Suggest an easy and free video editing program?

[Duer 157099]

I need to do some very basic editing, such as speeding up the video (or cutting out frames?) and then inserting some simple text in the same place on various frames (such as numbers, like counting--not counting the frames, but counting something happening in the video).

I don't need a full service program, just bare bones and simple.

Suggestions? Thanks.

[Fumesucker]

1. Avidemux will do a lot..

It's obscure until you read the directions and then it makes quite a bit of sense..

http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/download.html

VirtualDub is another editing program with a somewhat different tool set, it's kind of picky about what video files it will accept though..

http://www.virtualdub.org/

[Duer 157099]

2. I've been using avidemux for some functions

but I'm not sure it can do all of what I want. But I've only been using it for a day, so I'm not thoroughly familiar with it yet. To your knowledge, can you insert text or graphics on specific frames?

[Fumesucker]

3. I haven't used avidemux for that..

But I have used Neuron2's Logo filter for VirtualDub and it works pretty well if you don't have a great deal of text to deal with, it's been a while so I don't recall details but it wasn't particularly difficult to figure out.

http://neuron2.net/

Converting back and forth between video formats is a bit of a pain but when you are using free tools it kind of comes with the territory.

[Duer 157099]

4. Thanks, I'll check that out

I'm new to video editing so I'm not even sure of the terms to describe what I want, so it's hard to find what I need in the guides.

I suppose I can always just capture a still image of the frame that I want to insert the text on, use a graphics program to add the text/graphic and then edit that frame back into the video. (?) But that sounds like the hard way.

I just downloaded Blender, that might be a useful tool for this, but it looks way more complicated than I need.

Talk about a crash couse in video editing, lol. Thanks for your help

[grok]

5. kdenlive

this is a fairly recent development. It's extremely stable now.. It aims to be a Something similar to "Sony Vegas Pro"

I've been using it for the last 3 years on a Linux machine. There is a LIVEDVD which you can use without changing your windows environment. Occasionally I use it on my Win7 machine when needed.

Don't get me wrong, Avidemux is a wonderful program. However sometimes it relies on buggy and second source outdated transcoders. Occasionally these introduce Audio/Visual sync problems and crashes. Kdenlive use the MELT framework which is extremely stable and robust.

If you also also have that program it should take care of issues Avidemux fails to address properly.

http://www.kdenlive.org/user-manual/downloading-and-installing-kdenlive/live-demonstration-dvd-or-usb-storage