Free video editor?

FLRon · #1 07-23-2020, 07:01 PM

I am looking for a free video editor for beginners. When I say beginners,I mean I know absolutely zero about this. I have video clips that I want to join and make a full length video that will be uploaded to YouTube and my web site.

I'm not interested in the technical aspects of the software at this time. I figure that will come as I learn the basics of editing.

Besides the obvious that I know nothing about this, my PC is woefully under powered for such a task. That too will be remedied once I learn some basics. So for now I'm looking for a free video editor that will run on an old PC.

Yes, it's a very tall order, but surely someone has travelled this road already?

tbeltrans · #2 07-23-2020, 07:31 PM

Google is your friend for things like this:

https://www.openshot.org/

https://www.how2shout.com/tools/open...eo-editor.html

https://sourceforge.net/projects/shotcut.mirror/

https://sourceforge.net/projects/vidiot/

...and lots more.

Tony

FLRon · #3 07-23-2020, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tbeltrans

Google is your friend for things like this:

https://www.openshot.org/

https://www.how2shout.com/tools/open...eo-editor.html

https://sourceforge.net/projects/shotcut.mirror/

https://sourceforge.net/projects/vidiot/

...and lots more.

Tony

Yes, of course, Google is a great source. I have researched many of the programs Google revealed on my search. I’m hoping someone will chime in who has actually used/reviewed some of these same programs.

Gcunplugged · #4 07-24-2020, 08:23 PM

Granted, my needs are simple, but I’ve been using OpenShot with pretty good results for the past several years.

All I really need to do is join multiple clips, apply a fade-in/out here or there, and occasionally do a bit of scaling. It does that, and a lot more, and has been able to handle every audio or video format I’ve thrown at it.

Not sure what else to say other than I’m a fan, and it does a lot more than I know how to do. If you’ve done video editing before and have the concepts down, then it is fairly intuitive. If not, it (like most video editors I’ve tried) can be a bit of a learning curve.

Hope that helps,
Gary

FLRon · #5 07-25-2020, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gcunplugged

Granted, my needs are simple, but I’ve been using OpenShot with pretty good results for the past several years.

All I really need to do is join multiple clips, apply a fade-in/out here or there, and occasionally do a bit of scaling. It does that, and a lot more, and has been able to handle every audio or video format I’ve thrown at it.

Not sure what else to say other than I’m a fan, and it does a lot more than I know how to do. If you’ve done video editing before and have the concepts down, then it is fairly intuitive. If not, it (like most video editors I’ve tried) can be a bit of a learning curve.

Hope that helps,
Gary

Sounds like Openshot might we irk. I'll check it out. Thanks

hubcapsc · #6 07-25-2020, 04:25 PM

I use ffmpeg and the Linux command line... besides a million other
things ffmpeg can crop and clip out segments and stitch segments
together... I usually just google "ffmpeg crop" (or whatever) and end
up with examples that work with little effort... I learned here about
audio "normalization" to up the volume on smart phone recordings,
and ffmpeg does that too...

-Mike

Rudy4 · #7 07-25-2020, 06:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FLRon

I am looking for a free video editor for beginners. When I say beginners,I mean I know absolutely zero about this. I have video clips that I want to join and make a full length video that will be uploaded to YouTube and my web site.

I'm not interested in the technical aspects of the software at this time. I figure that will come as I learn the basics of editing.

Besides the obvious that I know nothing about this, my PC is woefully under powered for such a task. That too will be remedied once I learn some basics. So for now I'm looking for a free video editor that will run on an old PC.

Yes, it's a very tall order, but surely someone has travelled this road already?

When I was looking into video editors I found that all the usually suggested "free" editors didn't work for me for one reason or another. YMMV.

Check and see if your version of Windows has Moviemaker installed. If it does then that will do what you need to do. If it's a version of Windows that dropped Moviemaker then I'd suggest spending the $60 on Reaper. It does many video editing tasks just fine and the user forums have loads of top notch users who post. There are also a lot of Youtube how-tos available.

You can try Reaper as a free download to evaluate it's usefulness for your needs before committing to purchase.

Fran Guidry · #8 07-26-2020, 10:05 AM

I've done demo/review posts on ShotCut and HitFilm Express:

http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/2017/...-express-2017/

http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/2017/...a-lampg-video/

Both of these posts are several years old and both programs have made significant progress since then. I checked ShotCut recently and it's doing very well in adding new features. It handles many different formats and has plenty of tutorial support.

If audio tweaks are big part of your video editing, REAPER might be the tool of choice but it's a bit on the geekarama side for video. Still it can be surprisingly powerful:

http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/2016/...eos-in-reaper/

Once again this is an old effort and things are a bit more advanced these days, but the basic approach is the same. There's no GUI, basically no user interface at all on the video side in REAPER.

Fran

TBman · #9 07-26-2020, 10:15 AM

I use Windows Movie Maker for my slide shows. It only accepts 192kbs mp3 files though. For what I do its fine.

FrankHudson · #10 07-26-2020, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TBman

I use Windows Movie Maker for my slide shows. It only accepts 192kbs mp3 files though. For what I do its fine.

I've used it too, and appreciated the simple get it done nature of Windows Movie Maker. I was even thinking of recommending it to the OP (as I know it works on even modest computers) but it's sort-mostly unavailable. Microsoft pulled the download links for it some time back. There are ways to get the installer, but one never knows about those sources and potential malware.

Fran Guidry · #11 07-27-2020, 09:38 AM

When I tried WinMM I was totally turned off by the limited formats it would ingest directly. I spent way too much time waiting for the "preparation" process of converting my clips to something WMM could handle.

Fran

anton · #12 07-27-2020, 11:25 AM

I use DaVinci Resolve, the basic version is free. It might be to much for your current PC to handle though, so you may want to look at the required specs.

It is a pretty full featured video editor and from what I understand can get complicated, though I pretty much use it just for your described uses.

I join clips together, add some audio tracks, fades, and perhaps a title screen. The stuff I don't need to know about I just don't touch.

Might be worth checking out, especially if you get a newer PC down the road.

Huskyman · #13 07-27-2020, 11:35 AM

VSDC and it is free.

robj144 · #14 07-27-2020, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anton

I use DaVinci Resolve, the basic version is free. It might be to much for your current PC to handle though, so you may want to look at the required specs.

It is a pretty full featured video editor and from what I understand can get complicated, though I pretty much use it just for your described uses.

I join clips together, add some audio tracks, fades, and perhaps a title screen. The stuff I don't need to know about I just don't touch.

Might be worth checking out, especially if you get a newer PC down the road.

Resolve is awesome, but not that simple and user friendly, like I feel, the OP wants.