Free Video Editing Software

If you have had your camcorder for any length of time, you probably have piles of videocassettes stashed away in drawers and closets, just waiting to be edited and cleaned up so that you could show them to your friends and relatives.

But you have not done anything yet. Maybe you think it is too difficult, too time consuming, or maybe too complex. The good news is that editing is a lot easier than it used to be. Anyone can do simple editing – cleaning up a tape, re-arranging it a bit and adding in basic effects and titles.

Maybe you think getting an editing program is just too expensive? Possibly you don’t want to shell out $50, $100, or more for a good video editing program. Well, I’m sorry to tell you that that excuse won’t fly. You can start editing for cheap or even free. That’s right, there are all kinds of free programs that can enable you to convert your video footage into edited movies, complete with fancy transitions, effects tiles, and music.

And the best news is that you probably already have one or more of these programs living on your computer. If you are using an Apple Macintosh machine, you probably have the iMovie program and if you are using Windows XP, either Home or Professional versions, you should have Moviemaker.

Let’s start with Windows MovieMaker. You should have the latest version - Moviemaker 2.1. Version 1 was not very good, but version 2 and up are great. Find the Moviemaker program in your computer and launch it. Go to the Help menu and check what version if you have. If you don’t have the latest 2.1 version, you should install it.

However, Microsoft does not make it easy. Unlike Moviemaker version 2, which was a standalone program, version 2.1 is part of Windows XP Service Pack 2. So in addition to getting the latest version of Moviemaker, you need to download and install the entire SP2. In addition to Moviemaker, you will also get the latest security enhancements to Windows XP. Not bad, since it is free.

If you have MovieMaker 2 from an earlier version of Windows XP (pre SP2), that should work just fine. There is very little difference.

MovieMaker 2 is a great program for those just starting out in video editing. You can capture video from almost digital video camcorder, or if you have the right hardware, from an analog video source or broadcast TV. You then can use either the timeline or the storyboard mode to select and trim the various video clips, and to assemble your video, complete with titles, effects, graphics and music. You can use MovieMaker to clean up bad video and do color correction. You can add music tracks and narration. When you are creating your project, you then can output it in a variety of formats for playing back on a computer, for email or web posting, or even for burning to a DVD or back to videotape.

And if you are in a hurry, you can use Movie Maker 2’s AutoMovie tool that automatically transforms a collection of video clips into a movie complete with music.

Apple iMovie

Apple iMovie, now part of Apple's iLife package, is another very easy to understand and use video editing program that will do everything you need to capture, edit and create wonderful looking videos that you can share with your friends and family. And it is FREE.

Like MovieMaker, it provides the option for automatic movie making and output to many different formats. You can get iMovie as part of the basic iLife software package that ships with every new Mac. If you prefer, you can buy the inexpensive iLife 05 package ($79), which includes the latest versions of iPhoto 5, iDVD 5 and iTunes 4.7, as well as the new iMovie software – iMovie HD, which allows you to capture and edit HD video. I doubt many of you are yet shooting HD but it is nice to know that you can edit it when the time comes.

One of the advantages of both the free MovieMaker and iMovie products is the great amount of support materials available. In addition to numerous books and how to manuals, you can find online tutorials, FAQs, instruction manuals and user groups at both the Microsoft and Apple sites.

In addition to these two programs, many of the industry’s leading video software makers offer demo and trial versions of their software.

For example, at the Adobe web site, you can download demo versions of their entire software package including the new Premiere Elements for family, hobbyist and prosumer moviemaking, as well as for the more professional Premiere Pro, Encore DVD and After Effects programs.

Available in both NTSC and PAL versions, Adobe Premiere Elements is a powerful software package that provides a lot of creative options for home video editing. Basically Premiere Pro lite, it provides almost any kind of effect or video transition you could imagine. Also, like its big brother, it is a bit complicated and can take some time to master. That’s why it is good to start with the free demo version and master that. By the way, this is a big download, about 500 MB.

Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 software delivers real-time editing tools for professional video production. This tryout version offers many of the application's professional features but will expire 30 days from the first time you open the application.

Adobe Encore DVD software is an authoring tool for professional DVD production? Adobe Encore provides a streamlined workflow, a comprehensive set of design tools, and smooth integration with other Adobe software. This version of Adobe Encore DVD gives you a preview of the features available in the retail version of Adobe Encore and will run for 30 days from the first time you launch it.

Adobe After Effects 6.5 Professional software provides complete creative control so you can efficiently produce motion graphics and visual effects for film, video, multimedia, and the Web.

By the way, you might want to order the Adobe try out package by getting a DVD in the mail instead of a download. The Adobe Video and Audio Solutions DVD includes 30-day tryouts of After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Encore DVD, and Adobe Audition software as well as more than three hours of product training videos. This is a great deal if you want to check out the best that Adobe offers.

Ulead

Another great web site to visit is the Ulead Trial Software and Freeware page at http://www.ulead.com/download/trial.htm. You can get free trial versions of almost all Ulead software products including Ulead MediaStudio Pro and Ulead VideoStudio. As you can guess by the names, MediaStudio Pro is a full suite of applications geared to broadcast and production professionals while VideoStudio is geared more to the hobbyist and home user. You can also get free demo versions of the web design, graphic editing and DVD creation and authoring packages.

If you are thinking of getting into video as a career – as a professional video editor working in the movies or broadcast television, you got to learn how Avid software works. It has its own style and workspace layout, different than most other editing programs on the market. And guess what, even Avid offers a free version of their software. Not a demo or free trial, Avid Free DV can be used to edit your movies and videos.

It is a simple, streamlined version of Avid’s professional programs and is designed to give you a taste, a tease, of what the “real” Avid video-editing programs can do. However, Avid Free DV is no slouch. It works with both Mac and Windows XP operating systems, provides 2 video and two audio editing tracks, 2 additional video and audio layers, 16 customizable real time effects, 3 point editing, insert and overwrite editing tools, as well as fit to fill, titles and effects. You can capture from DV camcorders. The only real shortfall is that it only outputs QuickTime files which isn’t all that bad. Avid Free DV is a real winner that Avid doesn’t like talking that much about. Get it while you can. It’s hard to find. Go to http://www.avid.com/freedv/resources.asp

On the same page, scroll down and access the Avid Free DV training page. Avid Free DV, while free and “basic’, is not easy to learn. You will definitely need to study the online tutorial. However, if you are planning a career in the broadcast and communication industries, you got to know Avid. Downloading and learning Avid Free DV is the absolutely best first step.

Pinnacle

Over the years, Pinnacle has been one of the leaders in developing new video editing software packages for the home and prosumer markets. Their new Pinnacle Studio Plus Version 9 now includes lots of powerful features with the ultimate ease of use. You can download and try it out by going to the Pinnacle web site (www.pinnaclesys.com) and looking for the Studio Plus section. On the right you should see a column with a link for Try It now. That will lead you to a page that lets you download a 214 MB restricted version of the software that is valid for 30 days after installation. Yes, that’s a BIG file but the good news is that if you decide to buy it, you won't need to download it again.

Studio is a complete video capture, editing and sharing solution that enables you to output your videos to the Internet, email, burn to a video CD or DVD, or dub back to tape. Some of its cool features are Image Stabilization to fix shaky handheld shots, automatic color correction and “analog cleaning” to restore old videotapes, and noise reduction that helps filter out annoying wind noise, hiss, and camcorder whine.

Like most editing programs, you get lots of video effects, transitions and sophisticated editing capabilities. You can also add surround sound, widescreen aspect ratios and digital Dolby audio. You can also do automatic video editing to quickly create smooth looking music videos from your video clips.

Studio offers CD and DVD authoring in addition to video editing. This means you can create and burn discs with your CD or DVD burner that should play in most set-top DVD players. You can create multiple linked menus, motion menus and motion buttons.

If you are in a hurry or don’t want to learn anything about editing at all, then check out muvee AutoProducer. AutoProducer has been around for a few years and has consistently been the best of all the “automatic” video editing programs. It combines ease of use with lots of great features for quickly and easily transforming your raw DV footage into cool looking music videos. They offer a free trial version that works really well. check out our muvee review

There are hundreds of free video editing programs and utilities available for download. Here are just a few of the more highly rated and easily found.

3ivx (www.3ivx.com) is an MPEG-4 toolkit that supports MPEG-4 Video, MPEG-4 Audio and the MP4 file format. 3ivx D4 4.5 allows video and audio to be compressed to a fraction of its original size while maintaining high image quality. You can store over 2 hours of near DVD quality audio and video on a single CD-ROM or stream near DVD quality video over a cable modem or DSL modem. It’s also great for squeezing video down for Internet sharing.

SUNAMI MPEG Video Encoder XPress helps users produce high-quality compressed video files via an easy-to-use wizard-based interface and video/audio filters. A free 30-day trial version is available for download from the company's website at www.tmpg-inc.com.

ABC VideoRoll is full-featured, multi-layer video editing application for Windows computers and works with most video, sound and image formats such as QuickTime, AVI, RealMedia, AIFF, JPG, BMP, TGA, GIF, etc. It also features sophisticated video effects and transitions, video capture, Internet streaming. Installation includes an interactive help file and tutorial. You will have to do web search to find it from various shareware and freeware sites on the web.

Another free video editor is Zwei-Stein. It has been around for a while and is now up to version 3.01. It is a non-linear, non-destructive video compositing and editing system that offers many advanced features. With Zwei-Stein you can edit up to 256 video, audio and still image clips, each with up to 64 effects chained serially. Cropping, panning and custom effects are easy with automatic key frames. Built for Windows, there is a beta Linux version floating around as well.

You have lost one more reason for putting off editing those videotapes you have sitting on your shelf. You can start editing for free. It doesn’t matter whether you use a shareware or free program, a trial or demo program, or the free MovieMaker or iMovie programs, it is time that you dust off those old videocassettes, stick them into your DV camcorder, connect it up to your computer, and start editing. Just think – you’ll be clearing up some space and maybe you can even re-cycle those old tape cartridges.