Video killed the radio star?

January 5, 2007 11:45 AM

I've got (what I think is) an original idea for a video podcast, however I have a few quick questions. Inevitably, there's

I'm a poor student, and have the facilities to capture decent digital video, but not to edit it. I have a reasonably high spec laptop (2gig of memory, 120 gig hdd, Intel T2300 1.66ghz etc), but am totally clueless in the video editing stakes.

1) What software (preferably free) is best to use to edit and mix footage together?

2) I was also thinking of inserting youtube videos, would this be possible? (I already know how to download them to my hdd, but would it be possible to edit these into my main podcast?)

3) Some audio podcasts have "chapters" on them. Is it possible for me to do this on a video podcast, on a windows machine? The only software I've found for audio chapters is mac only, and I'm using XP.

Thanks for your help guys!

posted by philsi to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Windows Movie Maker, which should be included in your install of XP, actually isn't that bad of a program for basic stuff--I used it make a chemistry lab safety video a year or so ago, which was a project that required extensive editing. It was really easy to learn, too.

Of course, a purchased program such as Pinnacle's video editing software would probably have more power--but Movie Maker may work fine for you.
posted by DMan at 11:59 AM on January 5, 2007

I can vouch for Pinnacle - it is surprisingly powerful for consumer-level stuff. I don't know about the chapters though.
posted by Mister_A at 12:26 PM on January 5, 2007

you can download youtube videos and convert the flash encoding to something editable. but it is a hassle and the quality of youtube is poor.
posted by londongeezer at 1:06 PM on January 5, 2007

Jahshaka is an open source cross-platform non-linear editor (and more). I haven't used it much, but it seems to work ok, it's relatively easy to use and it's loaded with features (though many are still under active development). I think the 3.0 release is only the player, in which case get 2.0 RC4. I just noticed on the wiki that it is not currenty "a fully fledged NLE for all platforms" so YMMV.

You may also want to peruse wikipedia's free video software category.

Youtube videos should be usable - there are a number of free video converters that handle flv files.

Chapters w/ no OSX are not looking promising.
posted by nTeleKy at 1:24 PM on January 5, 2007

Edit and mix; try avid free.

It's not as easy as it could/should be - it's meant as an entry product to full fledged film/video software.
posted by filmgeek at 2:07 PM on January 5, 2007

Youtube videos should be usable - there are a number of free video converters that handle flv files.

Except that YouTube videos begin as small flash files that are not of high quality in the first place. They don't get any better upon conversion. The better route is to send a private message through the YouTube messaging system and request use of the original file they used to upload to YouTube. I've done this many times and was only turned down once.

Also, I also recommend Pinnacle as being a quality program that can do what you need, from beginner to highly professional jobs.
posted by Gerard Sorme at 9:07 PM on January 5, 2007

Audio podcasts with chapters (sometimes called "enhanced podcasts") are only possible using AAC files, not MP3. It will be well worth your money ($30) to purchase a Quicktime Pro license, which will enable you to add create chapter tracks in both AAC and Quicktime videos, and will show up in iTunes, iPods and Quicktime Player when played back.

It's really cumbersome to do it this way (especially compared to the wonderful, cheap tools available on the Mac, like SimpleMovieX, Garageband and Metadata Hootenanny) but if you're as poor as you say you are, short of software piracy, it's about the best you can do on Windows for the price, AFAIK.

Quicktime Pro is really an under(estimated|rated) tool for doing simple editing video and audio tasks. Most people don't even realize it can do so many cool things.
posted by melorama at 5:13 AM on January 6, 2007