Anyone know any simple, effective, free video editing software?

My best friend and I like to make videos. The only video software we have on hand though is Windows Live Movie Maker, which, to put it bluntly, sucks the asses of asses. (He's experienced with Adobe Premiere, but it's only on his school laptop which needs to be turned in by the end of the week.)

We're looking for video editing software that is easy to use/learn, has all the functions necessary to edit a simple production (although some more advanced features like chroma keys wouldn't be too bad...but beggars can't be choosers), and, most importantly, is either free or inexpensive. (Keep in mind, we're 18/19 years old and as such are kinda strapped for cash.)

So, any suggestions?

There is a lot of free stuff out there, but I haven't been able to find a free video editor I liked. So I too would be interested in hearing suggestions.

I agree that WMM is terrible, but for simple things it's okay. Barely.

> Simple > Effective

>Pick one

I get the idea that iMovie is out of the question, even though ever since the '08 release it hasn't been terribly simple, but it's still got a lot more functionality than WMM.

Other than that, the next decent free video editing software I know if is Cinelerra, which is Linux-only.

Yeah, see, I need something that's gonna run on Windows 7. Don't get me wrong, iMovie has everything I need in it, but I simply can't afford a Mac. *sigh* If only, if only...

edited 10th May '12 7:53:45 PM by 0dd1

If I had your answer, my web sketch series would be off the ground.

Back when I was doing a lot of video work on Windows, I was using VirtualDub a lot. However, that was several years ago, and VD is more of a conversion tool and very simple effects system, not a full non-linear editor. If you need separate audio and video, edit decision lists, and other things like that, and Linux is entirely out of the question, then you're probably better off saving up for Premiere Elements.

You can still get Movie Maker 4 and 2.6. They're only marginally better than Live, though.

Are they anything like the one that came with Windows XP? Even though it had that nasty tendency to freeze and at times just refuse to work, it was still lightyears ahead of Live.

It's the XP/Vista one, yes.

2.6, which is the downloadable one, sadly lacks soundtrack/video splitting, among other things.

Does this mean that audio can't be muted/dubbed in? I don't quite remember there being a feature to separate the sound and the video in WMM on XP.

Or am I just completely misinterpreting what you're saying (much more likely than anything else)?

edited 11th May '12 1:38:18 AM by 0dd1

I did a project on WMM once. I needed the audio from a video clip because I didn't have a different mic and used the camera to record a voiceover. I ultimately used Media Coder to isolate the audio.

I realy wish somebody would make an online NLE like the Aviary suite of browser-based graphical apps.

Huh. I know the version of WMM I had when I had a computer with XP allowed you to put a video in the audio line of the timeline. Weird.

Yeah, last time I mucked around with whatever version of WMM I have, you could do that, use a video as audio. I've done it multiple times before.

Untrue. I used this before upgrading to 6.0 and it definitely allowed me to do this. It’s Live Movie Maker that doesn’t allow you to do this (at least I never could find a way to do it).

I understand there’s an open-source editor called Tarantula or something like that that some folks have recommended.

Virtualdub is definitely a nice software to have, it lets you do things (like overlays, chroma-key and other special effects) that WMM doesn’t.

edited 13th May '12 2:27:03 PM by Bananaquit

I've heard of VirtualDub, but I've never gotten any definitive opinions of it. What's the learning curve for it?

I used to editing videos with WMM, and now I do with Show Biz, it's as easy as WMM and you can edit videos just by dragging video clips or photos into storyboard. Special effects such as transitions, subtitles and so forth are allowed to add to live up your videos.

For me, it's like the imovie for pc.

edited 22nd May '13 6:50:40 PM by crystal0092

Avidemux? Lightworks? Blender?

edited 22nd May '13 7:10:28 PM by CassidyTheDevil

I do light video editing here and there, and I usually turn to Video Pad when it comes to that. I'm not entirely sure if that would suit all of your needs, but it works pretty well for me.