly, leaving only the parts you want to keep. I believe the procedure is the same with AviDemux.

Makes sense. It's counter-intuitive to have to set the Selection End to the beginning of the first part I want to keep, simply to remove everything up to that point. It would probably be more natural to users to be able to just select the parts they want, hit a button to eg. "Remove all unselected parts", and generate the output file.

With its dual screens, VirtualDub is too rich.

Since AviDemux requires having to set audio/video codecs when slicing at non-keyframes, I'm not sure I can recommend it either.

A limited edition of VSDC is available for free, but its interface is probably too busy for non-techies

Are very simple slicers only available as commercial applications? A lot of people simply need to trim home videos without any additional features.

[jagabo]

With its dual screens, VirtualDub is too rich.

You can disable the output pane. View -> Pane Layout -> Input Pane Only.

Since AviDemux requires having to set audio/video codecs when slicing at non-keyframes, I'm not sure I can recommend it either.

Most editors that allow you to cut on any frame will require reencoding and selecting codecs and codec properties. Including VirtualDub(2). There are a few "smart" editors that will allow cuts anywhere and only reencode the cut GOPs. VideoRedo, TmpgEnc Smart Renderer, Solveigmm Video Splitter.

[yetanotherlogin]

Re-encoding is no problem, but for newbies, it should be the default and be hidden so that they don't have to bother making sense of those à la AviDemux.

With the input or output window hidden, and the remaining window maximized, it looks like VirtualDub2 could do the trick. I'll see if I can edit its INI file or equivalent, and just zip the whole thing ready for use.

Thank you!

[jagabo]

VirtualDub2 requires that you select codecs and configure them. And it's not a smart renderer. If you use Direct Stream Copy mode it can only cut on keyframes. If you want frame accurate cuts it will re-encode.

[orsetto]

It's counter-intuitive to have to set the Selection End to the beginning of the first part I want to keep, simply to remove everything up to that point. It would probably be more natural to users to be able to just select the parts they want, hit a button to eg. "Remove all unselected parts", and generate the output file.

Perhaps, but this has been the bedrock standard workflow for nearly all video editing for decades, so is the most common interface you will find. Nearly every software package or standalone hardware device (like DVD/HDD or BluRay/HDD recorders) employs the "delete what you don't want" vs "select what you do want" paradigm. This does irritate some percentage of the population with different logic wiring in their brains (kinda like lefthanded vs righthanded), but most pick it up easily with a little practice. Either way, the "multi selection" process you suggest could facilitate some catastrophic user errors. One segment at a time is the safer way to go by far, but I can see where multi-selection might be appealing for casual projects.

I use MPEG Streamclip, which seems reasonably close to what you want in terms of operation, but it can be balky with MP4 files and doesn't work with MKV files. You'd be better off with one of the other suggestions, and telling your Twitter pal he/she needs to take a day or two to learn something that isn't an idiot-proof instant-posting smartphone app. Or, consider that they might actually be perfectly happy with their current quick-n-dirty capture-via-phone-camera workflow? These days, there is no longer a grey area: the world is split nearly equally between geeked out fanatics who demand ultra hdtv quality for everything, and phone addicts who couldn't care less about quality (just momentary posting convenience). If your friend is in the latter camp, no "real" editing workflow (requiring a desktop or laptop intermediary step) will appeal to them: let them keep doing their thing their way.

[yetanotherlogin]

" has been the bedrock standard workflow for nearly all video editing for decades, so is the most common interface you will find"

… hence the importance of talking to potential users instead of techies.

"telling your Twitter pal he/she needs to take a day or two to learn something that isn't an idiot-proof instant-posting smartphone app"

Forget it.

[Cornucopia]

Difference between a tool and a toy.

Scott

[lingyi]

I think there's something to left brain/right brain thing. I have time-space relation issues. I actually lose at tic-tac-toe because I can't visualize what my opponent may choose. And in rock paper scissors I'm told I'm too predictable. BUT, I can walk and chew gum at the same time! Most of the time.