# Video editing tool?



## neni (Dec 24, 2012)

Anyone can recommend an easy to use but good free video editing software?

I tried to use Movie Maker - I've no problem to actually use it, but it has several drawbacks which make it impossible fir me to make a useful edit... I've no clue why, but some takes get damaged after they run initially well (instead of a fluent flow they are suddenly stagnant) or the worst thing: an underlying sound is never in phase when starting in the middle somewhere, I've to start always from the beginning to have an exact play/flow of the song (which makes it very cumbersome to cut takes to fit to the music flow). 

Would be very thankful for recommendations... I'm close to give this editing thing up.


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## Kevin137 (May 5, 2013)

Most of the problems associated with edited are down to machine performance...

The Graphics card, processor speed and RAM make up a very large portion of such software working correctly...

They all state minimum requirements, but that does not mean it will run well, and if it is a laptop, then you can pretty much guarantee that unless it is a very high end machine, it will not really be upto the job...

Specs of your machine will help in working out what the issue is, but as i don't use PC's, i doubt i can help, i am a Mac man, so very rarely struggle with editing, unless i use 4K, then my machine will slow down, but it still works...

You really should have a machine with at least 512mb dedicated graphics and 8Gb of RAM in my mind for it too work, then you have to consider drive speed and if it is an external you are using what is the transfer rate etc.

As an example, my machine is a 2.9Ghz Quad core, with 512mb Graphics and 32Gb of Ram... The external HD i use is Thunderbolt, so 10 times (minimum) the data transfer speed of USB 2 and twice as fast as USB 3

You can never have too much processing power...!!!


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## neni (Dec 24, 2012)

I use a HP Probook, dual core 2.5Ghz, 8GB RAM.


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## Kevin137 (May 5, 2013)

That should be enough to at least edit even if slowly, not so sure what other editing software is available for the pc, not used them for so long, but i know my neighbour uses Movie Maker, on roughly the same specs as you have.

Have you tried uninstalling the software and reinstalling and or updating to the latest version etc... Or using a different machine...???

You could also look at the processes running and see what is drawing the processor performance while the editing suite is running, you may find there is something else not helping the situation...


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

What format? 1080p? If so you may have a rough time. If so, try knocking it down to 1080i or further down to one 720p/i


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## Argo (Feb 25, 2010)

Are you trying to make the video off of your SD card or did you download it to your computer and then try to make the video?

I have found that downloading the items into the computer, then importing them into the movie maker will make a difference in quality.

I use Adobe Premier, it costs money but it works well.


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## neni (Dec 24, 2012)

Naw, havent reinstalled yet, tho... it _is_ actually brand new... 
Yeah... with the stangnant thing, I assume is the Movie Maker itself causing the issues, not the lack of processor performance (got the feeling that this happens when that specific take was manipulated multiple times). If I delete the "damaged" take and all other tiled takes from that vid and reinsert it, it runs well again. Solvable but cumbersome... 

what drives me nuts is the slight shifting of the underlying sound if starting the vid inbetween. I don't have the nerves to watch always from the start just to check, if at min 3 take x is now finally cut well to fit the music . And it's cumbersome that the music stream isn't shown liner... if a take is short, the sound stream is visually squeezed, so I also lack the visual orientation of how long a certain stretch is /where a beat is

Willing to try any other editor... suggestions? Anybody?


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## neni (Dec 24, 2012)

Vids are 1080, all stored on the computer.


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

Convert it down to 720p and see if it's happier.


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## chomps1211 (Mar 30, 2011)

Argo said:


> Are you trying to make the video off of your SD card or did you download it to your computer and then try to make the video?
> 
> I have found that downloading the items into the computer, then importing them into the movie maker will make a difference in quality.


^this^ 
Even just trying to play the raw clips in any media player straight from the sd card will usually play pretty choppy!

Also,.. you want to be sure you have a large(ish) chunk of drive disk space free for the editing software to access, store, write, and re-write all the temp files it creates and uses when editing video!

If I import say a 200-500 mb video file into my editing software,..? I can often (…temporarily) lose a gig or two sometimes more of HD disk space. And that's _before_ I begin cutting and pasting clips!

Being a mac guy also,.. I'll probably be of little or no help to you, but just as a comparison,..? On my 1.7ghz i5 processor Mac Airbook laptop with only 4gb RAM? I use iMovie to load, edit and paste together multiple GoPro raw video files. I Add effects, transitions, Titles, music, etc. and the only thing that will slow it down considerably is the available hard disk space I have left!

Hope you get things sorted out! We're all anxious to see your AK trip clips! :jumping1: 


-EDIT-
Neni,.. *:C-Net Downloads:* here's a link to a site that you can use to search for different video editing software. Ther's a lot of free/shareware apps here. I've used this site to download various software. Hope it helps!


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## Argo (Feb 25, 2010)

neni said:


> Vids are 1080, all stored on the computer.


sometimes it will run choppy on a machine that has just enough power to do the task, while it is being worked on. When rendered to the final cut it will run well.....

This is what I found on my old computer with movie maker. That computer crashed, that's why I have adobe premier now... It came on my new machine.


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## Grady Parks (Apr 20, 2015)

Would love to see some of your edits on youtube if you have any on there. I have some videos on youtube but i dont know if you want to see them because im not a park rider and im relatively new to the sport so i am no Candide Thovex. Aside from that i too use movie maker and have never run into any problems using it. The only problem is copying and pasting my videos from my Hero 4 onto the movie maker because i dont have enough storage. To try and help make it faster make sure you are only runing a few programs at a time. (I have found that this speeds it up but it may not for you) best of luck to you!


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## ryannorthcott (Dec 17, 2010)

I would look to download a free trial version of any popular editing system (premiere, pinnacle studio). I know you can get a trial of Avid MC but that will be too professional for your purposes. 
That or spring for something like Adobe premiere elements ($70). 
Movie maker sucks, and being that you're on a pc unfortunately you can't take advantage of iMovie.


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## neni (Dec 24, 2012)

Argo said:


> I use Adobe Premier, it costs money but it works well.


Is it the Elements 13 you're using? Seems as if this is no longer supported? The newest versions are only for cloud use with monthly sub costs (I'm no friend of clouds).


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## neni (Dec 24, 2012)

ryannorthcott said:


> I would look to download a free trial version of any popular editing system (premiere, pinnacle studio). I know you can get a trial of Avid MC but that will be too professional for your purposes.
> That or spring for something like Adobe premiere elements ($70).
> Movie maker sucks, and being that you're on a pc unfortunately you can't take advantage of iMovie.


Yeah, MM really sucks, found more drawbacks and won't continue to get annoyed. Gonna try the Adobe.

Thanks for the hints!


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## Argo (Feb 25, 2010)

neni said:


> Is it the Elements 13 you're using? Seems as if this is no longer supported? The newest versions are only for cloud use with monthly sub costs (I'm no friend of clouds).


It is. I just don't do their upgrade, it costs money anyhow. Works great. I have had it for 2 years....


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## neni (Dec 24, 2012)

Argo said:


> It is. I just don't do their upgrade, it costs money anyhow. Works great. I have had it for 2 years....


Cool. Gonna get that old fix installed version. Initial single 70$ is fine for me. The monthly 29$ for the new cloud version is ripp off for someone who does 1 vid a year


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## Psi-Man (Aug 31, 2009)

The other thing to consider is buying an older version of some of the more popular editing programs that will run on your laptop. I ended up getting an older version of Corel Studio Pro on Ebay for $20 to run on my XP laptop. It's easy to edit clips and does far more than I will ever need.


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## david_z (Dec 14, 2009)

A lot of people use Adobe, and the license is reasonably inexpensive for the software alone. 

I have been using the free version of Lightworks. There's a pretty steep learning curve and the free version will only render to 720p, you can purchase an inexpensive license on a monthly basis for like $25 (if you only produce 1 video per year, that's how I would do it: use the free version, then pay the one-month license and do your edit in full 1080p).

I am pretty happy with it so far, I am not a professional (or even an enthusiast) video editor (I think those people might get the most out of an app like Lightworks), I just wanted something "more" than Windows MovieMaker. I might get around to trying Adobe eventually, but since I do so little with it, it seems like a lot of hassle to try and re-learn a new application just to make a few crummy edits a few times per year.

I've also used Corel Visual Studio Pro in the past. It's pretty basic, but better than Movie Maker.


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## neni (Dec 24, 2012)

Didn't want to buy a discontinued SW (Adobe) where one lacks support n patches... 

Got a test version an bought the full version of Magix Video Deluxe 2015. Wow! What a difference to MM! K, get to work, urgh... and start all over again. But with this kind of tool, it's fun and no longer frustrating :jumping1:


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