Best Free Video Editing Software

[fohat.digs]

Occasionally, I need to do some simple video editing. Nothing major, simple is good, and I don't want to have to pay for it. We run Windows 7, but Ubuntu Linux might be acceptable if that was my best option.

My camera takes .MOV and my wife's takes .AVI, and I also need access to .WMV, as well as .FLV and other common stuff.

Generally, output to .MPEG4 seems best, but all these things fight with each other, and I am less picky as long as "it works" in general.

Windows Movie Maker does not play well with others.

Avidemux would be great, but some inputs (ie .WMV) yield output with no sound.

Do you have recommendations for something that is clean and straightforward?

Thanks !

Harry

[noisyturtle]

I really like Adobe Premier Pro, really easy to work with and you can edit a video in an afternoon. Not technically free, but I think we all know better than that when it comes to Adobe products.

[fohat.digs]

Not sure what you mean, but I have a BAD ATTITUDE towards and prejudice against Adobe, except for an old version of Elements that I have used for years and really like.

I use Flash Player out of necessity, but grudgingly. It really irritates me how they try to load me up with crapware every time they "update"

I have Photoshop Elements and Premier, although they are a few iterations old by now.

Maybe I should re-install Premier and give it another shot. Is that what you suggest?

[noisyturtle]

Well, just comparing to other free services I have used: MS Movie Maker is decent, it just doesn't have many tools or options. I hated almost everything about Cyberlink Power Director, I don't even know where to begin with what's wrong with it. Some people at school use VirtualDub, but I never have so can't vouch for it.

[WhiteFireDragon]

I've been using the built in windows movie maker to edit all my youtube videos, and that thing is just pure garbage. It always crashes on me when I try to transcode videos that are over 30 min long. My computer is OC'ed and I thought that was the problem at first, but I found out it was the software that was just crap.

So I guess, anything BUT windows movie maker. I'm open for suggestions too.

[Larken]

I use premiere pro for complicated projects, but that was a few years ago.

If you're willing to use more than one program in your workflow, you could consider a combination of mediacoder (a transcoder to standardize your inputs) and ezvid for the actual editing (mainly trimming/cutting and rearranging). I have no idea how extensive ezvid's features are, but its free.

Generally what I would do is to throw my files into mediacoder (accepts mov, flv, wmv and 90% of other files I've thrown at it) and output it to a standard format (either divx/mp3 in avi, or h264/faac in mkv or mp4 container) before I even begin the editing process - it's an extra step, but it simplifies the need for having an editor that supports all the formats.

[davkol]

I'm not into video editing or whatever, but when I have to do something like that, Kdenlive works ok. It's actually one of the very few "multimedia" apps I'm able to use without much trouble—I usually have hard time understanding those fancy user interfaces.

[IvanIvanovich]

I suggest to give Cinelerra a try out.

[Burz]

I never tried Cinelerra, but the last time I took a hard survey of free (or libre) editing software was about 5 years ago. Back then all of the most interesting decoding/encoding could be done with ffmpeg library... But sad to say that no matter what technology an editing program used, the result would be audio that would go seriously out of synch some time after the 60 minute mark. And the problem was always worse if transcoding was involved.

A large number of cheaper commercial titles (like iMovie/iLife) also suffered this malady. Keeping audio in synch (something that was effortless in the analog years) was considered unimportant unless you had a pretty substantial budget.

I did not want to resort to something like Pinnacle or Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro just to do simple transcoding and splices, so I stopped being interested in that pursuit.

My takeaway from that experience is that coders have some very astonishing blind spots; the kind you could walk an elephant through. Basics get lost in the hype, and Open Source projects are no less hype-y than the rest. They can keep turning out the garbage because some social dynamic involved permits it to continue.

[TheSoulhunter]

If you are willing to go hardcore try Avisynth -> http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Main_Page
Script based, no GUI, open source, and it can do everything Adobe Premiere/AfterEffects can do... and even more!

[IvanIvanovich]

The biggest key with keeping audio in sync is to not allow the software to use variable framerate, which is just f*cking retarded anyway. Not sure why that is even the default on so many since it does just create out of sync audio.

[Malphas]

VirtualDub in conjunction with AviSynth is what I use and what I would recommend for simple linear editing. Lightworks is probably the best free(ware) editor, and actual commercial movies are made with it, but it's too complicated for me.