Free Movie Software

Well, you get what you pay for, I guess.

I use Sony Vegas myself. Not free, but it works.

You could also check out the downloads on CNET and see if there's free trials or "Lite" software versions if you're trying to stay on the cheap.

I found windows movie maker to be great for free software... but thats just for simple videos I guess...

What exactly do you want/need to do?

For what you pay for the basic version of Vegas ($25 or so on sale or
on Ebay) it is incredibly powerful. I have both plain and fancy
versions of Vegas, and the plain is good enough for all internet
video. If you want to render for DVD production or do HD dvds
you'll want a more premium editor... but internet video is just
better in smaller files. It streams better and more consistently
for more users in low-def, so all you need is plain Vegas Home
and you'll be able to do some awesome work, plus learn the Vegas
platform, which is excellent.

I use Sony Vegas Pro 9.0 and swear by it. It is IMO the best non-linear editor for your money in today's video editing market. If you don't want to pay the retail price, call up a vendor and say you are a student--instant $300+ discount. With a Core 2 Duo processor you will be rendering vids insanely fast in high definition if you have support for it.

Hi Joefizz,
Windows Movie Maker doesn't cut it. You are limited to the types of file you can upload and the final conversion to movie is terrible. I found that Video Pad Video Editor works really well. It's free and accepts most file formats. The final conversion to movie also offers excellent quality and HD settings.

Hope this helps,
Mark

I've been doing internet video longer than a lot of people, so I
kind of think a little like a dinosaur and stick with the tools I
know.

If you are just uploading to video sharing sites, you can use
just about any format. I usually use .WMV but that's just a
personal preference because I'm used to the way it works and
know what it's compatible with.

With the older generation of video players you had to convert
your video to .FLV (or variants) to play it. No real video editor I
have used can render to .FLV. That makes going from your
editor to .FLV a two-step process.

I have one software (visual communicator) that can go straight
to FLV from shooting, but the FLV converter is poor.

FLV converters fall into two categories: free ones that use
older, open-source codecs and not-free ones that use the
latest codecs.

If you are self-hosting with an FLV player you need to know
some of this stuff. Basically the older codecs work better on
older computers with slow processors and lower levels of
available RAM. The newer codecs take advantage of the
processing power of the common computers of the last
5 years (1.4ghz+ and 512MB RAM +) and shift the duties of
playing the video over to the viewer's computer, away from
the server "serving" the video.

Confusing?

A bit.

But here's a new wrinkle: newer players are also compatiple
with MP4. I haven't started fooling with it yet because I'm
a little stuck in my ways, but from what I've read it's more
versatile than .FLV and is compatible with most video sharing
sites, plus plays on self-hosted players (not all), plus works
as a podcast-type format for portable devices.

Do any of these video software convert a Youtube video (FLV) into a MP4 so that it can be taken into iMovie and edited?

Thanks,

Robert

Re: Video Format Converters

Editing software usually does limited converting. Do
enough video and you'll discover you need a good
editor (I use Vegas) and 1 or more converter
programs.

I've paid for converter programs and still will,
because some of the best "codecs" are proprietary
and unavailable on open source converters.

That said, if you are just starting out and don't
want to spend money on software to juggle video
formats you can use opensource programs.

Here are a couple of pretty good free ones out
there that may meet your needs.

A lot of folks like Super:

SUPER video converter

I like Super too, but in my testing no program does
everything well, so here's another good one which
requires the Microsoft silverlite framework to run it.
I think this is supposed to make it faster - and in
my work with pre-silverlite versions it was quite
fast. Xvid4psp

Xvid4psp

I would like to stick with Windows Movie Maker ....

Bcz its free and get the job done .. lol

I would go with Sony Vegas Movie Studio. It's fairly inexpensive (especially if you find a good deal on eBay) and has an AMAZING interactive help system. The software will actually walk you through many common tasks.

If you're on a PC, I think it's the best way to go.

- John

I bougth avs video editor from AVS4YOU Best multimedia software on today's market. and it is nice. It is not a super advanced software but it is fast.

Thank you all, so much to think about now!

regards

Joe

I've been using Serif MoviePlus for many years now, and have always been happy with it. MoviePlus X3 Digital Video Studio – Serif (not an affiliate link) It's not free, but it's not all that expensive either.