Recommendations for a *simple* free video editor?

[jztemple2]

I've been collecting some videos for YouTube, but I want to trim them a bit. I tried the video editor recommended by Kasey, but it was too complex for me . I just need something that will let me cut out parts of a video and stick the remaining together. Any recommendations on a free editor that does that without requiring studying some docs or YouTube videos to know how to use it?

[Blackhawk]

Avidemux is the go to for that.

[jztemple2]

Avidemux is the go to for that.

Thanks, I just used it for an Automobilista 2 video I'm posting and it was very intuitive.

[Kasey Chang]

I use Shotcut for all of my Youtube uploads and transcoding.

Once you get the timeline it's pretty simple. Load the video, "append" it to the timeline, then put a cut marker where you want to cut it, then delete the portion you do NOT want, then drag the remaining portions together, eliminating the "gap", so it's a single piece again.

It does a lot more than that, but for simple cutting and trimming it should be pretty easy.

[Rumpy]

Another recommendation for Shotcut. I've done a lot of experimenting with other free software and they all have limitations or are either too complicated for their own good, but this one is pretty good at being simple enough yet retaining most of the functionality people need.

[jztemple2]

Thanks for the Shotcut recommendations. I'll give it a look.

[Alefroth]

Windows' built-in Movie Maker?

[Rumpy]

That hasn't been a thing since at least Windows 7. I don't think it's been supported since, having been discontinued in 2017. Although they did recently release a new video editor, Clipchamp, available in Windows 11, and there is a built-in video editor as part of the Photo app in Windows 10.

[Alefroth]

It's definitely included in my Windows 10.

[Rumpy]

It prompts me to install Clipchamp on W10, which is a replacement for what's built-into the photo app. The editing in the photo app is very rudimentary. I would personally find that too limiting.

[Kasey Chang]

I use Paint.net for all of my editing and compositing for my thumbnails.

[Kasey Chang]

I just found ANOTHER video editor called CupCut, and so far, it is interesting in that it seems to be aimed at making short videos, as it has a ton of built-in effects, transitions, text fonts, and so on. And one of its more interesting features: automatic captions, so you can do the instagram / youtube short style video with matching captions. You can even add colors and other effects to the words once you got the captions generated.

I think it also claims that it will generate robot voice narration if you have written captions.

Add music, sound effects, and you do have a pretty powerful editor. So far, I like its "record your own voiceover" feature better than Shotcut, as it has a separate panel control, and gives you a 3/2/1 warning before starting.

You can also add 'stickers' if the text format options aren't quite enough.

Been messing with it for an hour to create a short video, apparently I'm just very bad at coming up with video ideas so far. But been messing with the capabilities. I didn't quite like the editing interface, but that's probably because I haven't quite figured out the different "modes", as its selection mode and cut modes are separate.

ignore the bad captions, I just didn't "fix" the bad sound recognition bits. All the caption text are generated automatically. I intentionally tried to do a Youtube short-style vid in the 9:16 factor.

[Zaxxon]

It prompts me to install Clipchamp on W10, which is a replacement for what's built-into the photo app. The editing in the photo app is very rudimentary. I would personally find that too limiting.

This is what should be happening. Any chance you're one of those folks who nuked Windows Update or other check-ins, Alefroth? If you open the old Video Editor app in Windows, you should get this:


image uploader

I tried Clipchamp for the first time last night for my ChatGPT4 test video, and I found it to be pretty intuitive and functional for a 'free' tool.

[Kasey Chang]

The problem with Shotcut is its transitions and effects is pretty un-intuitive, and doesn't do the things I like it to.

To do a transition on shotcut, you have to "overlap the two pieces of footage, then click on the overlap region and choose the transition. That's just weird.

And I can't find a way to do a "static-y fast-forward" effect easily.

I want to like this new one, Capcut, and it's pretty slick, and has a ton of built-in titles and text, and it's great for making short videos. They even have a MOBILE version. The problem is they won't allow track-operations. You can't delete a whole track at a time. When you have a dozen items on the track it's a pain to delete them one by one. It's as if you are expected to only do short videos on them. And what's really weird, the mobile version actually has MORE features than the desktop version as the moment.

I actually tried ClipChamp, as it's the only service that will output 720p or 1080p without forcing a watermark on your footage. But their free footage is extremely limited. What they do is they nickel-and-dime you as there's a TON of footage or features listed as "premium". You can use them, but if you do that, you can't export your result without paying. By then you're locked in with sunk cost. I consider that pretty evil when it comes to monetization. Also, you can't load in a footage that's 16:9, and create 9:16 footage out of it. That's considered a conversion and a premium feature.

I can see why the "pros" are all going to DaVinci Resolve (free). There's a ton of free plug-ins. I may have to give that a try.

[Rumpy]

The problem with Shotcut is its transitions and effects is pretty un-intuitive, and doesn't do the things I like it to.

To do a transition on shotcut, you have to "overlap the two pieces of footage, then click on the overlap region and choose the transition. That's just weird.

Not really all that weird given that it's standard behavior on most video editors. I've found it to be the most intuitive out of several that I've tried. Another way of doing it is to drag the transition over to the spot you'd like to transition.

[Isgrimnur]

https://www.humblebundle.com/software/2 ... e-software

Pay at least $20 for these 13 items

[Kasey Chang]

The problem with Shotcut is its transitions and effects is pretty un-intuitive, and doesn't do the things I like it to.

To do a transition on shotcut, you have to "overlap the two pieces of footage, then click on the overlap region and choose the transition. That's just weird.

Not really all that weird given that it's standard behavior on most video editors. I've found it to be the most intuitive out of several that I've tried. Another way of doing it is to drag the transition over to the spot you'd like to transition.

Generally you overlap the two pieces of footage you want to transition on two separate video tracks, not to physically overlap them on the same track.

[Rumpy]

That's not the way I've taught myself, and I've previously used Apple's stuff. But generally, I have the two clips ends lock together, and it's the transition that overlaps them. Then you decide on the length of the transition. If you overlap the two clips together, you'll have strange things happen depending on the encoding.

[Kasey Chang]

I take that back. Shotcut's transition is actually weirder. When you join the two pieces of video snapped together, there's no transition. You have to drag one on top of the other piece, and the amount of overlap is how long your transition is.

[Kasey Chang]

Capcut appears to have three different teams doing different things. The web version is different from the mobile version which is different from the desktop version. WTF... They look roughly the same, but they are NOT the same.

I remember Capcut claims to be able to generate narration from text. So I tried looking for that in the desktop version... it ain't there.

So I did a websearch, and found their online version. That version *does* have a "create captions" under the auto-captions tab. But the problem with these is it doesn't work right. It claims it will automatically divide it up into portions that'd fit. I tried to paste a larger paragraph. It sort of worked... they put in the timing, but they put in blank spaces for a couple seconds gap. And when you delete those blank captions, the captions don't squeeze back together. ARGH. Then they squeezed the ENTIRE bit back into the first caption (!) as if they made a copy. ARGH. This is nuts.

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I am trying to find some tools that'll take the pauses out of when I talk. So far, Audacity seems to kinda work, but I have to "tune" the parameters. Sometimes I hesitate a hair before the next word, and it sounds weird. I can't find a free tool that will automatically cut up the audio into sentences either. I saw a tool that claims to cut audio into different bits by silence, and it kinda worked, but it seems manual cutting is probably the way to go.

[Kasey Chang]

Capcut Desktop just updated to V2.0, didn't notice any major changes.

The app version of Capcut, on the other hand, feels like a completely different product with a ton of "beta features", including a description and title generator that leverages ChatGPT (!?)

I'm learning Davinci Resolve and I actually made a video with it. It's just a couple photos zooming in and back out with narration, with built-in titles. I need to adjust some of the zoom levels. LOL. It's zoomed in way too close in a lot of the shots. Playing with the zoom level is tricky. I swear they didn't look that close when I previewed it.

[Kasey Chang]

I made a video by leveraging what I know in all packages.

Some of the pix were generated in Blue Willow, with retouch in Paint.net

Narration done in Audacity, with foley added later in ShotCut.

The intro was done by editing the pings in Audacity, then title sequences generated in Davinci Resolve.

The final result was combined in both Capcut and ShotCut.

[Enough]

Davinci Resolve is becoming the industry standard and has free versions. I am not sure it's that much harder to learn than the other options.

[Kasey Chang]

I'm sure 18.5 has some features that will match the other programs. I'm still on 18.1 free.

There are a few things that others do a bit better. Capcut, being catered to shorter videos such as Tiktok, and for marketing content, has started throwing in "templates" and auto-caption (if you have a voice track, it'll auto-generate captions much like Google) which you can then edit for spelling and such. I think 18.5 is getting this, among other things. Capcut also had a ton of text effects, text templates, stickers, and whatnot that requires just plug-and-play, no thoughts required. DR will needs you to "design" such.

Shotcut is like between Capcut and DR. There are some things it does better, at least than DR without plugins.

[Kasey Chang]

Okay, WTF Capcut... They just went "subscription only", and what used to be free is now locked under "must join Pro" to even export. That's ridiculous. I'm uninstalling that POS. It was fun while it lasted. I thought I can use that program to make some shorts, but clearly, they want $$$ more than users. I can understand ADDING functions like premium effects and templates under pro, but basic functionality like export the stuff you made should not be locked when it was perfectly fine before! I'm going to uninstall this and see if I can find a previous version. WTF.

[Rumpy]

Yeah, that's the problem. Many video editing programs that claim to be free really aren't and want you to pony up to to unlock basic features. The result is that there really isn't all that much available for free. I'm assuming that video editing is big business and fairly lucrative, as it's a pattern I keep seeing that isn't necessarily a thing in other software.

[Isgrimnur]

The Movavi deal is still available.

PC Mag review

[Kasey Chang]

Actually, I'm doing quite fine with Shotcut. And I already have Davinci Resolve installed, so I don't think I'll pony up another X bucks for Monavi, even though it and Filmora have their followings.

[Kasey Chang]

For what it's worth, I am doing ALL of my editing in DR nowadays. ShotCut has a few more built-in effects I use, but DR has better support for multiple audio tracks in the same file. I use NVIDIA shadowplay (GeForce Experience) to record my gameplays, with my voiceover, and ShotCut doesn't see my voice track in the MP4 recorded, but DR does. DR also has a lot of audio filters I can select.