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If you're more interested in the “free” than the “open source” part, Davinci Resolve has a free version which seems very powerful, and Avid offer Media Composer

If you're more interested in the “free” than the “open source” part, Davinci Resolve has a free version which seems very powerful, and Avid offer Media Composer First. I think the main restriction vs. the paid versions is maximum output resolution. I don't know a great deal about video editing but have used Davinci for a few tasks and once I got my head round the basics, was quite impressed. Just thought I’d mention these as they might be useful alternatives for some people as they are widely used in the industry so there is a lot of tutorial content etc. available. This looks really cool and is an impressive open source project though!

jchw 7y ago
I had some trouble getting started with Resolve, myself, coming from tools like Premiere. I checked it out because some version of it curiously came on an SD card with my Blackmagic Intensity card.
davidweatherall 7y ago
You can quite often get older versions of Vegas Pro ridiculously cheap on humble bundle as well with all of the money going to charity
- dylan604 7y ago
  Yes, but then you're using Vegas Pro.
throwaway66666 7y ago
For my use I have replaced all GUI video editors, with a bunch of ffmpeg scripts (no irony).
- tomduncalf 7y ago
  Depends what you need to do I guess. ffmpeg or Handbrake are great for many tasks and would always be my first choice as they are so much quicker and easier to work with for simple things, but if you need to do some splicing together of footage, colour correction, etc. then really I think you need a visual environment to do it in above a certain point.
  - blattimwind 7y ago
    I can't really imagine how you'd do video editing with scripts, unless you are emulating a linear editing workflow. But then I can't imagine how it would be time-efficient.
    - throwaway66666 7y ago
      Well, I am not doing heavy weight editing or making movies. Most of the time I need to remove audio, resize and re-compress for web, cut the first and last seconds, or splice together 2 videos. Generate thumbs. etc. I have also fully replaced image editors with imagemagick on the cli and some bash scripts.
meruru 7y ago
>If you're more interested in the “free” than the “open source” part This phrasing will confuse people who are not familiar with the expression "Free Software". It would be better phrased like this: >If you're more interested in the “free-of-charge” (as in beer) than the “Free Software” (as in Freedom) part
- tomduncalf 7y ago
  Sorry, my bad, you're absolutely right!
blattimwind 7y ago
The free Resolve version is ridicolously powerful for it being freeware. BMD has been adding features and improving the package at a pace that is imho truly unprecedented in the industry. The full version (notable features are a proprietary GPU-based h.264 codec and support for framerates beyond 60 Hz and resolutions beyond 4K (the free version does 4K) is still only 300 bucks or so.
- readbeard 7y ago
  Absolutely. In my view, it's not that Resolve is a $300 professional app with a free dumbed-down version—Resolve is a free professional app with a $300 amped-up version. Many of the features added by Resolve Studio are super awesome things that most people don't need and that other NLEs don't have. I bought the Studio version for the realtime lens distortion removal filter, which saved me a lot of time on a project.
- tomduncalf 7y ago
  That's really cool, I didn't realise the free version did 4K! As with most of these specialist types of applications (thinking of music software, with which I am more familiar), the GUI and concepts can take quite a lot of getting used to as they are so specialised, but Resolve actually seems reasonably user friendly for doing simple edits. No idea how to use all the Fusion stuff, etc, but seems really powerful!

jchw 7y ago

I had some trouble getting started with Resolve, myself, coming from tools like Premiere. I checked it out because some version of it curiously came on an SD card with my Blackmagic Intensity card.

davidweatherall 7y ago

You can quite often get older versions of Vegas Pro ridiculously cheap on humble bundle as well with all of the money going to charity

dylan604 7y ago
Yes, but then you're using Vegas Pro.

throwaway66666 7y ago

For my use I have replaced all GUI video editors, with a bunch of ffmpeg scripts (no irony).

tomduncalf 7y ago
Depends what you need to do I guess. ffmpeg or Handbrake are great for many tasks and would always be my first choice as they are so much quicker and easier to work with for simple things, but if you need to do some splicing together of footage, colour correction, etc. then really I think you need a visual environment to do it in above a certain point.
- blattimwind 7y ago
  I can't really imagine how you'd do video editing with scripts, unless you are emulating a linear editing workflow. But then I can't imagine how it would be time-efficient.
  - throwaway66666 7y ago
    Well, I am not doing heavy weight editing or making movies. Most of the time I need to remove audio, resize and re-compress for web, cut the first and last seconds, or splice together 2 videos. Generate thumbs. etc. I have also fully replaced image editors with imagemagick on the cli and some bash scripts.

meruru 7y ago

>If you're more interested in the “free” than the “open source” part This phrasing will confuse people who are not familiar with the expression "Free Software". It would be better phrased like this: >If you're more interested in the “free-of-charge” (as in beer) than the “Free Software” (as in Freedom) part

tomduncalf 7y ago
Sorry, my bad, you're absolutely right!

blattimwind 7y ago

The free Resolve version is ridicolously powerful for it being freeware. BMD has been adding features and improving the package at a pace that is imho truly unprecedented in the industry. The full version (notable features are a proprietary GPU-based h.264 codec and support for framerates beyond 60 Hz and resolutions beyond 4K (the free version does 4K) is still only 300 bucks or so.

readbeard 7y ago
Absolutely. In my view, it's not that Resolve is a $300 professional app with a free dumbed-down version—Resolve is a free professional app with a $300 amped-up version. Many of the features added by Resolve Studio are super awesome things that most people don't need and that other NLEs don't have. I bought the Studio version for the realtime lens distortion removal filter, which saved me a lot of time on a project.
tomduncalf 7y ago
That's really cool, I didn't realise the free version did 4K! As with most of these specialist types of applications (thinking of music software, with which I am more familiar), the GUI and concepts can take quite a lot of getting used to as they are so specialised, but Resolve actually seems reasonably user friendly for doing simple edits. No idea how to use all the Fusion stuff, etc, but seems really powerful!