Free Stuff: Making Movies for Nothing

Roxio Buzz

Quick and Fast: NOT A FREEWARE! A quick and easy way to take a video straight from your camera to Youtube, Go Fish or Microsoft Silverlight. Cutting and trimming are the only tools. REQUIRES Microsoft .net Framework TO USE!!!

Where to get it: http://www.roxio.com/enu/solutions/roxiolabs/products/buzz/default.html Windows Only! (XP, Media Center and Vista)

Buzz is not a real freeware, but it was suggested by a friend and is the type of program that is “almost” a freeware. It’s available in a trial version, which is what I used. The link above takes you to a page that talks about the free Roxio Buzz Lite, but what I downloaded wasn’t free, so I think that might be an old page.

This is how you use Buzz: 1. Get your footage onto your computer from your camera. 2. Import into Buzz by selecting the folder containing your footage. 3. Cut out/delete the parts of your video you don’t want. Trimming and restoring your deleted footage are also available. 4. Upload to either Youtube, Silverlight or Go Fish. And That’s It! No multi-clip editing, adding titles/credits or really anything except cutting and trimming one video clip. You can also do photo slide shows.

Buzz can work with AVI, MPEG-1, WMV and MOV(QuickTime). Installing will take a while if you don’t have .net Framework since Roxio will connect with Windows and make sure you get it installed.

Buzz is a lot like VirtualDub and Avidemux in that it’s very basic and it can cut and not much else. I prefer Avidemux a lot more.

Latest Version: 2.0

License and Use: I’m not sure, but the license is in the program.

TMPGEnc

Quick & Fast: This program is an easier, more powerful version of VirtualDub or Avidemux. Which explains why it’s not free. There is a 14-day trial available. The program is pretty amazing and if you have the money, it’s pretty good.

Where to get it: To learn more and download, go Here.

AVS Video Editor 

Quick and Fast: This is an upscale variation on Windows Movie Maker. The free version of Video Editor has a watermark that appears on top of your rendered video.

Where to get it: http://www.avsmedia.com Windows Only! 2000/XP/2003/Vista

As I said above, this is an upscale version of Movie Maker. The full (paid for) version has capturing capabilities and even the free version of the program can make DVD menues, burn DVDs and render to all sorts of good, popular formats. Add to that, the audio levels on all tracks both audio and video can be controlled with sliders and keyframes over time and you have a nice little editing program.

Then you render out your masterpiece to see the red and white text water mark, smack in the middle of the frame. Augh! Yes, I feel your pain, although I happened to render out one of the demo projects before importing my own footage.

AVS has a deal where you can register Video Editor (or any other AVS product) and get all 26 other programs for free, including future software and upgrades. Some of their other programs look nice, including the audio editor, the converters and encoders… As you will imagine, this means payment: $69 for an unlimited subscription and $49 for a one year subscription. It’s either that or the watermark on your finished video. Take your pick. See http://www.avs4you.com/Register.aspx for more info.

Tutorials: The tutorials are some animation/video with only one sound – the click of a mouse – to relieve the silence. Go Here.

License and Use: If you don’t pay, you’re version of Video Editor is considered unregistered (free trial) and so the watermark appears on top of your finished video after you render. FYI, the watermark says “Created with a non-activated version www.avs4you.com” I doubt you want to use this professionally. The watermark isn’t that big, but your clients still won’t want it smack in the middle of the frame. And having a video with “non-activated version” all over it makes you look bad, even if it is legal.