Easy movie editing software recommendations

[wmw999 2,114]

I figure you guys make up a pretty knowledgeable group... I have a bunch of home videos that were dumped from VHS to DVD (a flood made it urgent). Now I want to turn them into home movies, with which I can torture relatives .

I'm looking for recommendations for PC-compatible software. I have Windows 10, and both PC's are pretty standard machines. Video is of varying quality, and I could easily see playing with color correction or something like that.

Reading online recommendations suggests that something called Wondershare Filmora would be a good choice. It's easy, and since this is likely to be my only movie-making experience, easy is good. Cheap would also be good, but it doesn't have to be free. They are, after all, movies of my son
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Bob_Church 7]

Sorry, I do this a lot but on a Mac. I just don't know Windows software.

[flow 1]

My personal choice is Adobe Premiere Pro but that one does not come free or even remotely cheap.

DaVinci Resolve is incredibly powerful editor for free, but probably takes some time to get used to it if no prior experience on NLE systems.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

And then there is always the classic Windows Movie Maker which should get you started as well.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14220/windows-movie-maker-download

No experience on the Filmora, so cannot comment on it.

[Coreeece 2]

Hey Wendy,

There are a ton of solutions - and it can get pretty complicated pretty quickly, especially when editing DVD files that aren't typically compatible with editing software. In the past, DVD files had to be converted into an editable format compatible with many popular editing systems - and in many instances, this is still the case.

I'll just keep it simple for ya (KISS) I checked out your Wondershare Filmora - and for $30 a year, you can't go wrong. The great thing about this software is that it apparently accepts those DVD formats that I was talking about - so you could essentially just copy those video files from your DVD onto your computer and start editing without the need to convert them into a more acceptable format.

I was going to recommend Adobe premiere CS2 - It's 10 years old and adobe now offers it for free. It's not compatible with today's HD formats but would be suitable for your SD footage - but again, you'd most likely have to convert all those DVD files first. Also, premiere has a larger learning curve - but to be honest, all editing software will be a test of patience.

You can find the free adobe software here along with serial number if you want to give it try:
https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/cs2-product-downloads.html?promoid=19SCDRQK

You can scroll down to premiere pro and download the single app, or you can download the entire CS2 at the top which includes all the other programs you see listed there.

If you decide to install it, you may get an audio error when you run it, but just ignore it - it's an obsolete error and only applies to capturing footage. (which you're not doing)

There are other popular solutions out there like Sony Vegas, Pinnacle, Camtasia - but again, I don't think they support DVD file formats such as .VOB, so you'll have to convert them first.

I think the new version of premiere pro CC does except .VOB, but it only comes with a 7 day trial now and will cost $20 a month as apposed to Wondershare's $30 a year.

Regardless of what platform you choose, it's gonna take a lot of time and patience, but in the end it's worth it- and the final cut will give you an extremely satisfying sense of accomplishment.

After viewing hours of footage of your son and imagining creative ways to edit it to various types of music, you'll leave with an entirely different perspective of those past events and come to realize things that you've never noticed before.

Good luck!

...and if it ever gets too overwhelming, just take a long break - or give me a call and hand it off to the professionals

Never was there an answer....not without listening, without seeing - Gilmour

[wmw999 2,114]

Thank you very, very, much. It won't get done quickly, but, well, he's 32, so it already hasn't gotten done quickly

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Anachronist 2]

+1 for DaVinci Resolve 12

I run it on a Mac but is available for Windows. The 12 version is the first "all-in-one" editor of the Resolve lineage. It use to be mainly coloring software.

A little technical but if you watch a few online intro tutorials then it becomes pretty logical. The only caveat is it runs primary on your graphics card, not just your processor. So if you don't have a pretty powerful machine, it might get overloaded.

I played around with it and found that it is really easy to use after you make a couple edits. I tried coloring on my own but found out "auto-color" always does a better job than I do (just for making it "look nice," not trying to achieve a specific visual aesthetic).

The light version is free, the pro version is like $900. The only real limit on the light version is you can't work with full 4k video. But it has no adds, no BS, and doesn't ask you to upgrade all the time.

One of the only "technical" things I had to learn was what a "wrapper/container" and a "codec" was, and the difference between the two. But there are tutorials that explain the difference. Comes into play when you want to save the file. Basically that H.264 is what you want to save as the final format for MP4 players like QuickTime, VLC, and Windows Media Player.

Just a quick note, related to wrappers and codecs. Not technically correct but gives you the general idea. Basically MP4 is highly compressed, each frame relies on the previous frame for a lot of its information. In something that is less compressed, like ProRes, the frames are all independent, so the each frame has all it's own info, thus the files are HUGE. Great for editing, not so good for sharing or playback. So editing in ProRes (or something similar) gives great quality, and then you save the final product in H.264 (aka MP4). If you try and edit from MP4 you get mediocre results. It is kinda like the difference between shooting stills in jpeg(compressed) or RAW(not compressed). If you aren't going to edit, then jpeg is fine, but RAW contains MUCH more information, so you can edit them considerably without loss of quality.

That is basically what I had to learn.

[Anachronist 2]

If you want me to put together a little short demo just let me know, I can record my screen and show you how I do it. Cutting and splicing clips is super easy, coloring and using some of the more advanced stuff is a little trickier (and I'm no pro). Just tell me what you want to do and I'll mimic it on some random skydiving vid(s).

But check out the minimum Resolve system requirements first to make sure your machine can handle it. Your graphics card needs 1GB RAM, minimum, and your CPU 8GB minimum.

[Dos 2]

A very simple editing software is Openshot ( http://www.openshot.org/download/ ) and it works on Linux, Windows and Mac.

It's certainly not the most powerfull but it is quite easy to use.

[Coreeece 2]

Anachronist

+1 for DaVinci Resolve 12

...but you're not listening to her needs. I don't mean to argue with you, but I suppose it in my nature.

She is editing files from old SD VHS footage that have been transferred to DVD. It would be nice if her VHS footage was converted to mpeg3 (or some other editable format) and then transferred as mere data to DVD. ( similar to how you'd transfer data to any other storage device like a hard drive or USB thumb drive) But the odds are that her SD VHS footage was saved in a hurry to a real time dvd recorder in a format that's typically not acceptable in NLEs.

Divicini's own support site say that it has trouble with VOB and other compressed DVD formats - hell, it says it will even have trouble with mp4, AVI, and MOV without converting it first - wtf is that?

Anachronist

The light version is free, the pro version is like $900.

Ya, and it's still overpriced POS software that apparently can't even support the most common formats today, let alone VHS SD off a DVD.

Anachronist

The only real limit on the light version is you can't work with full 4k video.

Ya, well she's dealing with SD VHS - good old 720x480.

Anachronist

Basically that H.264 is what you want to save as the final format for MP4 players like QuickTime, VLC, and Windows Media Player.

Ya, interesting that it will convert to those files for $900, but won't read them - what a joke.

Anachronist

Just a quick note, related to wrappers and codecs. Not technically correct but gives you the general idea. Basically MP4 is highly compressed, each frame relies on the previous frame for a lot of its information. In something that is less compressed, like ProRes, the frames are all independent, so the each frame has all it's own info, thus the files are HUGE. Great for editing, not so good for sharing or playback. So editing in ProRes (or something similar) gives great quality, and then you save the final product in H.264 (aka MP4). If you try and edit from MP4 you get mediocre results. It is kinda like the difference between shooting stills in jpeg(compressed) or RAW(not compressed). If you aren't going to edit, then jpeg is fine, but RAW contains MUCH more information, so you can edit them considerably without loss of quality.

That is basically what I had to learn.

...and you're absolutely right. Dvd format and H.264, mp4s are highly compressed, but even today's standard computers can hadle it. But still, you're right - if you're doing some serious composition/editing/color correction with HD footage, yes - you want to convert it to Pro Res or some other 4:4:4 color sampling - even 4:2:2 is acceptable. . . 4:1:1 for SD.

The issue is that her footage is probably already highly compressed - there will be no advantage of wasting the time to convert, then taking the time to color correct and then wasting the extra time to render for results that will be virtually unnoticeable - and possibly even degrade the footage even further.

Never was there an answer....not without listening, without seeing - Gilmour

[Anachronist 2]

Ahh makes sense, yeah I'm completely unfamiliar with VHS and DVD media, only ever worked with digital.

So far I haven't had any issued editing MP4,or MOV directly (Haven't tried AVI). But if the quality is justified, I just convert to ProRes first, put it in DaVinci, then export as H.264.

I even used it to edit some iPhone video for a school project with no issues.

Idk if I would call it POS (and I use the free version so price isn't an issue), its made for a specific market that uses high end files on dedicated editing machines. DV12 is kinda a new concept as an editor + coloring, so they are expanding it's usefulness, growing pains included.

It also doesn't support Sony RAW (ARW) so if you want to edit images then you have to convert to DNG first.

[wmw999 2,114]

You pretty much nailed it. The only thing you left out is my disinclination to have to become a video expert while I'm at it
Thanks again for your post. Not working it yet (other projects), but it's on the schedule.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)