Is there a program that I can download that will let me cut long videos down to size and cut out bits at the end and so on? This would be really helpful for my bug unicycling video collection. With a program like this I could save heaps of space and edit my own videos (the ones that I forget to edit on the camera and then change the file name). I don’t want to do anything fancy, I just need to cut bits out and so on. I don’t even need to link bits together.
There is Virtual Dub which is a freeware (GNU) application. It can do basic editing like removing frames, cutting out segments, recompressing, etc.
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualdub/>
There is also Capture Studio Professional
<http://www.bitwelder.karoo.net/>
You can also download it from download.com but the bitwelder site has a more recent version. It is also freeware.
I used both programs when I did the video capture and editing of the Monster.com commercial that Kris was in. I did the capture from the VCR tape. Most of the editing was done with Virtual Dub.
Virtual Dub is not the most straighforward application to figure out. There were some things that I found easier to figure out in Capture Studio Professional, but Virtual Dub does more and generally did a better job.
For basic stuff these programs work OK. But they won’t measure up to the better commercial video editing programs.
Thanks a lot for those links John. I’m going to download VirtualDub, but I’m a bit confused. Where it says:
VirtualDub-1_4_13-P4.zip
VirtualDub-1_4_13.zip
VirtualDub-auxsrc-1_4_13.zip
VirtualDub-source-1_4_13.zip
…do I have to just click on each of them?
Thanks
p.s. That’s meant to be “big unicycling video collection” and not “bug unicycilng video collection” as I wrote.
Okay, now that problem’s solved and I’ve got the program working. It’s really great and I’ve managed to cut the end off a short video but now I want to compress it. Firstly, I don’t understand how it was able to take something that’s about 1MB, have it shortened and then end up with something that’s about 40MB. How do I save the edited movie so that it’s the same quality as the original and if I can’t do that then what compression should I use?
VirtualDub is indeed a great program; I use it lots.
The video grew massively because by default it saves videos as uncompressed files, whatever format they start off in.
In the “video” menu choose “compression” and there should be a list of different codecs to use. Selected will probably be “Uncompressed RGB”… you want to compress it using DivX, in the list as “DivX 5.0.2 Codec” or something similar. Click “configure”, choose a bitrate, then save it like you did before.
My most recent video was saved at 250kbps; that retains enough quality to be watchable while making it small enough to not take ages to download.
That worked great! This is going to come in so handy for all of my videos and particularly the long ones that have some boring bits in them but also some great bits. Thanks a lot for the help. I’ve now got a 3sec video at 250kps that’s 680KB. This is great. Does changing the bitrate to something higher increase the image quality? If not, how would I go about doing that?
Thanks again to both of you. You have no idea how great this is!
A low bitrate makes for a smaller file, but the quality is worse… if you’ve got a video where lots is going on it’ll look horrible. A high bitrate makes a larger file, but the quality is better.
If the picture doesn’t change much you can use a lower bitrate and still have it look nice. For example, the last video I made was the TIE fighter noise on Harper’s Blue Shift; the trees in the background made a 5 second clip only just smaller than the video of me doing pedal grabs against a blue sky for 30 seconds.
It’s trial and error… change the bitrate until you’ve got something that’s both watchable and downloadable.
The easyiest program i have used for making/editing videos was adobe Premiere 5.5, i dont knowif anyone else has used it but its great! i know Dan said he uses it.
It’s also a $500 (USD) piece of software.
Where do kids get the money to use things like Premiere and Photoshop? Even with educational discounts they’re expensive programs.
We steal them… duh! I mean what I dont have any pirated softwear on my computer I dont know what your talking about. And music I would never download music… thats just WRONG
i know Dan said he uses it.