Suggestions for video editing software

Colorful Arty · September 10, 2017, 12:03:06 AM

Windows Movie Maker: I am through with you. I could deal with only being allowed to use one audio track at a time, heck I could even deal with you crashing randomly during editing, but I cannot excuse you for corrupting my video every time I perform a video split.

So, I'm looking for good alternate video editing software to use instead. My requirements are:

A) It must be free.
B) I must be able to add at least two audio tracks to a video file at once.
C) It must not crash every two seconds like Movie Maker does now.

Please let me know if you have any recommendations.

mobius · September 10, 2017, 12:09:04 AM

I use VideoPad editor, it's part of the "video suit" that Debut comes with (but you don't have to get the two at once). It is free. They might try to bug you to get the pay version but trust me; you can get the free one and it's not a trial, even though it says it's a trial. Sometimes there's a message that says you're trial has expired but you can still use it. I've been using it for years now. You look for the one that says "non-commercial use".

~~I'm not certain if it can add more than one/two audio tracks, but I'm pretty sure it can.~~ I just checked it can.

Colorful Arty · September 10, 2017, 12:10:36 AM

That's what I'm trying right now, and my biggest issue right now is quickly jumping to a specific point in a video to perform a split.

Simon · September 10, 2017, 12:22:50 AM

The advice from the free/libre software front:

Lucki (Arch's Lix package maintainer) recommends kdenlive, or OpenShot, or, for more a more powerful program, Natron (https://natron.fr/). All these are GUI video editors, are free/libre open-source software, and have Windows versions. Lucki had kdenlive crash, and OpenShot crashed for me sometimes.

I use ffmpeg for truncating video or merging audio, but that's a pure command-line tool. Must google or read documentation for everything you want. On the upside, because ffmpeg is so powerful, you'll find many answers on the internet. And there is no GUI that could crash on you.

-- Simon

namida · September 11, 2017, 09:58:14 AM

Have also tried using OpenShot, and I also find it crashes a lot. (On Windows, in my case.)

Colorful Arty · September 11, 2017, 01:01:16 PM

I too have found that OpenShot does not work well for windows computers at all; it's very slow and crashes quite frequently. Videopad is also a bust, as its trial version only lets you save one video.

mobius · September 11, 2017, 10:00:19 PM

I must correct what I said above about VideoPad: turns out it is just a trial and I've only used it enough over the years shortly after my computer is reformatted or getting a new computer that I keep forgetting this.

There is a program called VirtualDub which is free but it's very bare-bones and I've never really tried editing with it because it doesn't have a great user interface. You also need to (most-likely) download codacs for it separately but it does work and can do some very powerfful things.

Proxima · September 11, 2017, 10:04:38 PM

I used VirtualDub back in the days when I made Repton videos

No complaints about it; the only reason I stopped using it was I stopped using the computer that had it installed.

These days I use Avidemux, which was recommended to me by an LPer on the DROD forums. It's been able to do everything I've needed for my Curse of Saria videos

Colorful Arty · April 12, 2018, 01:24:57 PM

Well, thanks to the Humble Bundle, I finally got better editing software than Windows Movie Maker: Vegas Pro 14 Edit! So, my videos in the future should have better editing.

Flopsy · April 12, 2018, 05:15:43 PM

Quote from: Colorful Arty on April 12, 2018, 01:24:57 PM
Well, thanks to the Humble Bundle, I finally got better editing software than Windows Movie Maker: Vegas Pro 14 Edit! So, my videos in the future should have better editing.

I was going to tell you about that when I saw you.

I also purchased this, such a bargain at $20
I highly recommend this software to anyone who is serious about making YouTube videos

Going to wait to redeem the codes though until I have a better computer though, I'm wondering if anyone knows what the rules are on this regarding whether the codes can expire.

607 · April 15, 2018, 04:21:54 PM

Woah, that Humble Bundle, though!
kdenlive is nice, but I'd like to try Sony Vegas for sure! (I see the name has changed)

grams88 · April 15, 2018, 08:09:05 PM

I remember Sony Vegas being quite an expensive one as one of my friends got that one a while back. It might probably be a bit better price wise.

Windows movie maker is a no no I would probably say, I remember trying that one back in college for the multimedia class and it was a nightmare trying to restore the video so to say. I think it was corrupting or something like that.

607 · April 18, 2018, 04:45:24 PM

Quote from: grams88 on April 15, 2018, 08:09:05 PM
Windows movie maker is a no no I would probably say, I remember trying that one back in college for the multimedia class and it was a nightmare trying to restore the video so to say. I think it was corrupting or something like that.

I would actually recommend Windows Live Movie Maker for simple projects. It's very easy to use, and not at all picky about inputs. It's very limited option-wise, but I have rarely had issues with WLMM.
Anyway, I have been using VEGAS 14 now, and it's amazing!

I am really impressed. I expected it to have a lot of options, but it's even more versatile than I anticipated. I also expected it to be difficult to use as a result of having many options, but that hasn't proven true. Besides WMM and WLMM, I think this is the quickest I've ever been able to get started! I suppose that might also be due to having more experience now.

But still, I'm delighting in how nice it is to use.

namida · April 18, 2018, 11:02:51 PM

I'd been looking for a good video editing software. I don't use it that often, but it would be nice to have. I had tried OpenShot but indeed, it was barely possible to move the mouse without it crashing on Windows. (I haven't tried it on Mac or Linux yet.) Prior to that, I'd usually been using a cracked copy of Adobe Premiere Pro.

But hey, $20 for a legitimate copy of a very high-grade program (and a few others that look somewhat interesting too), I'll take it! ^_^

GigaLem · July 17, 2018, 01:15:39 AM

My current issue is that im look for free software that would let me add captions like persay a Death count for how many times i've died in a playthrough of Megaman & Bass.
Lightworks has that feature behind a paywall
and Devinci Resolve requires an account

Is there any free software that any of you could recommend doesn't lock that feature behind a paywall?

Personally I would look for cracked versions but I don't want to risk getting a Virus -_-'

PS:Don't try movie maker, it forces you to pay more to get rid of the ads and the adds slow the app down exponetially