Octopus Overlords

I have an idea for a project that requires some software recommendations. I want to be able to watch a DVD on my computer screen and provide voice over commentary. That would seem to require some kind of screen capture and video/audio editing tools. Any suggestions for free or inexpensive solutions?

OBS is what I use. i'm no expert at this sort of thing and yet it was easy enough for me to have up and running in no time. One thing I've noticed, it can have problems capturing windows that are hardware accelerated, depending on what mode you use. For example, if I'm capturing a browser window in window capture mode, that browser can't be using hardware acceleration. I've never tried capturing a DVD player window though, so I don't know if it'll happen there too.

I was going to recommend what I use (Camtasia) because it's quite simple to understand and works great, but apparently it doesn't fit with your free/inexpensive request. I was given a copy so I had no idea how much it costs. I guess if you can find a copy cheap, I can verify it's a great tool. Probably not very helpful...sorry.

I've heard these others mentioned:
Screenflow
Screencastomatic
Adobe Creative Cloud

One issue seems to be things like Screenflow that is designed for Mac and I am a Windows only user. A monthly payment from Adobe would only work if I was testing the software before buying.

As far as editing, i have used Wondershare Filmora(cheap not free) and can recommend that with a qualification. That is that Filmora is to Adobe Premiere what Paintnet is to Adobe Photoshop. It's a great alternative that's easy to use but for people who don't need the full range of features of the Adobe program.

Free video editing software is kind of a dead zone imo. The programs are either too limited in what they can do, or have very unfriendly UIs that make using them a pain.

Smoove_B wrote:I was going to recommend what I use (Camtasia) because it's quite simple to understand and works great, but apparently it doesn't fit with your free/inexpensive request. I was given a copy so I had no idea how much it costs. I guess if you can find a copy cheap, I can verify it's a great tool. Probably not very helpful...sorry.

Yeah, $299 is a little pricey. I will still try the free download and compare it to Screencast which has a Pro price of $15 /year.

Looking for free (or extremely low cost) video editing software recommendations. Something simple with additional features/depth if needed. I'd like it to be an industry standard if possible. By that I mean in common usage by many people who do this sort of thing often. Whether that's youtubers, corporate websites, advertisers, whatever.

If I have to climb a learning curve, I want it to be a curve that isn't completely obscure (as in a product no one has ever heard of).

There are so many products out there and what's "good" sometimes changes year to year, that google is no help. My impression so far is "ALL OF THEM" which is not helpful to me.

I'm frustrated because I can't seem to get a straight answer. You would think, with the legions of amateurs attempting to monetize their channels, there would be some sort of consensus on what product *most* use. I would think it would be something like 75% use product a). 20% use product b) 3% use product c) and 2% use everything else.

But...no.

Any opinions out there? My initial goals are to create very basic video. Repeat a video segment "zoomed" in and slowed down, add text/overlays, take two video files and time sync them side by side. Mess with audio if needed.

Lightworks is used by pros in the movies and is free for personal use. It has a learning curve, which I haven't really ascended because I have Windows Movie Maker and haven't needed more, but it can do great things.

Thanks.

Will check it out.

Was considering "finding" a copy of Sony Vegas on the web, but would prefer not going that route.

From what I can tell, open source editing on Linux is a mess right now.

Lightworks as free version supports up to HD, not full HD. If that's what you are OK with (for DVD you are), give it a go, but there is no direct export for DVD, AFAIR.
Openshot is something really open to try.
For me most of them lack a detailed display of the audiotrack to sync to, when you do music videos.

Thanks, both of those were mentioned recently. I'll check them out.

Zitterbacke wrote:Lightworks as free version supports up to HD, not full HD.

What does that mean?

Wiki

720P max on the free version.

Thanks. I didn't know how to parse " up to HD".

My resolution is to serve.

I'm looking for a way to sync 2 video files. There is no technical relationship between the two, so what I would like to do is something like put a mark at a certain time on 1 video, another mark on the other video, then sync the 2 videos so the marks overlap/sync/play at the same time.

Any idea how to do this?

Bonus points if there is a way to do this in Open Shot Video Editor.

Arise, thread!!

One of my kids wants to start editing and posting gaming videos. He did some searching and was naturally steered by the algorithms to Abode Premiere Pro, which is included in the full Adobe package that includes everything at (even with the student discount) $240/year. As far as I can tell, there is no cheaper way to get Premiere Pro by itself.

So I'm wondering what are the best cheaper and usable alternatives for a computer-savvy 14-year-old (it's his birthday!) who wants to edit and post gaming videos and commentary. What products should I be looking at?

An alternative for a computer-savvy 14-year-old might be qBittorrent.

Have you given Shotcut a try?

They bill themselves as an open source Adobe Premiere.

there's really no need to shell out for (or pirate) Premiere when there are a number of open source video editors. Openshot is worth trying https://itsfoss.com/open-source-video-editors/ (and if he's serious about this, it's worth learning Cinelerra on Linux)

Holman wrote: ↑Wed Jun 10, 2020 6:12 pm Arise, thread!!

One of my kids wants to start editing and posting gaming videos. He did some searching and was naturally steered by the algorithms to Abode Premiere Pro, which is included in the full Adobe package that includes everything at (even with the student discount) $240/year. As far as I can tell, there is no cheaper way to get Premiere Pro by itself.

So I'm wondering what are the best cheaper and usable alternatives for a computer-savvy 14-year-old (it's his birthday!) who wants to edit and post gaming videos and commentary. What products should I be looking at?

If he's just starting out, why not go with the more user-friendly and budget-friendly Adobe Premiere Elements for $69.99 instead of a subscription?

I've used Openshot, and IMHO it's one of the better free alternatives out there. Thing is, you want something fully featured enough to have everything you need, but not limited enough to lack it. I've tried many and Openshot has one of the best feature set of any free editing tools out there without being too complicated.

I've put more and more time into Shotcut and it's pretty good in my opinion. One thing I like about it is that it uses GPU acceleration, so it renders fast enough to not put me off and the quality is good while the file size is relatively small. Other free alternatives I've tried either take a long time in rendering or their output quality isn't so good or the output file size is too large. I work with MP4s mostly, so I can't speak to other file types.

The user interface is not what I'd call intuitive but it's not hard to learn either. All it took was for me to watch a Youtube video or two on how to use the tool I needed and I picked it up right away. Since Shotcut is free I have no problem recommending to people that they try editing a couple of videos with it to see if it's all they need.

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