Simple video editor

hamesy

hamesy

hamesy

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I'm after a very simple video editor for Windows.

I've tried OpenShot Video Editor, VSDC, Shortcut but they seem over the top for what I'm after.

I've tried to use ClipChamp but the video never imports and sits at 0% preparing.

I'm basically after something where I can trim or cut a video, combine multiple videos, maybe add some simple affects or text and export.
 
Just cause you think something might be over the top, it may actually still be a viable option. In all seriousness, considered Davinci Resolve the free version ?

Yes, its an extremely capable, at times very complex, professional grade bit of software that could do waaaaaaaaay more than what you are needing. However ... for all its complex capability, it can used in an very basic, quick and simple manner. I.e.

To import files, its a case of simply dragging them into a box on the page.
In the edit page, you can double click your imported media, it'll appear on the left preview screen which you can scrub through.
You can set your start and end trim points of that previewed clip.
Then drag that trimmed clip into the timeline and shuffle it about as needed.
Add some transitions and text in the normal manners.
Jump to the Deliver page and render out - which has some presets for the common social media outlets and formats. .

You dont need to look at the other pages in the program which involve Fusion ( graphical effects ), Fairlight (Sounds), Colour Grading etc etc, you can just jump to the export page and be done.

I reckon that within an hour of following some basic tutorials on Davinci, you'd be up and running.

Then from there, when it comes to " I wonder if I could do that ", you're far more likely to be able to do it in resolve versus the so called simple video editors.

Did I mention its free ... you dont have to buy the full version to be able to use it for basic editing ? No watermarks, no limit on time length, etc etc. Free.

( The paid Studio version unlocks more features and abilities granted, but you'd get by without it )
 
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Donnie Fisher said:
Just cause you think something might be over the top, it may actually still be a viable option. In all seriousness, considered Davinci Resolve the free version ?

Yes, its an extremely capable, at times very complex, professional grade bit of software that could do waaaaaaaaay more than what you are needing. However ... for all its complex capability, it can used in an very basic, quick and simple manner. I.e.

To import files, its a case of simply dragging them into a box on the page.
In the edit page, you can double click your imported media, it'll appear on the left preview screen which you can scrub through.
You can set your start and end trim points of that previewed clip.
Then drag that trimmed clip into the timeline and shuffle it about as needed.
Add some transitions and text in the normal manners.
Jump to the Deliver page and render out - which has some presets for the common social media outlets and formats. .

You dont need to look at the other pages in the program which involve Fusion ( graphical effects ), Fairlight (Sounds), Colour Grading etc etc, you can just jump to the export page and be done.

I reckon that within an hour of following some basic tutorials on Davinci, you'd be up and running.

Then from there, when it comes to " I wonder if I could do that ", you're far more likely to be able to do it in resolve versus the so called simple video editors.

Did I mention its free ... you dont have to buy the full version to be able to use it for basic editing ? No watermarks, no limit on time length, etc etc. Free.

( The paid Studio version unlocks more features and abilities granted, but you'd get by without it )
Click to expand...
I gave Davinci Resolve a try with the help of some YouTube tutorials and managed to get a semi decent video out of it.

However I've realised how under powered my laptop is as it took ages to get anywhere with it.
 
This looks like it might do what you want (certainly in terms of trimming/joining files)

LosslessCut

Programmer, traveller, photo & videographer
www.mifi.no



And another couple of Free/Open Source ones to try:

Shotcut - Home

Shotcut is a free, open source, cross-platform video editor for Windows, Mac and Linux
shotcut.org shotcut.org
kdenlive.org

Features - Kdenlive

kdenlive.org kdenlive.org
 
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I dunno what Kdenlive is like running on Windows, I found it to be very unstable on Linux when I used it a few years back.
 
Another Davinci Resolve recommendation.

Yes it is a very complex beast when you get into the Fusion and Colour tabs (though I can recommend getting to grips with Fusion), but to just edit and export a video it's simple.
 
I would def' recommend Davinci Resolve. The free version does so much. Not hard to use and tons of guide videos on Youtube to help you get started.
 
Another one not mentioned yet that gets great reviews is Capcut, it's pretty streamlined and makes basic editing really easy apparently. There are a few Youtube videos on it, give it a go, and the basic version is free too.
 
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Windows movie maker still works on window 11 and is very simple to use.

www.wikihow.com

Can You Still Download Windows Movie Maker?

You can still install Windows Movie Maker on Windows 10 & 11Do you want to download Windows Movie Maker? Windows Movie Maker was an easy to use video editor that came with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. Microsoft...
www.wikihow.com www.wikihow.com
 
wez130 said:
Another one not mentioned yet that gets great reviews is Capcut, it's pretty streamlined and makes basic editing really easy apparently. There are a few Youtube videos on it, give it a go, and the basic version is free too.
Click to expand...

Capcut is actually a really powerful little tool - surprisingly so. It’s a bit of an ace up the sleeve if you’re working on social content. It does the kind of things that Premirer, Avid and Resolve really struggle with, but tends to struggle with the things that they excel at. It’s a bit of a niche, but a good one.
 
Sorry to bump an old thread, but this is the closest I can find to what I want without creating a thread in the Windows subforum.

I want to trim some videos created by my DJI Mini 2 drone. I first thought that Machete was perfect for the task and it is apart from one problem - it seems to discard of the subtitle track, which contains useful information about the flight. I don't see an option to choose which tracks I can keep.

I should also add that I initially chose to use Machete as it doesn't re-encode the video, therefore videos are very quickly trimmed while retaining their original quality.

Armageus said:

LosslessCut

Programmer, traveller, photo & videographer
www.mifi.no



And another couple of Free/Open Source ones to try:

Shotcut - Home

Shotcut is a free, open source, cross-platform video editor for Windows, Mac and Linux
shotcut.org shotcut.org
kdenlive.org

Features - Kdenlive

kdenlive.org kdenlive.org
Click to expand...

I did try LosslessCut, but found it cumbersome and intuitive. Every time I wanted to do something, I found myself looking up the keyboard shortcuts in the settings, rather than being able to click on a menu and remembering the shortcut from there for next time.

I do intend to try the other two soon, so maybe I will just end up posting here saying how good they are. But in the meantime, I'm hoping somebody might be able to throw some suggestions out there - ideally free ones.
 
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Personally I find Video editing hard. I use Davinci and Adobe Premiere. But I just use trial and error, until I get something that I want. I should really do a course. Too many tutorials though are about applying filters and color grading. Whereas I just want to chop up and combine or crop the resolution. The editors seem to want me to past and stretch video and remove back bars as if I'm doing commercials for TV. Often I want to just a chop a window out and I use some ancient Windows App because I could not find a way to do this in any of the main apps. Also rendering out at the right codec is oddly unintuitive.
 
OspreyO said:
Personally I find Video editing hard. I use Davinci and Adobe Premiere. But I just use trial and error, until I get something that I want. I should really do a course. Too many tutorials though are about applying filters and color grading. Whereas I just want to chop up and combine or crop the resolution. The editors seem to want me to past and stretch video and remove back bars as if I'm doing commercials for TV. Often I want to just a chop a window out and I use some ancient Windows App because I could not find a way to do this in any of the main apps. Also rendering out at the right codec is oddly unintuitive.
Click to expand...
I can help you with this.

What exactly do you want to do? Just remove a portion of a clip? Bullet point a few things you want to do, I'll tell you how to do them.

@darael, a 'simple video editor' is a bit of an oxymoron, I'm afraid. There's no particularly easy way, as it's an inherently difficult thing to do. If you can find an app which will do a specific function that you're after, then great. Otherwise, grab Resolve and start learning.
 
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One task I do a lot is to chop a window out of the source video. Say it's 1920x1080 but I only want a window of say 831x672 and I discard the rest. I don't want it to fill anything. The output video should be 831x672. Also it's going to start (the origin) not at 0,0 but like at 120,120 or such..
 
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AyeAyeAhoy! said:
I can help you with this.

What exactly do you want to do? Just remove a portion of a clip? Bullet point a few things you want to do, I'll tell you how to do them.

@darael, a 'simple video editor' is a bit of an oxymoron, I'm afraid. There's no particularly easy way, as it's an inherently difficult thing to do. If you can find an app which will do a specific function that you're after, then great. Otherwise, grab Resolve and start learning.
Click to expand...
The second the program re-encodes the video, I'm not interested. I want to copy the streams directly and trim out only the parts I want to keep.

VirtualDub would suit me perfectly for this, except it can't copy the streams. Otherwise the simple operations of deleting parts of the video I don't want would be perfect.
 
OspreyO said:
One task I do a lot is to chop a window out of the source video. Say it's 1920x1080 but I only want a window of say 831x672 and I discard the rest. I don't want it to fill anything. The output video should be 831x672. Also it's going to start (the origin) not at 0,0 but like at 120,120 or such..
Click to expand...

Ok, no problem. Easiest way to do this is to create a sequence and set the sequence size to your output size (831x672). Edit your media into that, resize it to fit as you like, then export.

To do it in Prem;

- Drag your media file down to the little page peel icon at the bottom right of the project window. This will create a new sequence with the same settings as the media, and put the media in it.

- Open that sequence and delete the media from it.

- Sequence - Sequence Settings. Change the frame size to 831x672. Hit ok.

- Double click the media file, mark In & Out around the bit you want, and drag it down to the sequence. If it asks whether you want to change anything, click no.

- Open the effects editor panel. Click the media in the timeline so it's selected, then in the effects editor, adjust the size and position to suit.

- Export. Make sure your export settings are set to 'same as source' for frame size.
 
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