What's the Absolutely Easiest Free Video Editing Software for Newbies?

Since you already have Windows Movie Maker, start with that, it is the easiest to use and does everything in you requirements. I used it today because it is easy to use and works well.

I also used VSDC today, that can do a lot more, but it is far from easy to use.
 
Nigel said:
Since you already have Windows Movie Maker, start with that, it is the easiest to use and does everything in you requirements. I used it today because it is easy to use and works well.

I also used VSDC today, that can do a lot more, but it is far from easy to use.
Click to expand...

I tried Movie Maker once before but assumed I did something wrong and gave up. I just now tried it again. I started a new project consisting of nine 10-minute videos. When I added those videos the first thing I got was a message about preparing the videos for playback, something about better quality, whatever. Keep in mind so far I've done nothing in the program beyond adding the videos. According to the Task Manager the CPU is at 100 percent. After 15 minutes it's still "preparing" video 1 of 9. I clicked "Stop" and got this message:

"Preparing the videos makes a copy in a format that works with Movie Maker. If you stop this process, you won't be able to work with these videos in Movie Maker."

Now what? The videos are from my SJ4000 camera. My computer is a Toshiba laptop with a Core i5 processor, a separate graphics card and 8GB of memory, running Windows 7. I know it's not the best but shouldn't it work okay with Movie Maker?

One thing I'm also not clear about is that I have "Windows Live Movie Maker". The "Live" part leads me to believe some of this is happening in the cloud, not on the machine, and because of (presumably) slow upload speed by my internet service provider, things are going slow.

Now 20 minutes and still "preparing" video 1!
 
Im prejudiced towards videopad myself ...
Windows movie maker is good , but I dont know about audio tweaking ...
As you skills and confidence grow , videopad will do what you need ..
 
TeriTerryTarry said:
I tried Movie Maker once before but assumed I did something wrong and gave up. I just now tried it again. I started a new project consisting of nine 10-minute videos. When I added those videos the first thing I got was a message about preparing the videos for playback, something about better quality, whatever. Keep in mind so far I've done nothing in the program beyond adding the videos. According to the Task Manager the CPU is at 100 percent. After 15 minutes it's still "preparing" video 1 of 9. I clicked "Stop" and got this message:

"Preparing the videos makes a copy in a format that works with Movie Maker. If you stop this process, you won't be able to work with these videos in Movie Maker."

Now what? The videos are from my SJ4000 camera. My computer is a Toshiba laptop with a Core i5 processor, a separate graphics card and 8GB of memory, running Windows 7. I know it's not the best but shouldn't it work okay with Movie Maker?

One thing I'm also not clear about is that I have "Windows Live Movie Maker". The "Live" part leads me to believe some of this is happening in the cloud, not on the machine, and because of (presumably) slow upload speed by my internet service provider, things are going slow.

Now 20 minutes and still "preparing" video 1!
Click to expand...
I only have an I3 processor!

I suggest you find out how it works with just a couple of 30 second videos, once you know how it works then you will know the answer to this question.

You do want to wait for it to finish preparing, but 90 minutes of video is rather a lot for a first play, if I was going to do that then I would load the first clip, chop it down to just the bits I wanted, then load the next and cut that down, keeping the amount actually in use reasonably small.

Don't worry about the cloud part, it works on your computer, but can save onto the cloud if you want.
 
Nigel said:
I only have an I3 processor!

I suggest you find out how it works with just a couple of 30 second videos, once you know how it works then you will know the answer to this question.

You do want to wait for it to finish preparing, but 90 minutes of video is rather a lot for a first play, if I was going to do that then I would load the first clip, chop it down to just the bits I wanted, then load the next and cut that down, keeping the amount actually in use reasonably small.

Don't worry about the cloud part, it works on your computer, but can save onto the cloud if you want.
Click to expand...
jokiin said:
at about 1gb per file that's probably to be expected
Click to expand...
It occurred to me that I might not have the latest version of Movie Maker even though I have automatic updates set for Microsoft products. So I went to Control Panel > Programs and Features > Windows Live Movie Maker and clicked update. This took me to the site for Windows Essentials 2012 which includes Movie Maker. I downloaded Windows Essentials and restarted the computer. Now when I click on Movie Maker I get a message, "Sorry Movie Maker can't start. . . . " So back to Programs and Features to repair Movie Maker but still get the same results.

And I need to correct a typo Nigel, I also have an i3 processor.

old4570 said:
Im prejudiced towards videopad myself ...
Windows movie maker is good , but I dont know about audio tweaking ...
As you skills and confidence grow , videopad will do what you need ..
Click to expand...
Videopad works with Windows 7?
 
TeriTerryTarry said:
I tried Movie Maker once before but assumed I did something wrong and gave up. I just now tried it again. I started a new project consisting of nine 10-minute videos. When I added those videos the first thing I got was a message about preparing the videos for playback, something about better quality, whatever. Keep in mind so far I've done nothing in the program beyond adding the videos. According to the Task Manager the CPU is at 100 percent. After 15 minutes it's still "preparing" video 1 of 9. I clicked "Stop" and got this message:

"Preparing the videos makes a copy in a format that works with Movie Maker. If you stop this process, you won't be able to work with these videos in Movie Maker."
Click to expand...
Are you nuts? :eek: Oh, sorry, :D I guess no one told you that Movie Maker loads the video clips onto the project in real time, which means every 10 mins clip will take at least that time to load, but it's always more because of the audio. Been there, done that, learned the hard way. :)

TeriTerryTarry said:
Now what? The videos are from my SJ4000 camera. My computer is a Toshiba laptop with a Core i5 processor, a separate graphics card and 8GB of memory, running Windows 7. I know it's not the best but shouldn't it work okay with Movie Maker?
Click to expand...
If you're going to use one-piece 10 mins videos, be prepared to wait. I'm running Windows 7 Pro 64bits on an inferior machine (Core 2 Quad and 4GB of RAM) and here 5:01 minutes of video with audio takes 5:40 minutes to load.
There's no point cutting them in fragments with Registrator Viewer (RV) because the total amount of loading time will be the same as the one-piece video.

TeriTerryTarry said:
One thing I'm also not clear about is that I have "Windows Live Movie Maker". The "Live" part leads me to believe some of this is happening in the cloud, not on the machine, and because of (presumably) slow upload speed by my internet service provider, things are going slow.

Now 20 minutes and still "preparing" video 1!
Click to expand...
What you have is Movie Maker 2012. The difference is that this version is no longer a stand-alone program, it comes bundled in what MS calls Windows Live Essentials. There's nothing "live" about MM and it doesn't load the files to anything outside the computer.
 
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yep, Live was just another failed branding attempt from years past. their cloud storage has been called LiveDrive, SkyDrive, and now OneDrive - it's all the same service, just with a different name every year or two. I'm hoping it'll eventually be called NonexistantDrive because i'm tired of trying to keep it the F off of my windows 10 machines at home and at work. DO NOT WANT.
 
Welcomje to DCT @KarenHodges :)
There's a newer thread on this subject HERE

I'm not good with such things but I've finally done one video with "Avidemux" which I found easy to use. Very limited features though."Dashcamviewer" has some editing abilities too. For the really advanced features like spot-zooming, fades, and such you'll need one of the better programs and some skill to use it. Windows usually has some bloatware for vid editing but few seem to like it, and the W8.1 version I have just plain sucks.

Phil
 
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