Free, decent, video editing software?
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I'm on a work computer and can't use my beloved Vegas.
Any free software that can do the following:
- Trim video
- Crop video
- Scale video
- Replace the cropped bits of video with a background image?
- Write the result to .mp4 at decent quality?
- Isn't a wide-awake nightmare to actually use?
My budget is $0.
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I have only used it for basic stuff, but looks like the best open source
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Too much friction.
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@blakeyrat it is just installing and adding to the path.
Edit: it is copying some dlls. They probably cannot distribute them.
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@dse I'm not even talking about the friction of downloading a totally different software package and "adding it to the path", which, by the way, is horrible.
Just the sheer quantity of jargon in those instructions are enough for me to know they're not going to meet my last bulletpoint requirement. That said, right now I don't know of anything better short of signing up for a free trial of Adobe Premiere and downloading for hours...
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Maybe I should turn it around, of the video editors on this list:
Best free video editing software (2024)
Find the best free video editing software for your next project
Can you recommend one with personal experience?
EDIT: and now I see OBS Studio fucked up its DPI-scaling. Because of course it did; why would a piece of software work correctly the first time? EDIT EDIT: actually it's not so bad, it just for some reason drew the mouse cursor huge, the window and text is correctly-sized.
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@blakeyrat I tried VSDC Free Video Editor, it kind of works, but let me tell you: Vegas has nothing to fear from these clowns.
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@blakeyrat said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
@blakeyrat I tried VSDC Free Video Editor, it kind of works, but let me tell you: Vegas has nothing to fear from these clowns.
Vegas has nothing to fear from any free software. It's just that bad out there.
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@yamikuronue I kind of knew it was, but I needed this 2-minute video for my boss today so I didn't have time to round-trip it on my home computer and do a real professional job. (Not that the video work I do is anywhere remotely close to professional, but at least I have a pro tool for it.)
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Try Lightworks. It claims to be a professional tool and stuff but it has a free version.
I did find the interface a bit awkward at first, but then again I've never really used any other video editing software before, so I have no idea how it compares to the norm.
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@anonymous234 Too late, I already finished my video.
EDIT: also it looks like it's just a 7-day free trial. Which would have been sufficient, assuming it doesn't watermark the result in some way.
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@blakeyrat The website is not very clear about it, but there is definitely a free version that lasts forever. The main limitation being that you can only export up to 720p.
https://www.lwks.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=102&Itemid=213In fact, if you look at the FAQ it says
The Free license will expire every seven days but can be renewed by simply signing back into the application with your Username and Password.
So you don't even get a 7 day "Pro" version trial, you just get 7 days without having to register an account. It seems to be a case of seriously
terminology.It also says that the Pro license can only be used on 2 systems ever, then you have to buy a new one, so fuck that too.
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Blakeyrat can't use google again. I am making "how to" videos daily and I am using 100% free software.
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@anonymous234 Considering the quality of the free tools, it might be worth the annoyance.
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@lucas1 said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
Blakeyrat can't use google again. I am making "how to" videos daily and I am using 100% free software.
Right; I got that article I linked via. telepathy from Mars. You sure called me out on that one.
My problem isn't "there aren't any free video editors!", my problem is "free video editors are all fucking garbage." If you disagree with that statement, Lucas, you might be the first person I've ever met who has.
EDIT: sorry no cat gifs in here, keep trying.
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I've used VSDC Free Video Editor in the past - the free version has some annoying limitations (specifically, you can't make a path with more than two points) but otherwise is a full nonlinear editor that does everything and more. When I just need to cut and combine clips, though, I use Avidemux to avoid re-encoding and losing quality. You can only cut on keyframes, though.
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@lb_ said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
but otherwise is a full nonlinear editor that does everything and more.
Yeah, one of the things it can do is literally every operation you perform, lock-up for 3-4 seconds until you think it's broken.
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@blakeyrat I am using obs for some stuff.
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@blakeyrat said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
I'm on a work computer and can't use my beloved Vegas.
Any free software that can do the following:
- Trim video
- Crop video
- Scale video
- Replace the cropped bits of video with a background image?
- Write the result to .mp4 at decent quality?
- Isn't a wide-awake nightmare to actually use?
Adobe Premiere Pro, any non-Cloud version.
@blakeyrat said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
My budget is $0.
Adobe Premiere Pro, any non-Cloud version, from Pirate Bay.
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@lorne-kates said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
@blakeyrat said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
I'm on a work computer and can't use my beloved Vegas.
Any free software that can do the following:
- Trim video
- Crop video
- Scale video
- Replace the cropped bits of video with a background image?
- Write the result to .mp4 at decent quality?
- Isn't a wide-awake nightmare to actually use?
Adobe Premiere Pro, any non-Cloud version.
@blakeyrat said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
My budget is $0.
Adobe Premiere Pro, any non-Cloud version, from Pirate Bay.
Why specify the non-cloud version?
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@dreikin said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
Why specify the non-cloud version?
I’m guessing because they require a subscription fee of $19.99 per month. Though for a one-time job you could just grab the free trial.
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@dreikin said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
Why specify the non-cloud version?
Because it's a airy floating pile of shit. Crashes, randomly "updates" to fuck over your settings and\or corrupt your files, shift the ui for no reason, and all the other garbage assisted with "cloud"
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Hmm. Aren't you the one who is always ranting about how OSS developers have shit for brains and can't make usable software if their life depended on it?
@blakeyrat said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
my problem is "free video editors are all fucking garbage."
Ah. There you go.
Anyway, I use Shotcut which is free, and not entirely undecent. Then again, I also use Emacs and Conkeror so my assessment of "not garbage" might differ from yours.
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@anonymous234 said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
Try Lightworks. It claims to be a professional tool and stuff but it has a free version.
I did find the interface a bit awkward at first, but then again I've never really used any other video editing software before, so I have no idea how it compares to the norm.
Lightworks limits you to 720p in the free version though, IIRC.
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@mikael_svahnberg said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
Hmm. Aren't you the one who is always ranting about how OSS developers have shit for brains and can't make usable software if their life depended on it?
Do you have a counter-example?
@mikael_svahnberg said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
Anyway, I use Shotcut which is free, and not entirely undecent.
Well the screenshot looks ok. Somehow that never came up in my research into this though.
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Do you have a counter-example?
I use plenty of OSS software that works for me and fits perfectly into my workflow. But anything that fits the general bill, no. Very little commercial software fits that bill either, though.
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Shotcut:
This version just fixes some bugs and updates translations. In particular, it fixes a long standing bug that, on Windows, files with non-Latin characters in the name or path can not be opened or saved.
May 3, 2017
Oh good, it only took them 5 years to fix the bug "can't open files on Windows." THAT BODES WELL.
EDIT: BTW that fix came ages after they released a Chinese localization. Figure that one out. "If you're Chinese, you can use our software. BUT ONLY THE UI! You can't open any of your files! You aren't ready for that."
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@blakeyrat said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
Isn't a wide-awake nightmare to actually use?
For you? I got nothin'.
Actually, I don't have any suggestions. I know close to zilch about video editors. Maybe a little about Windows Movie Maker. But not much even then. I just wanted to make the joke. ;) :P
Edit: No, wait, I do, sorta. ffmpeg is a powerful video editor that does just about everything. The only issue with it is that it's a CLI tool with parameter complexity on par with Git, so you really need a wrapper GUI in order to make use of it. I don't know the pros and cons of the plethora of such GUIs, though.
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@blakeyrat The FAQ is full of gems too:
Why does it crash on Windows upon launch?
Is this a new - for the first time ever - installation of Shotcut? If NOT, and it used to work, then you may need to delete your Shotcut registry entries and try again. The registry keys are stored at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Meltytech\Shotcut.
One Windows 8.1 user reported he needed to change the following in the Compatibility tab of the Properties for the Shotcut icon/exe: Run in compatibility mode for “Windows XP (Service Pack 2)”, and “Run this program as administrator.” However, not every one needs to do that, and we are not sure why he needed it.
Why don't they just write "we have no idea what we're doing, we're just flailing our arms at a keyboard and somehow software comes out.
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@blakeyrat said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
it fixes a long standing bug that, on Windows, files with non-Latin characters in the name or path can not be opened or saved.
Oh good, it only took them 5 years to fix the bug "can't open files on Windows." THAT BODES WELL.
@blakeyrat said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
Why does it crash on Windows upon launch?
Is this a new - for the first time ever - installation of Shotcut? If NOT, and it used to work, then you may need to delete your Shotcut registry entries and try again. The registry keys are stored at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Meltytech\Shotcut.
One Windows 8.1 user reported he needed to change the following in the Compatibility tab of the Properties for the Shotcut icon/exe: Run in compatibility mode for “Windows XP (Service Pack 2)”, and “Run this program as administrator.” However, not every one needs to do that, and we are not sure why he needed it.
IOW, the problem is Windows
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@timebandit Right; obviously it's Windows' fault that if you pull the exact value you stored in the Registry back out, you crash. Windows should have telepathically known it should have served up the new value and not the old version's.
The Run As Admin one could be an OS issue I suppose, or that one user did some stupid config. But the Registry-related crash is sheer incompetent.
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@blakeyrat said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
The Run As Admin one could be an OS issue I suppose
Not really. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but a video editor shouldn't need to run as admin.
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@heterodox Well naturally, but it also says "one user reported this", so that one user might have done something stupid which caused it to crash if not run as Admin. I can't imagine what that could be, but. Who knows.
Maybe he's the last surviving Confederate widow with a Matrox card, and there's a bug in the Matrox driver literally nobody else on Earth has ever seen.
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@heterodox said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
Not really. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but
a video editormost programs shouldn't need to run as adminFTFY
Often, it's because they try to write in the same folder as the executable (under "Program Files")
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@timebandit said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
Often, it's because they try to write in the same folder as the executable (under "Program Files")
Even if they do that, it shouldn't crash the program-- it gets redirected.
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@blakeyrat said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
Maybe he's the last surviving Confederate widow with a Matrox card, and there's a bug in the Matrox driver literally nobody else on Earth has ever seen.
I'd argue that's not an OS issue, then, but realize that that's splitting hairs.
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@heterodox The point is: it could not be the developers of whatever the fuck program we're even talking about I forgot's fault.
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@blakeyrat said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
@heterodox The point is: it could not be the developers of whatever the fuck program we're even talking about I forgot's fault.
Fair enough.
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Hitfilm Express
https://hitfilm.com/express
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@dreikin said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
Why specify the non-cloud version?
Are you familiar with the phrase "head in the clouds"? It applies surprisingly well to software.
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@blakeyrat said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
Shotcut:
This version just fixes some bugs and updates translations. In particular, it fixes a long standing bug that, on Windows, files with non-Latin characters in the name or path can not be opened or saved.
May 3, 2017
Oh good, it only took them 5 years to fix the bug "can't open files on Windows." THAT BODES WELL.
EDIT: BTW that fix came ages after they released a Chinese localization. Figure that one out. "If you're Chinese, you can use our software. BUT ONLY THE UI! You can't open any of your files! You aren't ready for that."
A few of the DAM programs I looked at a while ago had that same issue. What in the world are these programs doing such that they have trouble with mixed language filenames?
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@dreikin said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
@blakeyrat said in Free, decent, video editing software?:
Shotcut:
This version just fixes some bugs and updates translations. In particular, it fixes a long standing bug that, on Windows, files with non-Latin characters in the name or path can not be opened or saved.
May 3, 2017
Oh good, it only took them 5 years to fix the bug "can't open files on Windows." THAT BODES WELL.
EDIT: BTW that fix came ages after they released a Chinese localization. Figure that one out. "If you're Chinese, you can use our software. BUT ONLY THE UI! You can't open any of your files! You aren't ready for that."
A few of the DAM programs I looked at a while ago had that same issue. What in the world are these programs doing such that they have trouble with mixed language filenames?
If Win32, they were probably compiled in ANSI mode. And it's work to change from narrow to wide strings (don't even mention something like UTF8 to them!)
