Want a different video editor

[Gordon Fecyk]

For fourteen episodes I've struggled with a versatile, but ultimately buggy and unusable, piece of [censored] called VideoWave from Roxio / Corel. It's been fifteen iterations and this software crashes to desktop upon just loading a MP4 video source with the "wrong" set of codecs. Its included transcoder suffers from the same problems. I've had to transcode to WMV using Expression Encoder to work around it, but that doesn't help the seemingly random CTDs from adding too many subtitles, or trying to trim a music track, or breathing on the keyboard funny, or looking at the screen wrong.

By comparison, Microsoft's old standby Movie Maker works, but is very limited. Adobe's Premiere and Premiere Elements don't work without admin rights, which is completely inexcusable since Windows Vista and UAC, never mind on 7, 8 and 10. Yes I'm picky; when I see a product stamped with Microsoft's "Designed for Windows" logo I actually expect it to follow the logo requirements. Silly me, how naïve.

I would have saved up for Premiere CC if Adobe actually followed Microsoft's certification requirements.

So I'm once again looking for a replacement. VideoWave supports one video track, three audio tracks, two or more overlay tracks and three or more caption tracks, plus has a selection of effects, transitions, and a few other things. I think the Hosers In Space series pushes what I know about this application and any replacement is going to have to match this functionality. Are there any recommendations for similar editors?

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Edited August 5, 2016 by Gordon Fecyk
Punctuation corrections

[Superfluous J]

I use VideoPad and while it takes a little getting used to (but what doesn't) I've found it more than suits my needs. There's a timed demo with some restrictions that I can't remember (though I recall only having 2 audio tracks available) and the whole thing costs about $70 (and there are no restrictions in the paid version. I've had a dozen or more video tracks and 4+ audio tracks with no issues). I think it was well worth it for myself, though I've been using it almost daily for years.

I have no idea if it's "Designed for Windows" or not. Until reading this post I didn't even know there were things called Windows Logo Requirements. So if that's important to you you'll need to check that yourself. However I've used VideoPad in Windows 7, 8, and 10 with no crashing issues.

Edited August 5, 2016 by 5thHorseman

[Gordon Fecyk]

2 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

Until reading this post I didn't even know there were things called Windows Logo Requirements.

I do IT for a living, and expect certified applications to behave with non-admin user accounts, with UAC enabled, and so on. But since there are a lot of needed applications that aren't certified, usually specialty stuff, I spend a lot of my paid time working around their brokenness. That being said, a surprising number of off-the-shelf PC games work, and could be certified if the devs paid for the tests. I own copies of a few of them.

Microsoft had this Designed for Windows logo starting from Win2K that vendors could slap on their products if they met the requirements. Windows houses were starting to get used to the idea of non-admin accounts for security reasons. It's gotten stricter with 64-bit applications and the red queen's race of computer security over the past sixteen years.

But OK, I can try VideoPad out. Thanks for that. Anyone else with suggestions?

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[E-Rikkie]

blender is free and has video editting built in, maybe a bit overkill with all the extra functionality but it gets the job done

[LordFerret]

One word: AVLinux

[pincushionman]

Second VideoPad here. But keep in mind there's actually two versions to buy, and I believe the main difference is the number of video and audio tracks it will support. Make sure you look at the comparison page on NCH's website before you make a decision.

Also, what NCH really wants to sell you is a suite of programs, so Videopad doesn't do everything, and saying something like "it's $70" isn't actually the whole story. Make sure what you want is actually included OR you have an alternative OR you're willing to buy the extra package as well. This is where the trial comes in handy.

When you go to buy, they're going to ask if you want to bundle any of those extra packages for a discount. Be careful here; it seems when I bought VideoPad, the final price seemed to differ whether I bundled the capture packade to my VideoPad purchase, or if I bundled VideoPad to the capture software. That seemed a little shady, but it also might depend on which packages are "on sale" at any given time. But while the marketing might be odd, the quality of the product has been excellent.

[Gordon Fecyk]

4 hours ago, LordFerret said:

One word: AVLinux

The only way this would work is if I installed VMware Player and ran this in a virtual machine, because I only have one PC and need Windows 10 to keep running for the other applications I use.

Anyone ever try installing VMware Tools on an install of AVLinux for file sharing between this and the host OS?

[LordFerret]

1 hour ago, Gordon Fecyk said:

The only way this would work is if I installed VMware Player and ran this in a virtual machine, because I only have one PC and need Windows 10 to keep running for the other applications I use.

Anyone ever try installing VMware Tools on an install of AVLinux for file sharing between this and the host OS?

I've had no personal experience with that, I don't use Win10. A quick Google however looks like it's quite doable for a Debian install, and AVLinux is a Debian build (custom).

Edit:
I use AVLinux, here and there. I think it's a great build. There's a lot offered there (including Blender, as someone here suggested). If nothing else, it's at least worth your time to burn a live disc and boot it up and test drive the offerings. If you find you like it, I'm sure there's a way to fit your needs.

Edited August 5, 2016 by LordFerret

[Gordon Fecyk]

@LordFerret, using AVLinux in a VM would suit me fine; don't get me wrong. It's just running it in my environment would require VMware Tools and its folder sharing capability. I'd be passing things between it, GoldWave, Shadowplay, and so on, which are Windows applications.

Great suggestions though, from everyone. I had hoped veteran KSP producers used better tools, and wasn't disappointed.

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[Gordon Fecyk]

Thanks so far to everyone here for suggesting their favourites. Here's what I found out:

• VideoPad lacks control over subtitles and overlays, which are an important part of these episodes as I don't have access to voice actors.
• Blender? Holy cow, now this is a Swiss Army Chainsaw of 3D production. Too much to take in at once for me, I'm afraid, though a power user could do serious 3D titling with this one.
• AVLinux is not practical for my environment where I have to switch between Windows applications and the applications included here on demand. The Debian distro used had no audio support or file sharing support for VMware Player 12, even with Open VM Tools installed.
• Sony Vegas is just a little too rich for me, though its baby brother Movie Studio might work better. This is likely going to be my choice, and it's available in a 64-bit edition.

This is a render test from the trial edition of Movie Studio. It handled the cropping of the KSP UI better than VideoWave did, and while I haven't played with the subtitles yet, overlays look pretty good.

Edited August 7, 2016 by Gordon Fecyk
Uploaded 60 FPS version