Video Editing Software??

[Scusan]

Did a site search and I could only find a few short threads on this topic that were several years old.

Anyone have preferences for video editing software? I'm looking for something that's not very hard to learn/use and ideally free or lower cost. I'm not out to make the next version of "Gone with the Wind", but see what a lot of ordinary people are able to do on YouTube.

I'd like to:

--take several clips and adjust the length and volume and paste them together.
--adjust volume levels of the clips so they're equal
--perhaps try a multi screen video and be able to synchronize the timing between screens.

I'll be using a windows 11 pc with a graphics card, current video sources are an android phone and an older Fuji compact digital camera, have thought about getting some kind of "gopro" style camera as well.

I've done some research and keep coming across "Video Proc Vlogger", which seems to have all that stuff, has lots of online documentation, and is free. I noted that it comes from China and you know what they say ("if the product is free, you're actually the product").

I've also seen some favorable opinions of DaVinci Resolve Free, but don't know if it will do all this stuff in the free version.

Would appreciate hearing the voice of experience, Thanks and Happy New Years!!

 

[jollystomper]

I use Shotcut. Lots of functionality, open source and free. I found it easy to get up to speed and use. Lots of tutorials available for it on the internet, particularly on YouTube. https://www.shotcut.org/

 

[Qs Laptop]

For beginners I suggest Microsoft Windows Movie Maker. I think it's still available as a free download. You might already have it on your PC.

Easy to use, intuitive, yet powerful enough to make decent, simple videos. I'm not sure if it has the ability to set the volume level the same across several clips, but it probably can do it.

You need to learn the basics of editing clips to length, splicing, adding titles and captioning, adding soundtracks, video fades and transitions, etc. This free software will do all of that and it's fairly easy to figure out. Once you've mastered those tasks you can move on to more sophisticated software.

I cut my teeth on Windows Movie Maker (I see it's now called Windows Video Editor) and have since moved on to Adobe Premiere Elements. Loaded with options and features I'm pretty sure it would do all the things you want to do. There is plenty of how to help on the internet and YouTube for using this software. Of course, it's not free but it's frequently on sale. A couple of years ago I got Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements bundled together for $79, a nice deal.

 

[donheff]

I do simple vacations slideshows so I am not experienced with the advanced features of any of this stuff. But I do like custom pan and zoom effects and nice transitions so I have tried a couple of apps. Open Shot is a pretty sophisticated open source app that I have successfully used. But I just switched to Da Vinci Resolve and am blown away. It was used on films such as Avatar. The free version includes all but the most sophisticated features of the commercial product. I assume Black Magic wants to suck in beginners who may eventually need the step-up commercial resources. There are good YouTube videos on the basics I can point you to if you head in that direction. Here is an astro photo slide show I made a day after I downloaded DaVinci.

 

[sengsational]

Open Shot is what I use. Open source. It has the features you're looking for. If you have a lot of segments, it starts to slow down, but it remains snappy if you have under, say, 30 segments in 5 minutes. If it starts slowing down, I make another project, and at the end, combine the exported results.

 

[Cobra9777]

I've always used the built-in Microsoft Video Editor (formerly Movie Maker). A recent update to Windows 10 replaced it with something called Clipchamp. I tried it, but it was horrible in every way. With some effort and Googling, I figured out how to reinstall what they now call "Photos Legacy", which includes the older video editing program.

Anyway, I like the simplicity. It's very intuitive to do basic edits like trimming, splitting, transitions, and moving stuff around. I use it stitch together short videos and photos, add music, titles, text, etc. Nothing too fancy. I share the results with family and friends on YouTube.

 

[ERD50]

I use Shotcut. Lots of functionality, open source and free. I found it easy to get up to speed and use. Lots of tutorials available for it on the internet, particularly on YouTube. https://www.shotcut.org/

I'm using kdenlive, also open-source, free and multi-platform (Win, Mac, Linux).

I have not compared to Shotcut in a long time, so can't comment on pros/cons, just another option to try.

Search on "kdenlive vs shotcut" will get lots of hits.

https://kdenlive.org/

https://shotcut.org

-ERD50

 

[smurray5991]

I am interested in this topic since I'm having a hard time finding free or cheap video editing software that you can use WITHOUT being connected to the internet. If you're traveling a lot in places without consistent internet, being able to use it offline is really helpful.
One of the great frustrations with Microsoft's switch to ClipChamp is that it now only works as an internet-connect app. The old MovieMaker/Photos (now Photos Legacy) permitted editing when offline (and we still use it for that reason).
Any suggestions for a free/inexpensive offline editor (I've read that Filmora is good - anyone have experience with that?). TIA.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I've always used the built-in Microsoft Video Editor (formerly Movie Maker). A recent update to Windows 10 replaced it with something called Clipchamp. I tried it, but it was horrible in every way. With some effort and Googling, I figured out how to reinstall what they now call "Photos Legacy", which includes the older video editing program.

Anyway, I like the simplicity. It's very intuitive to do basic edits like trimming, splitting, transitions, and moving stuff around. I use it stitch together short videos and photos, add music, titles, text, etc. Nothing too fancy. I share the results with family and friends on YouTube.

Yes, if you are new to video editing starting with a more sophisticated program than Movie Maker is bewildering. People have a tendency to want to dive in and start with video effects and transitions but have no working knowledge of how to do the basics like trimming a video clip.

I'm no novice and I'm probably not even at an intermediate skill level. I might dabble in 3 or 4 video "productions" per year, which are usually 1 or 2 minutes or less. Still, It takes me a couple of attempts to remember the basics.

One time I took a video of a group of 20-25 neighborhood kids riding their bikes down the street on the Fourth of July and I managed to blur out the license plate of my son's car which was in the shot. Just that simple task had a steep learning curve.

 

[jollystomper]

I'm using kdenlive, also open-source, free and multi-platform (Win, Mac, Linux).

I have not compared to Shotcut in a long time, so can't comment on pros/cons, just another option to try.

Search on "kdenlive vs shotcut" will get lots of hits.

https://kdenlive.org/

https://shotcut.org

-ERD50

Yep, most of the recent reviews are pretty much "six of one, half dozen of the other" when comparing the tool.

And, of course, there are many comparison reviews from companies who sell video editing software. Those reviews list the pros and cons for both, but end essentially with "... but if you really want a good video editor, buy our software."

 

[Walt34]

Another endorsement for Adobe Premiere Elements. The reason I picked that one is that I was already familiar with Photoshop and Lightroom, and hoped the interface would be similar, making the learning curve shorter. That turned out to be not the case. However, another important (to me) issue is that there are a couple of good books on the software, which helps me a lot more than online videos. Your preference may vary of course.

 

[GenXguy]

Funny. I got interested in this hobby about 25 years ago. I got a program called Pinnacle Studio DV, but it had some issues, and I later got a different firewire capture card and Adobe Premiere. I had some familiarity with many of the popular software packages at the time. Funny thing is that I kind of got away from it completely in the early 2000's after moving and starting a new job, and now all these years later, there's a whole new crop of packages that have come out since, and the whole video capture/transfer mechanism, codecs, and playback platforms have changed so much during that time.

 

[RetMD21]

I've had good luck with Microsoft Clip Champ for trimming clips, cutting and pasting. It is very easy to use.

 

[Scusan]

Thanks!!

OP here.

I appreciate the input and will review the options in more detail then chose one to get familiar with during the lousy winter weather days.

Thanks to all who responded!

 

[Golden Mean]

+1 on Shotcut, pretty active forum here. You could also use Blender's VSE but that has a pretty steep learning curve.

The free Davinci should do anything you need, though I'd think the learning curve on it will be pretty steep too. The pay (studio) version has stuff like multiple GPU support and collaboration/work pipeline tools that home users typically don't want or need.