Top 5 – Editing video files – with free software

Can I edit the transferred film or video tapes myself afterwards?

Yes, you can further edit your film yourself. There are many software packages on the market to edit video files. Herewith my top5 selection of best free software to make easy edits of your movies. Generally, these packages can handle most of these functions such as cutting out pieces, adding title, etc. If you want advanced features, then it is often necessary to buy a paid version.

#1 – LosslessCut

This is a very simple program. Allows you to cut and paste only pieces of video. The big advantage is that the video is not recalculated and thus no quality is lost

For a short instructional video on how to install and use LosslessCut see: LossLessCut instruction

Download: https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut/releases

#2 – Openshot

OpenShot Video Editor is an open source video editor for Linux and is also available for Windows and macOS since version 2.0. Openshot can be compared to Windows Movie Maker or Apples iMovie. This is the simple program, which is also Dutch language.

#3 – Shotcut

Shotcut is a technical feat. It works with very many video and audio formats, thanks to FFmpeg. This is one of the few free comprehensive video editing programs that is also Dutch-language! It can also handle 4K video. It works on Windows, Linux and macOS.

#4 – Hit Movie Express

Hitfilm express is a comprehensive video editing package. Most of the features for easy editing are in the free version. Even batch rendering of projects works well in this. If extended features or effects are needed, this can be optionally extended with paid add-ons. To use this program, however, you are expected to advertise it by sharing it on Facebook, for example.

#5 – Davinci Resolve

Davinci Resolve is a very comprehensive video editing package. It has many features, is good at color correction and extensive import and export capabilities. If you care about compatible AVI files that work with other programs on the PC, I don’t recommend this program. For example when exporting to AVI uncompressed, then this file will not play properly in windows media player.

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