# Free video editing software?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-video-editing-software/436724>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 7, 2008, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-video-editing-software/436724 "2008-02-07T20:53:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-video-editing-software/436724/1 "2008-02-07T20:53:41Z")

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I need a free, easy to use (basic) editing software…any suggestions?

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-video-editing-software/436724/2 "2008-02-07T20:55:52Z")

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Windows Movie Maker comes free with Win XP from Service Pack 2 onwards. It’s not brilliant, but it’s pretty simple and reasonably versatile.

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**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-video-editing-software/436724/3 "2008-02-07T21:26:33Z")

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I heard about [Virtualdub](http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualdub) from a link **D\_Odds** posted in some thread a while ago. Check it out.  
Oh, [Here’s the original link](http://www.techsupportalert.com/more/extended.htm#82), again, thanks to **D\_Odds**.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-video-editing-software/436724/4 "2008-02-08T15:26:26Z")

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I’m not sure about using VirtualDub for editing - it’s brilliant for trimming, dubbing and adding effects to single clips, but it’s not ideally suited to building a movie from a collection of clips or excerpts from a single long clip.

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**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-video-editing-software/436724/5 "2008-02-08T15:45:00Z")

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No, VirtualDub is an excellent cleaner-upper and convertor, but not an editor.

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**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-video-editing-software/436724/6 "2008-02-08T17:10:14Z")

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[QUOTE=Usram]  
No, VirtualDub is an excellent cleaner-upper and convertor, but not an editor.  
[/QUOTE]

Unless you’re a masochist (I’ve seen a short video–~1 min–made with VDub. It’s pretty good, but not something a newbie should try, since it involves scripting). You should get it anyways though, as it’s free and a very powerful support tool.

Windows and Macs both come with editing software these days (WMM and iMovie, respectively. I have my reservations about the former, since it forces you to use .wmv unless you know more than the program can show you. It’s also not frame-accurate). There’s also a lot of cheap software on the market, \<$100, these days, most of it with free trials. Ulead and Pinnacle pop to mind for the really cheap end, then there’s Vegas Movie Studio and Premiere Elements (both stripped down version of more complicated software) just under the $100 mark.

Oh, and learn the difference between lossy and lossless codecs–a lot of software doesn’t play well with the former (WMM does, but again, there’s issues with it). You can use VDub for transcoding.

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**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-video-editing-software/436724/7 "2008-02-08T17:57:44Z")

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Thanks for clearing up my misconceptions about VDub. I’ve never actually used the program (more of an audio guy myself).