Free Video Editing Software for Producing Movies & Vlogs

Ferrari fan, Prabhu Krishnamurthy, is on a hunt for some free movie making software. He writes:

We are coming up with a 12 minute movie for culturals. Do you know any good movie making software, that can be downloaded for free?

Our movie will be based on a news channel. So I am looking at a video editor/movie maker software that allows scrolling texts, subtitles and custom animations etc.

You want so many video editing features for free ? Well, it may be possible as here are some good options for editing that don't cost a dime.

But before you read this list, check the CDs that shipped with your handycam - most camera manufacturers like Sony, Canon and Panasonic generally provide a decent video editing software with the camera. OK, back to the list of free video editing software:

Windows Movie Maker - The best video editing tool for Windows that's absolutely free and chances are you already have it installed on your computer as part of XP SP2. Microsoft Movie Maker has all the basic video editing tools plus a good collection of transitions and video effects.

There's an in-built movie titler that lets add you styles to text titles including ticker taps, zoom and even the scroll effect. And if you are feeling lazy, just hit the AutoMovie command to have the entire video produced for you with intervention.

Avid Free DV - Avid Free DV, poor cousin of Avid Xpress Pro, has all the basic video and audio editing features and allow you to put video in two tracks simultaneously. They have an extensive collection of tutorials online to help you get started quickly.

Support both Mac OS and Windows XP platform. Infact, you can even play with keyframes for generating custom moves and transitions. Ships with the Avid Title tool.

JahShaka - An open source video editing software that is currently in Alpha stage but has features found only in expensive video editing software suites.

Works on Mac, Linux and Windows. The interface might take some time for you to get started otherwise the software is definitely the most powerful one out there. And the price is just right. $0. Also does 3D effects which you won't find in other free video editors.

Jumpcut.com - Jumpcut is a web based video editing software and now it's even part of the Yahoo! family. You upload a video or small clips just like importing inside a desktop software.

There are dozens of transitions and special effects. You can import photographs from your Flickr or Facebook account to mix them with the videos. The jumpcut editor is intuitive enough and there is good title support as well. And your movies are published online automatically. Perfect for quick vlogging and video podcasting.

Finally... While the above video editing software should satisfy the needs of most home movie makers, you can probably consider Adobe Premiere Elements or even Muvee AutoProducer for more features and better control over the final output. They have trial version to help you try out the software before actually buying it.

Extract Still Photographs from Wedding DVD Videos for Printing

There are tons of software for creating a slideshow DVD movie of your photographs but DI reader Pedro Almeida from Lisbon has a reverse requirement. He wants to extract still pictures from his Wedding video DVD for printing.

The professional wedding photographer who produced the photo DVD has the source images but he's probably charging lot of money for the service. Pedro writes:

The Wedding DVD was sold to me by a photographer and has cost me a great deal of money.

One of the DVD menu choices is to view all the wedding photos as a slideshow presentation. The photographer will take an additional charge of 3,5 euros for printing each photo.

Can we split this DVD photos presentation into separate image files like GIF or JPG. Then I will be able to print the photos myself and it would just cost me 0,5 euros each photo!!

Pedro, there are two solutions to your problem as explained here:

Solution A: - Play the DVD movie inside a media player and capture the scenes (or video frames) that you would like to print. A word of caution - normal screen capture commands like Print Screen won't work with capturing DVD videos and all you will get is a blank screen.

Read our previous guide on on how to screen capture scenes from DVD movies.

Solution B: - The second solution involves ripping the slideshow DVD into AVI or WMV files and then using a video extractor software to convert that ripped video into still photographs.

Use a DVD backup software like DVDx to convert your Wedding DVD vob files into AVI format. Then download AVCutty to extract picture frames from this AVI video.

AVCutty is smart and can automatically detect the scene changes in video files. Open the extracted photographs in an software like Picasa and select the ones that you like to print. Burn them onto a CD from Picasa and just walk into your nearest photo printing shop.

And yes, all the software mentioned above are absolutely free. The quality of extracted images may not match that of original pictures but they would still be good enough.

Create Audio CD Music Videos hosted on You tube

You just finished watching a bunch of some excellent music videos on Youtube that you wish to save as MP3 files for listening on the iPod or ever better, burn them to an Audio CD [minus the video].

DI Reader Erica Gardner knows how to download videos from Youtube or Google Video but she would love to see a much-simpler solution to make Audio CDs of her favorite Indie rock bands from Youtube.

The popular solution is to download the Youtube video using sites like KeepVid as FLV files and then convert these FLV files to MP3 audio using SUPER, a free encoding software.

But that's a two step process and might even confuse some not-so-geeky users.

Therefore, another elegant solution is vixy.net - you just type in the address of the Youtube video page and vixy will convert that video file into a .MP3 file containing just the audio. No encoding required.

Now pop in the blank CD and hit the Burn button or start iTunes to transfer the Mp3 to your iPod.

You tube User below the radar linked to Nick Denton's Gawker

Some may label this as a fight between the old media [CNet] and the rising new media represented by Gawker which also owns popular web properties like FleshBot, Valleywag and Gizmodo.

A Youtube user (alias belowtheradar) has posted atleast 60 copyright videos (from NBC, ABC, Apple, etc) on Youtube that show pre-roll ads for Gawker properties such as Valleywag and Gizmodo. And lot of these video clips have already hit the Youtube popularity charts.

The Gawker media ads appear before the actual video clip or sometimes as overlay graphics during the entire duration of the video.

CNet, who's sort playing the role of an investigator here, has tried contacting representatives from Gawker, including owner Nick Denton for an official comment but there's no confirmation whether belowtheradar is associated with Gawker Media or just a fan of the blog network.

The fact that links user belowtheradar with Gawker is that some of these videos with embedded advertising have actually been displayed on Gawker blogs. And the videos were posted on Youtube the same day they appeared on Gawker sites further hinting the association.

This story is likely to gather lot of steam in the coming days for lot of reasons. Gawker is a rising force and old king CNet is feeling the heat. CNet has also posted an image gallery of some unauthorized Gawker Ads on Youtube videos.

It will be interesting to read Nick Denton's take on the whole episode.

Has Your FeedBurner RSS Subscriber Count Gone Down ? Do Not Worry

You are a happy owner of some blog that has 1500 RSS subscribers as reported by the Feedburner Chicklet. But the next morning, you discover that this subscriber count has dipped by a few hundreds.

This is surely a disappointing news for bloggers especially when it takes so much effort to build a reader base.

Why did these "hundreds of subscribers" unsubscribe from your blog in one single day ? The first thought that strikes your mind is "Did I write something bad that offended readers and so they unsubscribed in a fit ?"

Well, it's none of your fault in most cases.


It is normal to see minor fluctuations in subscriber numbers reported by Feedburner but if you notice a large variation (in three figures or more), the problem lies somewhere with the feed readers and RSS aggregators such as MyYahoo, Bloglines, Rojo, etc.

These aggregators are either returning incorrect subscriber count to Feedburner or not reporting the count at all and hence Feedburner may not be accounting for those readers. A similar issue happened recently when Feedburner removed the count of Rojo subscribers.

Rojo numbers could soon be back but the other good news is that Feedburner will now include MyYahoo! numbers in your subscriber Chicklet.

Your blog's RSS subscriber count is bound to travel north as MyYahoo! is one of the very popular readers out there.

Windows Vista finally released in India at TAJ

In New York, they hired acrobats to display the Windows logo, In Australia, they had skywriters grab attention, while in Agra they had dancers perform in front of the Taj Mahal, and all this to try and get PC users the world over take notice of its latest offerings — Windows Vista and 2007 Office System. Redmond-based software maker Microsoft launched its latest version of Windows, called Vista, on Tuesday, ending one of the most challenging periods in its corporate history.

Says Microsoft India MD Neelam Dhawan: "We are expecting 1,500 outlets to sell Vista and train 1,800 resellers for Vista. The enterprise edition of the OS that was launched in November last year already has 885,000 users till the last count, in addition to 150,000 developers working on the Vista platform."

The company launched Vista for business users two months ago. Now Vista has been released to consumers, who can buy four home versions, namely Vista Starter, being the basic to Vista Ultimate, the high-end one. At the same time, its 2007 Office comes in two versions — Home and Student and Basic.

It is the world's largest software producer's first significant launch in the last six years after Windows XP in 2001. Microsoft had previously delayed the launch of its new OS, originally due in the second half of 2006 to 2007. Says Microsoft India chairman Ravi Venkatesan: "In the meantime, Microsoft also came up with Service Pack 2 for XP, which is as good as an OS itself.

In addition, efforts to improve security and building user interface from ground level took a long time for the launch of Vista." The OS required Microsoft to invest nearly $6 billion. However, upgrades from the existing OS to Vista still remain a concern for the software maker.

While Microsoft has pledged to continue support for XP users until 2011. But because only about 15% of existing computers have memory and graphics cards powerful enough to run premium versions of Vista, most users will have to buy a whole new computer if they want to upgrade.

Says Doug Hauger, COO, Microsoft India, "PCs which have been in the market for the last 3 years may be capable to run Vista but may not get all effects which the OS offers." Microsoft simultaneously rolled out its two flagship products in over 30 countries. The new operating system boasts an improved interface and security tools. Vista marks a complete overhaul of its previous OS - Windows XP.

The new OS boasts an improved interface and networking tools. Microsoft has also given the program a new design, with a glossy look. The new OS offers new elements like an aero glass (hardware based graphical user interface), more search options, new sound and networking technologies. Says Mr Hauger, "The Vista experience is not just limited to the PC, the OS also allows for interaction with HDTV and IPTV."

But not all PCs will be able to run Vista - Microsoft recommends machines have at least 512Mb of RAM, a 800Mhz processor, 15Gb of hard disk space and graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable. The company now has plans to launch a new mobile OS to interact with Vista.

While prices for Vista home basic is the same as compared to XP Home Edition, Genuine Vista loaded PCs in India will retail at prices starting from Rs 22,000. The pricing for the Office consumer editions will start at Rs 6,000.

Are You Hungry For PPC?

A recent post at the Yahoo Buzz Blog about popular menu searches contains some really good information for those in the restaurant business contemplating a PPC campaign. One of the knocks on some of the bigger conglomerates is they don’t really leverage paid search as well you’d expect and this criticism rings true for the chain restaurant business.

Well, these major players are running out of excuses, especially when they are presented with logistical search data that shows people actual do search for subjects related to these businesses. The post in question - What’s on the Menu - details what chain restaurant menus are being searched the most.

Normally, data like this has to be researched using logs and other analytical features. However, because of Yahoo’s intervention, this information is available at the click of a mouse… and this data can be leveraged to initiate a successful PPC campaign if an enterprising company chose to do so. The list for most popular menu searches is as follows:

1. Pizza Hut Menu
2. Taco Bell Menu
3. Olive Garden Menu
4. McDonald’s Menu
5. Outback Steakhouse Menu
6. Chili’s Menu
7. Jason’s Deli Menu
8. Jack in the Box Menu
9. Red Lobster Menu
10. Wendy’s Menu

As you can see, data like this should be very easy to leverage when it comes to a PPC campaigns. But what if you are a competitor to one of these companies. Does this list affect you as well? In short, yes it does for the simple fact you can bid on another company’s trademarks, something Mazda did when the Google/Pontiac television commercials launched.

Effective PPC campaigns usually entail a great deal of research. Now, thanks to the Yahoo Buzz Blog, a lot of that work concerning chain restaurants has been done for you.

Microsoft & Nortel Unveil BizCom Roadmap

Last July, Microsoft and Nortel announced a strategic partnership in order to develop innovative methods of business communication by focusing on integrating voice, e-mail, instant messaging, multimedia conferencing and other forms of communication.

Today, the companies jointly unveiled a road map for 2007, which included plans for a unified desktop and soft phone for VoIP, e-mail, and instant messaging, as well as the Nortel Communication Server 2100, large scale telephony hardware which can support up to 200,000 users on a single system.

Microsoft and Nortel also rolled out three new solutions geared at helping businesses make the transition to VoIP and unified communications:

UC Integrated Branch. This new product from the alliance will incorporate Nortel and Microsoft technology on a single piece of hardware that delivers cost-effective, high-quality and easy-to-deploy VoIP and unified communications in remote offices. The UC Integrated Branch is planned to be available in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Unified Messaging. To simplify customer deployments, native session initiation protocol (SIP) interoperability between the Nortel Communication Server 1000 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging is planned to be available in the second quarter of 2007. The solution includes Nortel professional services for design, deployment and support.

Conferencing. This new solution will extend the rich feature set of Nortel Multimedia Conferencing to Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, delivering a single, familiar client experience consistent across applications such as voice, instant messaging, presence, and audio- and videoconferencing. The on-premise solution is planned to be available in the fourth quarter of 2007.

"We are executing forcefully on the vision of this alliance and have made tremendous progress," said Mike Zafirovski, Nortel CEO and President.

"We completed the planning stages and are now delivering unified communications solutions to businesses around the world. Our goal is to close the gap between the devices we use to communicate and the business applications we use to run our businesses, giving employees the power to use information more quickly and effectively."

"The average employee gets more than 50 messages every day1 on up to seven different devices or applications," added Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

"Software can and will help address the ongoing challenge of managing communications and this challenge is the driving idea behind our alliance with Nortel. Together, we will evolve VoIP and unified communications to integrate all the ways we contact each other in a simple environment, using a single identity across phones, PCs and other devices."

MIVA Launches New Ad Solutions

Publishers and bloggers, looking to monetize their site, have a new option to consider with today's launch of MIVA MC. Any publisher in the U.S. or U.K. can apply for a MIVA MC account, and if accepted into the program, can display a wide array of ads on their site, including:

• Content Ads: keyword or contextually targeted Pay-Per-Click Ads displayed in fully customized implementations beside site content.
• MIVA InLine Ads: Pay-Per-Click Ads that appear when users mouse over hyperlinked keywords within actual site content.
• Search Ads: Pay-Per-Click Ads displayed in response to specific typed-in search queries.

I spent some time today with MIVA, getting an in-depth look at the tools they provide to MIVA MC users, and I have to admit they're quick, easy to use and offer great customization of ads.


One of the most interesting ad options is the MIVA Inline Ads - those underlined text ads that often look like hyperlinks. Publishers can control the look, the pop-up window properties and even how many keywords to tag and which areas of a page to show the ads. It all works well, and very easy to add to any web site.

That being said, I'm still struggling to identify where you'll be able to use inline ads without annoying your readers. Maybe a publisher, that doesn't often link to external sources, may find more tolerance for them, but bloggers may discover a little more of a backlash - as most readers expect underlined links to go somewhere other than an ad.

In any event, there's enough ad options for MIVA MC to be a good compliment to a publisher's other ad units - MIVA does not require exclusivity - and MIVA can be commended for being transparent in sharing with publishers the revenue share amount.

If anyone signs-up for the service, and would like to write a review for Marketing Pilgrim, drop me a line.

Google Joins Indian Police Against Orkut Abusers

The recent abuse of the social networking site, Orkut, of Google created lot of uproar in the country.

Tech2 reports this has led to Google to build a team that will work in close tandem with Delhi Cyber crime investigation cell for avoiding such kind of abuse of Orkut by anyone.

A Google spokesperson said "We take the misuse of Orkut very seriously and are reaching out to the appropriate authorities in India to address this." A special 'reporting tool' will be developed for Indian authorities. The reporting tool will help the police to be in contact with Google for removing any unacceptable material and help in prosecution and investigation."

According to Google the tool will be easy to use and no special training of the Indian police will be required. The spokesperson also said "This is part of Google continued efforts to collaborate with the authorities, doing so in a way that of course balances users' interests and the need for the proper legal process."