3 free programs make home video editing easy

Kim Komando, Gannett News Service

Today's video editing software makes it relatively easy to remove bad scenes and create one great production. You can add music, narrations and Hollywood-style transitions. Better yet, there are free programs made for the job.

You don't even have to have a video camera. You probably have video capabilities on your digital camera or even your cell phone. These programs can link together short video clips.

One caveat: Video editing demands a lot of computer resources. Each hour of video requires 13 gigabytes of hard drive space. And you'll want at least 512 megabytes of memory. Anything less will slow down your computer considerably and frustrate you to no end.

Free editing programs don't have all of the bells and whistles of programs you buy. But they have enough to do the basics and are easy enough for beginners. Here are three free programs to get you started:

1. Windows Movie Maker. If you have Windows XP, you should have Windows Movie Maker 2. Just click Start, All Programs, Accessories, Entertainment, Windows Movie Maker. If you don't find it, you can download it from Microsoft's Web site (www.microsoft.com).

Windows Movie Maker 2 (Windows XP only) lets you trim the fat and keep the good stuff. Beginners can assemble clips using the storyboard view. This allows you to drag and drop clips into little boxes at the bottom of your screen. Don't like the order? Drag the boxes around.

effects will slow down, speed up or blur your video. There's even an effect that can turn portions of your video into a watercolor painting.

The timeline view allows you to add music, titles or narration. And Microsoft's Web site offers a number of tutorials.

2. Avid Free DV. Avid's free version (www.avid.com/freedv, Windows XP; Mac OS X 10.4.2 or later) can't hold a candle to Avid's other (and costly) video-editing programs. However, it does have some nice features and the feel of a more powerful program.

You may find Avid Free DV's interface intimidating at first. However, there are more than a dozen free video tutorials on Avid's Web site. They'll help you get the most out of the program.

Avid Free DV allows you to trim video, edit audio and create titles. Its timeline uses two video and two audio tracks and 16 video effects.

3. VirtualDub. Don't be fooled by VirtualDub's (www.virtualdub.org; Windows 95 and later) basic interface. It's a full-featured program that is very capable. It is also very fast.

Its video-editing capabilities are limited, but it allows you to trim video and adjust audio. However, VirtualDub's filters really shine. You can fix bad video by adjusting the brightness or sharpening the picture. Other filters allow you to blur clips together, rotate pictures and more. Two windows show the before and after effects. If you don't like what you see, simply cancel the filter.

After you've mastered the basics of video editing, you can always graduate to a program with more features. Video-editing software from Adobe (www.adobe.com), Pinnacle (www.pinnaclesys.com) and Ulead (www.ulead.com) are geared toward consumers and cost less than $100.

newsletter, sign up at: www.komando.com/newsletter.asp. Contact her at gnstech@gns.gannett.com.