free video edit software?

[toad857]

Can anyone recommend a simple video editing program? I'm looking for bare basics--just trimming up lengthy videos, really.

I just can't trust google when searching for "free" anything.

[bcombs]

What OS?

If Windows Vista or 7, try using Windows Live Movie Maker, it is about as basic as it gets. If it is XP, it is Windows Movie Maker 2.1. Both are linked below. If you have a Mac, one of the fanboys on here can point you in the right direction.

Windows Live Movie Maker: http://explore.live.com/windows-live-mo ... r?os=other
Windows Movie Maker 2.1: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/down ... aker2.mspx

Note that these are very basic, they have some simple effects, fade in / out, text overlay, etc... You're not going to be the next Josh Lowell using this crap.

[jordancolburn]

If it's on a mac, imovie is a great option, but i'm guessing you're on pc. Movie maker will do the trick for very basic stuff, but it kind of sucks. I've never really found any open source program that is really good for video editing. You'd think someone would be working on something to fill the iMovie void on linux and PC, but i've never come across anything that comes close for free.

[toad857]

OS = windows XP

Anyone ever use 'Audacity'? It's a great little freeware program for editing audio. Very simple, easy, effective. That's basically what i'm looking for, but for video...

Thanks, though. I'm going to check out movie maker 2.1

[toad857]

ah, yes... here's the problem:

my video is a .mov, so microsoft doesn't want to acknowledge it. what a bunch of bitches. can't wait until google dethrones those idiots.

[bcombs]

Pretty sure if the tables were turned and you had WMV files, you would have to convert them to something else before importing into iMovie. It's just part of the deal, everyone has their own proprietary container. They are all using the same codecs, just different containers.

Use something to convert the .mov to .avi or .wmv.

[jordancolburn]

I use handbrake to convert a lot between video formats or rip DVDs. http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php

Audacity is okay for simple editing, and you're right, there should be a simple movie editor that fills a similar niche, but i've yet to find it. I have seen some browser based video editors, but I can't imagine their very good or fast.