class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Icon.png" alt="" />In the world of
href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-simple-tips-to-record-great-looking-home-videos/">home video editing, it seems like you are either forced to settle with the standard editors that are already provided on your system, or you’ll have to fork over a few dollars just to buy something decent (even items such as Sony Vegas Movie Studio or
href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/adobe/">Adobe Premiere Elements).
With that in mind, there are a few free video editors available in the land of Internet, and although they aren’t entirely useful for heavy editing, they are good for small projects or learning the basics before you make a major purchase. Take a gander at href="http://www.squared5.com/">MPEG Streamclip, a basic clip-trimmer and and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/video-converter/">video converter that is simple yet effective.
Embrace The Clip Trimmer
Straight-up, href="http://www.squared5.com/">MPEG Streamclip is not a full-blown nonlinear video editing system. It’s more of a small clip-trimmer – something that you would find as a mere feature in href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/apple-refunding-dissatisfied-final-cut-pro-customers-news/">Final Cut Pro 7 (the good one) or Adobe Premiere Pro. With that being said, don’t expect to create a major motion picture with this editor/converter. However, I have found some practical uses for the app that you can use in conjunction with your onboard movie editors (like href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/imovie">iMovie and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/windows-movie-maker/">Windows Movie Maker).
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Instead of trimming clips within your standard editor, you could first sort through them using MPEG Streamclip and pick out only the ones that you want. After this, just pop the clips in a folder and choose what you want to use. This beats throwing in a clip from a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/video">video that is half an hour long.
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Besides splicing the footage, you could always just use Streamclip to pull a piece of footage from a long video that you shot. A good example of this could be a hidden camera prank video which normally takes a long time to shoot. This makes Streamclip ideal for basic href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/youtube">YouTube videos or for quick and easy editing. One thing that comes to mind is vlogging which is normally pretty sporadic.
Convert Files However Needed
On top of the extremely primitive editing system included in MPEG Streamclip (and primitive is how I like it in some cases), the app offers the ability to convert files as needed. Just by clicking File on the menu, you will be presented with a variety of formats that your video can be exported in. Below is a list of some of the formats offered.
Beyond these, the converter will also allow you to export only audio if this is what you happen to desire. I’d assume that this would be decent if your camera has a decent microphone and you have recorded an acoustic performance. After that, you could very well pop the track right onto your href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ipod">iPod or href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/iphone">iPhone.
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Conclusion
So there you have it – an incredibly basic editing tool for any simple videos that you may have in mind. href="http://www.squared5.com/">MPEG Streamclip is relatively easy to use, but there are a few extra heavier video and audio options for those of you that want to dive a little deeper down the rabbit-hole.
What other simple editors have you ever used? Do you know of any similar video converters?
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