Thanks, Mikiem. :)

Wanted to mention something called Geexbox - http://www.videohelp.com/tools/GeeXboX

Basically a Linux LiveCD ISO already set up with Media Center or Home Theater type apps -- it does look nice when you start it, & thought some might like to try it out. It can be burned to a CD you boot from, but it's really set up to store persistent data on a USB stick. If you have VIrtualBox, either installed or using the portable start [launcher], you can also attach the ISO to a VM & keep the default boot order where the CD comes before any hard drives... don't need a real VM with an OS installed.

Thanks guys (and gal)

Providing you have a Broadband connection to the Internet, editing video in your Web browser (for free) may be worth a look. For example...

Jaycut:
http://jaycut.com/

YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/editor

Wow! Great answers and I copy/pasted them all and will definitely check them out. Thank you very much! Mikiem2, I agree totally on Cyberlink - they recently sent me a free trial copy of their PhotoDirector package - it is simply awful, and they want money for it as well!
I do have a copy of Magix Movie Maker, not free, and all but unintelligible - Their software is sometimes very difficult to become comfortable with, and I can't figure out many things, so I ignore it. ShowBiz is pretty good, but it is always do one thing and save, do and save, as it crashes a lot. I Tried Pinnacle, and it never installed properly and took literally hours to install or do ANYTHING, just awful. Windows MM crashes, and you cannot TOUCH the list of clips, or the database gets corrupted and the program crashes.
You are right though, it's probably not doable for free. Anyway, I've got my whole day ahead of me with all these links!
Thanks again.

I'm not in video editing, however I think a very comprehensive place to go is http://www.videohelp.com/ , otherwise I always ask gizmo when looking for a certain software (and then I install what BuBBy advised...):

The Best Free Multimedia Software for PC
Best Free Video Editor

graylox

I'm always on th lookout for a decent free video editor. As yet I've not come across one that will enable me to edit data from a re-recordable DVD from my DVD recorder. Anyone any suggestions? :)

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

http://www.videolan.org/vlmc/

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/VirtualDub

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/HandBrake

Sadly I'd have to say go *nix or buy one. THere are some nice apps they're working on for *nix, & there are some liveCD packs I think you could try. In the Windows world you have VirtualDub, which is a fast & lean linear editor with loads of filters available, but you won't get your timeline or storyboards etc. WAX is a decent enough alternative, but it hasn't gotten a lot of attention or any updates for quite some time -- it does have some neat FX. The folks behind the VLC player have an editor [VLMC], but in pre-alpha stage it's still a bit minimal. Lightworks is in beta, aiming to be a full-fledged NLE, & at least one movie has been edited with it, but if you're looking for story boards I don't think you'd be happy with it -- this is NOT a dive right in sort of app.

Adobe's Premiere Elements might do the trick if you don't want/need HD -- I've seen it cheapest on sale bundled with Photoshop Elements, including from Adobe, but those deals often had MIR. Sony Vegas & Premiere Pro focus more on editing in a sort of preview window, but both have timelines -- Vegas is much more intuitive, they have 30 day trials, & you can pick up the home versions cheap on sale with MIR. Roxio & Nero have pretty much exactly what you're after I think, but Roxio has no trial & Nero's is too crippled to be much good. Roxio is easier to use, but has a *NASTY* install, & is probably the faster of the two -- it also has many more FX. Both have upgrade pricing & often coupon codes circulating on-line -- I got Nero cheap as an upgrade for a <$10 Nero Essentials disc I bought on-line, plus I used a coupon, plus it was on sale. :-)

IMHO stay away from Cyberlink -- PowerDVD is the only thing they make that's worthwhile, but if you want to find out for yourself you can usually pick up older versions of their suites on-line free at various magazine sites etc. I suggest backing up 1st. I used to like Ulead, but under Corel I've had problems just getting their stuff to run let alone work. Still, you can pick up some of their video apps very cheap on-line if you find the trial works for you -- be careful though, since while not as bad as Roxio, Corel installs are pretty poor. TMPGEnc is a company with a lot of enthusiast fans, & they do have trials. I personally found their editing apps too limited & too complicated but you might have a different opinion. I don't like Magix video apps, & Pinnacle I think is either a love or hate sort of thing [I'm the latter], but that doesn't mean you shouldn't check them out if you want -- videohelp.com has a fair listing, & there's a few I've never heard of let alone used.

For blue/green screen check out CineGobs.

The Windows freeware below is not compatible with every video format, but it's a start...

Pinnacle Videospin 2 is a NLE with:
— Storyboard/Timeline view and 'standard' functions.
Download URL: http://www.videospin.com/
URL of Forum: http://community.videospin.com/

CineGobs Keyer 2.3 is a:
— Dedicated stand-alone Chroma Keyer, for blue screen processing.
Download URL: http://cinegobs.com/software/cinegobs-keyer
URL of Blog: http://cinegobs.com/

A couple of special-effects filters...

vReveal 3 is a:
— Stand-alone application for stabilizing video footage during post-production.
Download URL: http://vreveal.com/

NewBlueFX Cartoonr is a:
— Plug-in for giving video a hand-drawn look.
Download URL: http://www.newbluefx.com/cartoonr/

An Open-source project for video plug-ins...

FreeFrame is:
— An open-source, cross-platform, real-time video effects plug-in system.
Webpage: http://freeframe.sourceforge.net/

I use an old version of Showbiz; it's not free, it's no longer available and it's a tight little editor, but crashes when stressed and is limited in options.
Any suggestions for a good video editor? It should have storyboard/timeline, filters, effects and other std editing, and blue screen would be great.
Your ideas? And thanks!

Huh. I haven't found a legal use for it yet. danged DMCA.

What did you do to get 'What U Hear' working? Play some music on media player for example, and then open Windows 'recording devices' panel and see if the meter moves for the 'What U Hear' audio line, if it does, then 1AVCapture will be able to capture from it, if not, then you might have installed a non working driver.

Just a note, any cell phone can be activated remotely without any trojan. The only way to defeat this is to take out the battery because the phone can be turned on too!

The potential is out there. I listened to an interview on NPR recently about governments being able to spy upon members of other governments (and potentially their own citizens) using a virus/trojan planted on a blackberry or other smart phone. The bug turns the phone's own microphone/speaker into a listening device and transmits the information to a secure location. They did qualify it though by saying that it is a slippery slope. Where do you stop spying? Do you only spy on known threats or possible threats? How about people connected to possible threats, even if they are just passing acquaintances? The technology is there, it is just a question of whether or not we are willing to open that Pandora's box. In regards to the software we install on our computers, it basically comes down to how much do we trust the companies we are dealing with.

Just a note, webcam indicator lights are a hardware thing. Unless there is a special command available, the indicator can't be turned off while the webcam is active.

Hello TK_M,

Go into your Device Manager and check the properties of your sound, video, and game controllers to see if they’re all working properly. You can run the device troubleshooting wizards if need be. You should also check if there are any driver updates that might be missing. And lastly check for any missing codecs. Happy Hunting...

Hi all,

This program is something I would REALLY have liked to work for me, but it was an epic fail. Now considering how many others are running the program with no problems, it clearly is something in my computer, but I'm darned if I know what's wrong?

Fast Dell with 3GB RAM, running XP Home SP3 but only an ATI Radeon X300 graphics card.

When 1AVCapture was given away last time, I could get video, but no audio, as I could not get "what you hear" to appear.

This time I can get "what you hear" to appear, but still get no audio and worse, this time I get no video either. So I've had to uninstall it as it was causing Hoyle Table Games to consistantly hang as well this time.

I should point out that NO HARDWARE on this computer has changed since the last time it was offered on GAOTD and both times I disabled Spybot as sometimes it can do it's job a bit too well and interfere with the installtion of wanted (safe) programs.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing such odd behaviour? I had not run any cleanup programs, or registry cleaners to have possibly caused these progams and I did turn the computer fully off and on again, not even a restart. The computer otherwise runs perfectly.

First and foremost I'm only bringing this up out of curiosity and it's a hypothetical so there's no need for alarm; at least I hope there isn't...lol

Anyway, what I was wondering is with a program like 1AVCenter that has a lot of capability and can remotely monitor the goings on of a Desktop or Webcam, upload information via FTP (a universal format) then couldn't someone (even the developer) use the program like Spyware with a backdoor entry or a master password? Remotely turning on a webcam or microphone, and disabling any indicator LED's showing the webcam and mic are hot; then upload all that data with the user never being the wiser? Unless a user is constantly monitoring their PC's resources, and with PC's today having lots of resources to begin with, how plausible is it that a person wouldn't even notice a drain on their system resources or that they were actually being monitored?

Again, it's a hypothetical, but how plausible could something like that be? Thoughts on this anyone? Like I said I'm sure there's no need for alarm. Besides, the program's interface is peppered with misspells so I wouldn't worry too much about the developers being crafty enough to rig their program that way. But then again... ;)

I installed Freez Screen Video Capture some time ago and it crashed, I emailed them giving them all the errors etc and they have yet to reply weeks later.

I get the feeling they are pushing their luck.

Maz,

Here are a few others you might enjoy:

http://www.jodix.com/

http://www.sothinkmedia.com/movie-dvd-maker/

http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/prism-video-file-converter/prismvideocon.html

http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/STOIK_Video_Converter/svideoconverter.html

http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/ImageToAVI/imagetoavi.html

http://free-converter.qarchive.org/

http://www.avi-converter.net/avi_converter/

You can also try sites like FileHungry, AskFiles, BestVistaDownloads (not just Vista, by the way), and 1st-download.com.

I haven't tried all of these yet...just passing on sites from my bookmarks. I hope some of them work for you!

Okay..grrrrr. 2nd follow-up. I went to register 'free'--and this is the message I got:'The free registration has been closed for the huge website traffic.'

It will now cost $29.95 to register.
I repeat: grrrrrr!

Follow-up,
After using the Freez DVD Ripper, I did get a registration request, but it was for voluntary FREE registration. I chose not to register then, and was able to continue using the program as usual.
So I now have no reservations about giving this utility a big thumbs-up.
Just a couple of down points--sometimes the program cannot find a valid title on a DVD, so cannot do the conversion, and there is no option to limit the size of the converted file, so if you wish to fit it on a CD, you'll have to compress it further. (But why not put several files on a DVD instead? But if you're not too worried about size, do try this program, because the Xvid option gives really outstanding quality results. I would be impressed if this were payware--but for freeware, it's just too good to miss.

I'd been looking for a good free DVD to avi converter, so was delighted when I found Freez DVD ripper, which was simple to use and gave excellent quality in xvid format. However, please read the comments on this link about Freez Flv to AVI/MPEG/WMV from the same site, as I am now worried about using it again:

http://portablefreeware.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5775

I have contacted the producer to say I found the program very useful and I'd be happy to send him $5 if he gives me his Paypal address--but that he should make it clear if a registration fee will be required. (No reply so far.)

I was about to submit the very same links when your post popped up yesterday .. so, I reckon I'll meet your submission and raise you three .. ~grin~

http://www.rockstargames.com/classics/gta.html (free Grand Theft Auto!)

http://www.antistudy.com/ (free Cliffs Notes and book summaries for students)

http://nojunkfree.com/

Make that four: http://www.spacejock.com/

Freez iPod Video Converter
Freez 3GP Video Converter
Freez Screen Video Capture
Freez DVD Ripper
Freez Flv to Mp3 Converter
Freez Flv to AVI/MPEG/WMV

All under one roof.

http://www.smallvideosoft.com/index.php

You are very welcome, InNeed and Triphammer. I really enjoy the Songbird software .. and Jinzora is terrific for cataloging both audio and video .. I think you will find them useful, too.

Lee .. you are absolutely correct. The smaller developers do work harder on their wares than the corporate gluttons. That's why I use and promote the smaller developers at every opportunity. Now, if I could just learn how to do html, I'd be walking in tall cotton! (Yoohooo, Giveaway Team .. that was a shameless plug for an easy website-development program!)

BuBBy ..I agree; there is a noticeable taste for waste, for lack of a more civilized expression. Lots of hooha about each new version's eye candy but no fundamental change. I do not fault the individual developers, drawn by high salaries and bragging rights; the employer, not the employee, will own patents, which can be changed to suit corporate needs. I'm with you .. give me small programs that do one thing, brilliantly.

Nice links Bobby.. Thx!

Thank you much Bobby!

Loved the developer's comment:
'Very carefully written, I don't want to crash my own desktop!'

----

Microsoft say they also have a similar philosophy called
"Eating your own dog food"

Trouble with that is after a while, you begin to acquire a taste for it - and you begin to think that eating raw offal isn't all that bad (once you get used to it).

- I'm thinking not so much in terms of crashing, but bloat, poor performance, and escalating requirements. Personally I prefer the lean, mean program that performs one tasks and does it brilliantly. I'm not interested in software that is everything to everybody.