Need video editing software recommendations

[JuneP]

I have two videos I need to edit for you tube; but the old Movie Maker program just isn't working now that I have windows 10 on this computer. I can't even get to type a title! AARGH!

If you have a good, easy to use (I'm new at this), video software that will work with Windows 10 I'd love to give it a go. Family and friends are patiently waiting and I just can't make the Movie Maker work properly and I looked at Amazon but a lot of programs don't seem ready for Windows 10 yet, or don't have the best reviews.

Thanks you any suggestions.

June

 

[Zegbroeck]

Well I use AppGeeker video editor, have done for years. http://www.appgeeker.com

It has easy (basic) and full mode you can choose from, give it a try.

 

[JuneP]

Thank you very much. I'll check it out.

 

[Misschief]

There's also this one:

http://www.serif.com/int/ca/freedownloads/free-video-editing-software/

I use the full versions of a few of the Serif programs (Page Plus, Draw Plus, and Photo Plus) and can't recommend them highly enough. There are free basic versions of all their programs.

 

[DeeAnna]

GoPro Studio is free to anyone -- you don't have to have a GoPro camera. http://shop.gopro.com/softwareandapp/gopro-studio/GoPro-Studio.html

It looks like the latest version is okay for Win10, although I use it on Win7. I also use MovieMaker -- it's too bad MM doesn't work on Win10. I'm an amateur at video editing although I do pretty well at photo editing. Any video editing program more sophisticated than these is going to be lost on me.

They both have their strengths and weaknesses. GPS gives you more control over the appearance -- it will correct color balance, contrast, and brightness where MM doesn't. But MM does some tasks quickly and easily, such as make a slide show out of still photos from any camera, and GPS requires a work-around.

 

[kchaystack]

I don't have any issues with MM on Windows 10 - either on my desktop I upgraded from 7 or my laptop that came with 10 installed. They have no plans to release a version for Win10.

I have been trying other editors - but noting I have found is as user friendly as Movie Maker.

I have not tried the YouTube online editor. Maybe I will give that a try soon and report back.

 

[DeeAnna]

June -- Maybe you could try reinstalling MM? If KC is having good luck with it, your install may be corrupted somehow. Or perhaps you have an older version of MM that doesn't like Win10? I installed MM just a couple of weeks ago, and the version I downloaded and installed is version 2012, build 16.4.3528.0331.

 

[JuneP]

Thanks everyone for all the recommendations. I will check them all out, and see which will do the job for me. And I'll check Windows Movie maker again, which is giving me problems. Microsoft says it isn't compatible with Windows 10, and that's been my experience. But maybe re-loading for finding a different version will help.

 

[JuneP]

Deeanna, do you have a source for a manual to Movie maker? That would help me a lot, because when I've tried to delete sections of the movie, it deleted everything! AARGH!

June -- Maybe you could try reinstalling MM? If KC is having good luck with it, your install may be corrupted somehow. Or perhaps you have an older version of MM that doesn't like Win10? I installed MM just a couple of weeks ago, and the version I downloaded and installed is version 2012, build 16.4.3528.0331.

 

[DeeAnna]

Deleting video segments should be pretty simple -- just click on the segment to select it and press delete.

That said, I've deleted segments I didn't want to because I wasn't paying proper attention to what I was doing. A control-Z (undo) fixed the problem (if I noticed it in time!)

Another possibility is that you may not have split the video into separate segments before you tried to delete the part you didn't want. If you don't get the unwanted video into its own segment, you can't delete just that part.

The "help" for MM is pretty limited; I don' think Microsoft offers a stand-alone detailed manual. Here's the info I used to get started --

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/windows-essentials-help?#v1h=tab1
Also you can google "movie maker help" and get a lot of tutorials by other people.

Another thought is you may have to set MM to run on Win10 in "compatibility mode". If KC is using MM just fine on his Win10 machine, I wouldn't think you would need to fiddle with this, but it's something to keep in mind. Here are a couple of online tutorials --

http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/set-compatibility-mode-windows-10
http://www.windows10forums.com/articles/compatibility-mode.7/

 

[JuneP]

Thaks DeeAnna, I check those out. Rain is coming at the end of the week, so I'll have time to play with all of these. Right now I need to finish my lunch and get out to do some planting. and create more raised beds. I have this afternoon, and tomorrow afternoon to plant, and if the rain holds off, maybe even Thursday afternoon.

Deleting video segments should be pretty simple -- just click on the segment to select it and press delete.

That said, I've deleted segments I didn't want to because I wasn't paying proper attention to what I was doing. A control-Z (undo) fixed the problem (if I noticed it in time!)

Another possibility is that you may not have split the video into separate segments before you tried to delete the part you didn't want. If you don't get the unwanted video into its own segment, you can't delete just that part.

The "help" for MM is pretty limited; I don' think Microsoft offers a stand-alone detailed manual. Here's the info I used to get started --

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/windows-essentials-help?#v1h=tab1
Also you can google "movie maker help" and get a lot of tutorials by other people.

Another thought is you may have to set MM to run on Win10 in "compatibility mode". If KC is using MM just fine on his Win10 machine, I wouldn't think you would need to fiddle with this, but it's something to keep in mind. Here are a couple of online tutorials --

http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/set-compatibility-mode-windows-10
http://www.windows10forums.com/articles/compatibility-mode.7/

 

[JuneP]

Update on video editing second try

I give up for tonight. It looked like I was doing well editing one of the two videos I need to edit when Windows 10 decided to shut down claiming a memory function error, whatever the heck that is. So, several minutes later and rebooting and I was able to get back into the Microsoft Movie Maker software but something screwy happened. Suddenly blocks of video that I had edited got moved out of sequence. How the heck did that happen! Then the program stopped working and once again I had to boot it back up again. I started editing again and found I had a duplicate of one section of the video. One was in the right order and the other was out of sequence, so I removed the out of sequence one and suddenly, the rest of the making part of the soap on the video disappeared and it jumped to the cutting part. So, of course when I decided to exit and it asked me if I wanted to save it, I said NO!
Microsoft said their old Movie Maker software doesn't work with Windows 10, but others have said they are using it with Windows 10, so I won't give up on it just yet, since I've yet to find any other video editors that have been created for the new Windows 10.
Tomorrow will be another day and I will try again.
I'm finding it cumbersome to be watching the video in a small screen to the left and then having to determine the exact frames I want to start and end editing certain sections from those tiny frames to the right which don't show the photo until you click on them and hear the sound. Time for me to go to sleep and start this again some time tomorrow.

 

[DeeAnna]

Movie Maker wasn't meant for super fine tuned editing, so I understand your frustration. This lack of control is one of the things that makes MM so easy to use for beginners, but that's also its limitation for those who are detail oriented.

It can be surprisingly easy to inadvertently move video segments out of order. Not saying this is what is happening to you, but just that it's been my experience that I'm usually the culprit when it happens to me! You can move the segment back to its proper place by just clicking on the segment and dragging it.

I have found my machine is happiests when it is running only the video editing software. That frees up the max memory for the editing. If things go screwy, I restart the machine, restart the software, and try again. Restarting the machine forces it to reallocate memory (at least that is my amateur understanding). If you only restart the software, you might not get as much memory given to MM as it really needs to operate efficiently.

Another thing to keep in mind is your machine may bog down due to lack of memory if you try to edit too much video in one MM project. If you're working on a project more than, say, 3-5 minutes long, you may need to break it into two or more sub projects. Individually edit each sub project to your liking. When done editing, export each sub project as a finished movie, then bring these sub projects together in a master project to finish editing and export as a full length video.

I don't see where MM lets you set an auto-save time. I'm pretty sure it does autosave, I just don't know how often, so I do my best to manually save often.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

You could try installing the old version and then right-clicking on the program (you might have to actually find the program file itself) and you can try having it run in a compatibility mode for an older windows version. I had to do that with my copy of Lightroom for photos.

 

[kchaystack]

Have you tried to use the editing tools on the YouTube site? That seems pretty simple to use - I will give it a try soon.

 

[JuneP]

Thanks everyone for the good suggestions. I haven't had time the past couple of days to get back to it. Maybe I'll try again this afternoon, after I lower this paper pile I'm working on this morning.

I will try that compatibility check. I haven't tried the you tube one; but just guessing it wouldn't be as flexible as the Microsoft Movie maker if I can get it to behave!

And thanks for the tip of dragging the sections to the right location. I should have suspected the space problem since the video downloaded in 3 sections. My mistake, although I didn't realize it was a mistake, was to load all 3 sections into the software for editing. So I guess I edit each section separately, save and then put them all together? I never want to see that memory management error ever again after spending more than an hour working on editing that video!

Thanks again everyone for all the help!

 

[DeeAnna]

I gave links to a couple of resources in Post #10 that explain more about setting the compatibility of older software to run in Win10.

Yes, you might try editing each section alone. Your machine might work better if it doesn't have as much stuff to wade through.

When you start work on a video, be sure to save your project -- be aware this is different than saving the movie. That is a small but very important fact that I didn't catch on to at first!!! Until you're completely done, you don't need to save the movie itself -- you should save the project.

The project file is a file specific to Movie Maker that tells MM where to find the stuff that makes up your video -- the individual clips, music, etc. -- on your hard drive. The project also stores what you've done as you work in MM.

After you create this project, then you can do a Control-S to save your project as you go. Then if your computer acts up, you haven't lost all your work. Again, I don't know if MM does an autosave -- it may well do that -- but if I manually save as well, I'm not hurting anything.

...I will try that compatibility check....

So I guess I edit each section separately, save and then put them all together? I never want to see that memory management error ever again after spending more than an hour working on editing that video!

 

[JuneP]

June -- Maybe you could try reinstalling MM? If KC is having good luck with it, your install may be corrupted somehow. Or perhaps you have an older version of MM that doesn't like Win10? I installed MM just a couple of weeks ago, and the version I downloaded and installed is version 2012, build 16.4.3528.0331.

Actually I have downloaded it twice. I've been too busy the past couple of days to get back to it. Right now I'm too busy with getting ready for my meeting with the accountant about my taxes and getting in garden time the next few days.

I had planned to spend time on it this afternoon and wound up taking a long nap this afternoon, followed by an over hour long phone call from my daughter, then transplanting some seedlings, filling peat pots with seed starting soil to plant tomorrow, then making pizza for dinner which was very late tonight. Now I'm too tired, but I will call up the program and load one of the segments and see if it goes smoothly.

Thanks for all the help! It is much appreciated!