Simple video editing software

[Kornman00]

So this is my current situation:

* I have a bunch of Fraps recorded avi files
* They're all raw captures so they're LOLHUGE
* I need to combine them
* And I need to encode them so they're not LOLHUGE

Does anyone have recommendations for doing this? I really don't need some kind of super, does-a-million-other-things-too-lol program. I can use Super to encode but I don't see any options for combining files too. jcap suggested Vegas, but fuck, too much money and I'm having a rough time finding it "other ways".

Halp pl0x.

[ThePlague]

Windows movie maker?

[Timo]

Windows movie maker?

This. http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker?os=other

[Cortexian]

I'd use VirtualDub, you can open a video, append the other video files, then set the encode settings all with a few clicks. I'd personally just append everything in VirtualDub and encode as a "direct stream copy", this would result in a LOLHUGE file with all the videos and then I'd use Adobe Media Encoder to save as H.264 to shrink it all down to a manageable size. I'd do it this way because setting up encoding settings in VirtualDub is much more complicated than in Media Encoder, however VirtualDub CAN do it all if you spend the time to set it all up correctly, I just don't have all the experience I should have in VirtualDub.

Adobe Premiere CS4/CS5 and the included Adobe Media Encoder are very powerful and awesome tools. I highly recommend getting an Adobe Collection CS5 if you can, so many Adobe programs that I use almost all the time.

[Amit]

VirtualDub doesn't work with all video files. There were pure AVI files I exported from the CryEngine 3 editor that it refused to open in VD, but would work no problem in other editing software. Still, I find Virtual Dub the best free solution.

If you have money to burn, Adobe Premiere is your best bet, like Freelancer said.

[Kornman00]

Installed Movie Maker (I just assumed since it wasn't default in W7 that they started selling it or stopped dev). Handles my simple needs so far. Except it detected a couple different parts of some captures I made as "corrupt" (though it could play them without any noticeable error...). So I have to go back and re-capture some stuff. It's nice taking ~110GB of raw video files and turning it into a single 1.4GB file.

[sleepy1212]

i used vdub and MM before. never tried compressing with MM though but its good enough for stringing some videos together.

[Siliconmaster]

I also throw in my vote for Premiere, but if Movie Maker is working for you, cool. As a film major though I cringe at the very name :P

[dark navi]

Sony Vegas works great to compress the raw .M2TS files I record.

[Patrickssj6]

For encoding use Microsoft Expression Encoder it's free. It uses the GPU...in a mothafuckin fishtank.

For simple video editing, Corel VideoStudio.

[ThePlague]

Lately I haven't been able to use Adobe Premiere with Fraps recordings (CS5 Premiere), what it ended up spitting out was a shit compressed and shit quality video, even though I changed the settings to be the highest they could.

I used to use MM all the time with Fraps recordings, so hopefully that works for you.

[Amit]

Sony Vegas works great to compress the raw .M2TS files I record.

Yeah, I personally have been using Sony Vegas Pro 8 for a few years now. Works great!

[Phopojijo]

It's CS5.5 now.

NAB Show, go figure.