What, in 2015, are the best app options when it comes to video editing?

August 3, 2015 12:03 PM

When watching YouTube I often can't help but feel that I'm the only person in the world who doesn't use video editing software. I often rip and encode videos but I've yet to delve into the world of video editing. Mostly I want to remove 'mistakes' and extraneous stuff from videos of myself speaking. My requirement are that the apps are Windows-compatible. Freeware and payware apps are welcome. It's preferable that the apps are light on resources and noob-friendly, but these aren't requirements.
posted by GlassHeart to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

It's less about the apps and more about the tutorials. (That's one of the benefits of owning a mac...their app tutorials are really good)...that being said, hit youtube and search video editing tutorials. The most common result is the app you should consider. (PS...it's not really that hard...just time consuming and fidgety)
posted by sexyrobot at 12:38 PM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

After a few years in a Mac world (where I started some video editing) moving back to Windows was difficult to do some very simple edits.

And then what I used way back in the Vista days was Movie Maker, and remember how easy it was to use. And then Microsoft in its wisdom killed a very good product, Movie Maker Live (or whatever its called now) is not very useful at all.

So I found this link that pointed to a download that worked fine on my Windows 8.1 system, and for the few times I've needed to do simple trimming for a end-of-year video slideshow project it worked great.
posted by scooterdog at 2:03 PM on August 3, 2015

For simple stuff, Windows Movie Maker Live is sufficient. Give it a try first.
posted by demiurge at 2:23 PM on August 3, 2015

Best answer: I use Camtasia, which is far more reasonably priced for the Mac version. If you find yourself doing more than just basic editing, you should invest it in. It's a great program with great tutorials. It's how I started learning.

WeVideo is a web app that could probably do everything you want. It's free and it's easy to use.
posted by guster4lovers at 4:15 PM on August 3, 2015

When I used Camtasia Studio on PCs years ago, also new to video editing myself at that point, I found it to be slow, crashy, and clumsy. I switched to the free tool VirtualDub and apart from lacking some fancy transitions and special effects it was far more robust and usable. This was a while ago, though, so I don't know if those evaluations still hold.
posted by XMLicious at 5:50 PM on August 3, 2015

XMLicious, when I upgraded my laptop, all the problems with Camtasia that I experienced stopped. The amount of memory and space makes a huge difference, especially if you make lots of edits. So I guess it's dependent on the speed of your computer.
posted by guster4lovers at 9:26 PM on August 3, 2015

Quite possibly, but I probably technically would have needed to buy another license, and that expense plus the cost of new hardware just wasn't worth it when VirtualDub did so well and on economy hardware - I actually ended up doing much of the recording and editing on a crappy teleconferencing room computer, off where it was quiet. It makes sense that by now you'd be able to get the same sort of thing as a free web app.

Oh, I also notice you mention the Mac, whereas I'd had the ported PC version, so that might be a difference too.
posted by XMLicious at 1:51 AM on August 4, 2015

Best answer: Another vote for Camtasia. I use it for professional videos. It's very easy to learn and the UI is quite intuitive.
posted by neushoorn at 5:22 AM on August 4, 2015

Response by poster: guster4lovers: I use Camtasia, which is far more reasonably priced for the Mac version. If you find yourself doing more than just basic editing, you should invest it in. It's a great program with great tutorials. It's how I started learning.

Fits the bill. Thanks!

But I can't help but wonder: why's the Mac version priced so differently than the Windows version? Is the Mac version less powerful?

neushoorn: Another vote for Camtasia. I use it for professional videos. It's very easy to learn and the UI is quite intuitive.

Indeed. I've barely used the software and am already doing pretty much everything I'd ever need / want to do. And all without having looked at a single tutorial.

A superb piece of software.
posted by GlassHeart at 12:15 PM on August 4, 2015

Camtasia for Mac has less features than the Windows version, so that probably explains the price difference.
posted by neushoorn at 1:34 AM on August 5, 2015

neushoorn is exactly right - Camtasia (PC version) has extra stuff, like stock backgrounds and music and other features that you can use to add more polish.

The Mac version is SUPER stripped down. But they are designed to be highly usable for the new-ish user.
posted by guster4lovers at 12:03 AM on August 6, 2015