Free/open source video editing software

[Admiral Trogdor]

Vegas video is not intuitive, but with a few You Tube tutorials, it is workable, and then very powerful.

[SquidgeyFlint (admin)]

I recently tried to install the free demo of Sony Vegas Platinum 11 HD super duper double extra edition and stupid background loader wouldn't work at all. Not a good sign.

Had the same problem here. I thought it might've been a function of trying to install it in a VirtualBox.

So the answer to the broken Vegas demo install is to run it with the -q option like:

moviestudiope11.0.295.dvda.exe -q

[SquidgeyFlint (admin)]

Vegas video is not intuitive, but with a few You Tube tutorials, it is workable, and then very powerful.

Indeed. Besides the not intuitive part -- I couldn't figure out how to apply a cross fade transition -- the interface itself is really clunky and serioulsy annoying in its clunkiness.

Sony Vegas doesn't feel like the one for me. I'm going to take another pass at that Avid one.

[SquidgeyFlint (admin)]

I ditched Avid as well. Creating text overlay was too hard.

I'm trying VideoPad from NCHSoftware right now. It looks promising in that fancier than Windows Movie Maker but still easy enough to use.

[SquidgeyFlint (admin)]

I'm trying VideoPad from NCHSoftware right now. It looks promising in that fancier than Windows Movie Maker but still easy enough to use.

So I'm giving a thumbs up on VideoPad. It isn't perfect / has some bugs, but it has the right mix of easy to use and still has some interesting features.

The price though is stupid. The "home edition" price is currently "on sale" at $39.95 which is not a bad price point. It's the same "Masters edition" but they nerf it such that you only get 2 audio tracks and no external plug-ins. The Masters edition is currently on sale for $70 which is pretty much the same price you'd pay for something that is fully functional (has more features). The non-sale prices are just double stupid.

Here's something I edited together this weekend. The video has text overlays, cross fades, a video effect (speed up to 150%) trimming, picture inclusion, audio editing. VideoPad can also do picture overlays but I didn't try that.
http://www.youtube.com/v/1ykEHHEVB5A

[CHa0s]

Recently was working on a project where I wanted some free software and wound up with this knowledge: You can download Windows Live Movie Maker, then download the older version (Windows Movie Maker 2/6). The older version, which supposedly runs on Windows 7 and Vista, will allow you to drag a video into the audio track and save just the audio. Pretty sweet trick. It also has patches you can add for other various effects (pan, zoom, etc) More info here: http://papajohn.org/

Good luck!