Ever fancy making your own film but don't have the patience to learn the major editing packages such as Adobe Premiere and Final Cut?

Then Auto Movie Creator converts you into Steven Spielberg but without the hours spent learning how to cut and splice and render videos that most video editing packages require. In fact, the program does much of the work for you via the editing wizard which is effectively your Assistant Director. It takes you logically and slowly through every step holding your hand as you go from capturing video to outputting it in a format that's suitable for your needs. One of the most time-consuming parts of editing is going through the footage to see which parts you need to take out. Auto Movie Creator even does this for you simply by selecting "Detect Scenes" and the program automatically scans your footage for the best quality shots. It also allows you to add professional style effects such as dissolves and fades simply by dragging and dropping them into the timeline. You can also add photos and other images into your video to give them a more personal touch.

Auto Movie Creator feels more like a photo editing package than a video editor but this is the key behind it's appeal - it requires absolutely no prior editing knowledge and is simple enough for even the most amateur of video makers.

Download Auto Movie Creator 3.1 in Softonic

VirtualDub is a video capture and processing utility licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It is designed to be a general utility that can trim and clean up video before exporting to tape or processing with another program. It does not possess the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video.

It has batch-processing capabilities for processing large numbers of files, which you can extend with third-party video filters. VirtualDub is best at processing AVI files, although it can read (not write) MPEG-1 and handle BMP image sets.

Download VirtualDub 1.8.1 Stable in Softonic

Videos on TV Deluxe enables you to create a fully customizable slideshow containing your favorite videos and background music, plus a personalized selection of filters, special effects and transition effects that can add the final touch to your composition. The whole process is really easy to complete, even for people that have never used a similar tool.

The program's interface is divided into several areas: one displays the folder structure on your system so that you can select the content you want to include in the slideshow; another one displays the video selected at that very moment; and finally the timeline is where you can drag and drop everything you want to add to the slideshow. There's also a built-in player that lets you preview effects and animations, as well as the slideshow in itself while you're working on it. The good thing is that you can work not only with the video files you store in your hard drive, but also with videos imported right from your video camera and even Youtube videos.

Videos on TV Deluxe includes a ton of special effects, filters and transition effects to spice up your presentation. Once finished, you can export the slideshow to high quality video (with an impressive range of available formats) or record it directly to DVD. The only drawback is that the file weighs more than 400 MB, meaning it takes a while to download and run, and it's quite heavy on system resources.

Download Videos on TV Deluxe 2008 Deluxe in Softonic

Flash Video Studio is a very easy and powerful tool to convert most video files into Macromedia Flash SWF and FLV.

Choose to publish a movie with or without a navigation control and apply some video effects such as emboss, motion blur, brightness/contrast, etc. to your video and previews it instantly without any rendering process.

Flash Video Studio shows the estimated bandwidth and the file size which enables you to adjust the quality settings that suits your target bandwidth and file size in an easy and efficient way or if you prefer you can simply choose from the list of common settings such as: Dial up 56.6k, ISDN, ADSL, etc.

Flash Video Studio allows you to select a range within a video timeline to publish, so you dont need other software to cut and trim your video files.

Download Flash Video Studio 2.2 in Softonic

Video Enhancer can be very useful to improve the quality of your videos or increase the size of them, maintaining the same output performance. It works on noise disturbances, block artefacts, interlaced images and of course color, contrast and brightness.

When launching the wizard for the first time, a message tells you that to de-noise, de-interlace and perform other processing, you need to download VirtualBub Filter Pack. One could wonder why they didn't include these filters in their setup if they are necessary. Eventually, after doing that, you can use the wizard to improve videos.

Firstly the application asks you whether the video is interlaced or not and it shows you two images as examples to choose between, so it's very easy to select the option which better suits your case. It continues by asking about the presence of blocking artefacts, usually caused by strong compression. A query about the noise follows. Ending, you can decide to resize your video, 'upsizing' it if you want maintaining a good quality.

We encountered a problem with the wizard tool, because at the end of the process it froze without saving any settings. It said it would have created a list of filters in the advanced menu to apply to the video but it didn’t. Also when we pressed next, nothing happened, so we just closed it and manually selected the filters in the advanced mode menu.

It takes a bit of practice to understand which are the right filters to use and when the input video quality is really poor, the improvements are not so visible. Pay attention when you want to create different versions of your video to rename the files, otherwise the application will overwrite them each time.

An interesting and potentially very useful application but there are a few bugs to fix and selecting filters is quite an advanced task. It would be good if the wizard worked.

Download Video Enhancer 1.9 in Softonic

There are a number of video editing packages out there, from the simple Windows Media Maker to industry standards like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut. Sony’s contribution is Vegas Video and like most Sony products, it offers an original take on the editing genre.

Vegas actually began as an audio editing app and it shows – the entire feel of the program is more like an audio editing program than conventional video editing programs. On the plus side, Sony has emphasised giving users the greatest control over soundtracks and audio tracks to ensure that your film sounds great.

Sony Vegas Video 7.0 includes an entire suite of tools – Vegas itself as well as DVD Architect 4 to help you burn films and Dolby Digital AC3 coding software to enable you to offer broadcast quality sound in your productions. Vegas allows you to edit DV, HDV, SD/HD-SDI, and all XDCAM formats in real time and even give them surround sound. As HDV starts to become more popular, the ability to edit this particular format means that for some users, it’s their preferred editing package by default.

The video timeline works on a typical Windows drag-and-drop principle where you can add a myriad of effects to video and audio, cutting and splicing it with ease. However, as mentioned earlier, the interface is tailored more for audio than video editing. Unlike Windows Movie Maker or Adobe Premiere, the actual video preview window of what you’re working on is given little space, being tucked away in the corner. This is rather annoying when you’d rather see a decent preview of what you’re creating than have the timelines dominate the screen.

However, one nice feature of the layout is that the interface can be customised according to your preference. You can save these configurations so that for different projects, you can have different layouts. This is especially useful if you’re trying to concentrate on one particular aspect of your film such as special effects or rendering options. You can even create your own keyboard shortcuts, a handy option for those who are mouse-shy.

The audio features are first class though. Sony Vegas was one of the first to support 24 bit audio as well as 5.1 surround sound – usually the preserve of professional editing programs such as Avid. To add surround sound, you’ll need to use the Dolby Digital AC3 software. Another excellent Sony idea has been to add a network connection to other PCs during installation. So for example, if you’re working on a project with a friend, you can edit seamlessly in real-time together.

For creating really cool titles, Vegas now features the Sony ProType titler (available in the Media Generators tab) which allows you to make some really swanky looking graphics. There's also new digital signage support which allows you to create rotated projects for viewing on a vertical or inverted display. Encoding has also been improved with support for 10-bit video encoding when previewing or capturing from AJA SDI video cards.

Vegas is never going to compete with prosumer programs based on the traditional Avid way of editing. For those used to such programs, the interface could prove too awkward, limited and confusing to make editing video a pleasure. However, as regards sound, it can’t be touched. For many users, it makes the perfect package to polish the soundtrack on their film after editing it in another package. Be warned also that if you’re unfamiliar with video editing programs, it's going to take a while to get accustomed to Vegas, so the bundled tutorial is highly recommended.

Download Sony Vegas Video 8.0.217 b in Softonic

The application supports not only the files containing audio streams but AVIs without any audio as well. For the time being the program uses only XviD codec to recompression process (versions: 1.0.3 or newer). The installation pack contains all required components (the newest versions of: VirtualDubMod, AviSynth and XviD). AVI ReComp can be very useful for users who want to clear their AVIs out of GMC or Qpel functions to prepare the clips for standalone DVD players. The program contains a feature of embedding subtitles into video. So if you want burnt in subtitles, you can use this software.

Download AVI ReComp 1.4.1 in Softonic

particleIllusion is a standalone application that allows you to quickly and easily create amazing effects: explosions, smoke, fire, sparkles, motion graphics backgrounds, space effects, creatures, and abstract artistic effects -- literally hundreds of different types of effects.

Fast

particleIllusion uses OpenGL for real-time (or near real-time) previews of all effects, and ultra-fast rendering. Render times are always in Frames per second, not seconds (or minutes, or hours) per frame.

Easy

You can add an effect to your project with a single click of the mouse, or you can customize the effect by changing some of the easy-to-understand parameters (such as "size").

Powerful

The number of parameters that you can change, coupled with some of the advanced features such as "Super Emitters" (particle emitters that create other particle emitters automatically), allow some of the most complex and realistic effects available anywhere.

Download particleIllusion 3.0.3 in Softonic

Video Edit Magic makes it easy to capture video footage onto the editing timeline and assemble a movie in mere minutes. You can add professional scene transitions, some background music, a couple of title effects, and get ready to show the world your finished masterpiece. You can even edit and combine popular file formats including AVI, WMV, ASF, MPEG, JPEG and many more, all on the same timeline.

Video Edit Magic supports making movies in MPEG Formats. This is the required format for creating VCD, SVCD, and DVDs. You can also create QuickTime and Digital Video AVI output formats. Movies can be made in both, NTSC as well as PAL standard.

A unique benefit of Video Edit Magic is the volume track which is displayed as a volume graph allowing you to change the volume of audio clips at any point from 0% to 400%. You can create fade-ins, fade-outs, Doppler effects, and almost any volume effect that may have required predefined effects.

Video Edit Magic makes it easy to join, split, crop, trim, modify color, and merge your video files. It includes more than 150 built-in transitions, making it ideal for hobbyists and professionals to turn ordinary videos into works of art.

Download Video Edit Magic 4.45 in Softonic

They say the best way to watch a movie is in its original version. The problem comes when you don't understand the original language and that makes it a bit harder. Well, this is why subtitles were invented for, and subtitle editors too.

Subtitle Processor is probably one of the most complete subtitle editors you can find nowadays. Not only does it enable you to edit subtitles by cutting and joining sentences, correcting typos, removing extra spaces and other tools, but also helps you synchronize the text and the video image with great precision thanks to its embedded player.

Besides edition, Subtitle Processor includes an interesting extra tool with which you can easily translate subtitles from one language to another, in a double-paneled interface that allows you to have both the source and target languages always at sight.

While being a blessing for all original version cinema lovers thanks to its excellent array of subtitle edition tooks, Subtitle Processor may feel a bit too complicated for the novice user.

Download Subtitle Processor 7.7.1.0 in Softonic

Thanks mostly to its well-designed user interface, making screencasts with FreeScreencast can be a real pleasure. Just select an area of the screen which will be your ‘filming space’, then press record and that's it. The software creates high quality Flash encoded files which you can also upload to FreeScreencast.com which offers free hosting for screencasts.

The program needs both Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and Windows Media Encoder in order to run. The latter you might have to install, see below for the download link.

Its simplicity shows also some downsides. When you select a square region of your screen to record, the program deforms it when showing the final video, as that frame will be rectangular. Also, the program doesn’t include even basic editing tools, for example to cut or move some parts of your video. It would also be good to be able to add visual effects such as transitions once you’ve completed your screencast.

If you need to explain clearly how to do something on a computer and you believe that images explain ideas better than words, then this program is for you.

Download FreeScreenCast 1.0 beta in Softonic

If you're looking for an easy-to-use video and photo editor, Pinnacle VideoSpin is definitely a good choice.

Don't be mistaken: this is no replacement for big shots like Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas. However Pinnacle VideoSpin works perfectly well for the average user who wants to create an easy video presentation including video clips, photos, sound effects and background music.

The program features support for the most popular file formats, plus a nicely designed interface that divides the working area into three main sections: the list of material you can add to your presentation, a preview window and a timeline that enables you to organize every element in terms of the position they occupy in the presentation, the amount of time they take and the transition effects between them, among other settings. There's also a special tool to create title screens.

Once your presentation is ready, Pinnacle VideoSpin allows you to save it into a variety of formats and support, including AVI, DivX, iPod compatible video or MPEG.

Pinnacle VideoSpin is an intuitive presentation tool with which average users can easily create their own photo and video shows.

Download Pinnacle VideoSpin 1.0.2.410 in Softonic

SuperDVD Video Publisher brings together in a single program all the necessary tools to edit videos that do not require a professional touch.

The input window shows the various bars in which the program is structured. First you can extract capturing video from any camcorder, webcam, and so on. Secondly, the editor itself, to make cuts, adds multiple tracks of audio and video, including transitions, etc. Then you also have the screen effects and the editing stage in the DVD menu. Here you can customize the screen automatically when introducing a DVD in the drive. Finally, it remains only to save the movie with a simple click and set the format in the editor. In addition to all this you can also change the play speed and add a limited number of video effects as well as gain full control over the audio and the video streams. There's also options to directly burn into VCD DVD format for playback on external DVD players.

A basic but powerful DVD editing package that doesn't offer many advanced options but does the job quickly.

Download SuperDVD Video Editor 1.5.5 in Softonic

With DVD video recorders and video camera becoming increasingly popular, there's a growing demand for user friendly video editing software that can handle footage from a variety of sources. With MAGIX Movie Edit Pro you can import videos from DVDs that you have recorded directly with your DVD camcorder or TV recordings on your living room DVD recorder. This offers exciting new possibilities to create your own DVDs with your own menus and extras.

The program makes maximum use of your processor cutting and arranging DVD, MPEG, and even HDV recordings. Both the picture composition, and video compression ratios are calculated in the background whilst you get on with some seamless editing. Note however that you'll need a processor of at least 3 GHz or more to reap these benefits in HDV mode.

This program also makes soundtracks a priority with an integrated Soundtrack Maker that enables you to produce your own individual background music. You simply select a style, from classical to action and the music will intelligently follow the "tension curve" that you define. This is a massive bonus in that you don't have to search for suitable music to fit every mood represented in your film although that said, nothing can beat a human touch in that area.

This is an excellent video editor that can handle the demands of even HDV but in a way that makes it fairly simple for all.

Download MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 12 (US) in Softonic

The best-selling award winner transforms your photos into dynamic TV events – ready for the big screen and in wide-screen format! Ideal for beginners!

Using 1-click automations you can create slide-shows with cinematic effects, virtual camera movements and personalized background music. Experience your photos on TV, PC or the Internet on your very own Album website.

Top features include:

• Animated DVD menus from your own show motifs
• Flash-Video exporter
• Animated decorative elements
• Look good in every light
• Story Maker
• Audio- + Video Cleaning
• Automatic slide-shows
• Automatic background music

Download MAGIX Xtreme PhotoStory on CD & DVD 6.0 in Softonic

Ulead® MediaStudio Pro 8 is powerful, versatile and intuitive video editing software, for professionals and enthusiasts in independent production, event videography, business, and education. Integrated, quick-to-master tools take you to the forefront of professional real-time HDV, DV or MPEG editing.

Realize your vision

Smart Compositor: Create Professional-quality opening sequences or segues instantly

Smart Proxy: real-time mobile HDV editing on a notebook PC

Create Dolby® Digital 5.1 Surround audio tracks

Get the job done

Single-track editing interface, with virtual clips

SmartSound Auto Music: custom royalty-free soundtracks

Enhanced integration with the entire family of Ulead tools

Meet any challenge

Future-ready with extensive HDV support

Built-in authoring tool to author single- or double-layer DVDs

Download Ulead MediaStudio Pro 8.0 in Softonic

Free Video to JPG Converter enables you to take screenshots of a given video while you're playing it on the program's built-in player. The whole process is extremely easy: select the video, browse to the scene you're interested in and take as many screenshots as you want.

The good thing about Free Video to JPG Converter is that it allows you not only to take single screenshots (by clicking on the "Make snapshot" button) or pressing the S key) but also take multiple screenshots by selecting any of its automatic saving options. Also, there's the possibility of trimming the video so that you take screenshots only from a certain fragment.

On the downside, I missed having more configuration options, such as being able to choose the picture format, customize keyboard shortcuts or choosing a naming pattern for the screenshots.

An easy-to-use, effective tool to convert your favourite movie scenes into pictures.

Download Free Video to JPG Converter 1.2.1.1 in Softonic

Nearly all software can be categorised as being from one of two groups: the programs that do one thing, normally fairly well, and the programs which do everything - often with some loss of quality. Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite (EMCS) is a classic case of the second type. While its capabilities are huge and impressive, they bring with them other problems like reduced performance and long load times.

The original cornerstone of Roxio's flagship product is CD and DVD burning. EMCS still packs a powerful tool for writing to disks but it's really all the extra functionality that makes this suite interesting. EMCS does it all: photo slide shows, video editing, iPod and MP3 player management, secure backups, multimedia organisation and video playback - to name but a few.

We tested each of the components and found that most of them perform to at least a satisfactory level. Sadly, Roxio included several design-related elements which annoy (like using custom window decorations, buttons and even file browsers when the Windows default shell is perfectly usable). Also, the suite contains numerous advertisements for new Roxio services which appear a little odd given that this isn't a free program. Likewise, Roxio's insistence on opening web links using Internet Explorer whether it's your default browser or not was disappointing: it's never a good sign when a program effectively forces you to do things its way or not at all.

The worst feature of the suite is without doubt the video player (called 'CinePlayer') which is nothing more than a run-of-the-mill movie player. After loading for nearly 30 seconds, it took ages to load a simple DivX file and crashed when a couple of buttons were clicked. When free players like VLC can do so much better, one has to wonder why Roxio didn't make an effort to deliver a really fast, lightweight player instead of the slovenly, unstable one bundled in this suite.

All that said, Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite is actually a pretty good bundle. We love the photo editing application which is fairly fast and has just the right balance of basic and advanced tools. The mobile phone photo wizard is a particularly cool utility which really did help camera-phone pictures look better.

The most significant problem with Roxio is the way it treats your PC. This is not a program which is designed to be removed once installed. It installs so many components to your system that you can easily lose track of them... and it fails to include a comprehensive uninstall application for the whole bundle. Instead, you must uninstall each component separately, a time consuming and irritating hassle. I'm still having trouble getting the 1.4 GB installer off my computer!

Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite is a powerful and comprehensive media suite. If you're looking for one bundle of software, which you'll never remove from your computer, to handle all your media tasks then this is the software for you. If, however, you prize quality over convenience, and have some respect for your hard-disk and registry, Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite is not recommended.

Download Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite 10 in Softonic

Vivia is a good application for users looking to familiarize themselves with video editing. The GUI is so structured that users can quickly access anything. The right of the interface is organized in tabs with elements you'll use to create your video like movies, effects, transitions and other files. On the bottom of the interface is the timeline, and Vivia offers tools to move and rearrange multiple clips. The zoom in and out functions will be extremely useful when looking at your timeline as a whole.

The simplicity of the interface is also its main drawback. We were disappointed to find only to transitions and effects to choose from and didn't like where the clip details section was placed (scrunched up between tabs and the timeline). Vivia may not be the most advanced video editor, but first time filmmakers will like how it lets you learn the basics of editing.

Download Vivia 0.1.1 in Softonic

If you've got HD-DVD disks and need to extract data from them, you'll know how hard it can be. One option is to use EVOdemux that enables you to extract video, sound, subtitles and other data from HD-DVD disks.

Everything is conducted through a simple GUI. You drag and drop files from a HD-DVD to your hard drive and you can then reconstruct the new EVO file to burn to another video format. This presents endless possibilities because, for example, you can combine the audio of different films in one video of your creation or add subtitles that are missing from the original version.

The problem with this program however is that it's quite complicated to use. If you've never looked closely at the data on an HD-DVD then you could be left wondering what the hell you are looking at. Unfortunately, there's no real guide to show you exactly what you need to do either plus HD-DVD disks often differ in makeup. However, if you're a digital editing pro, you'll find this a very useful tool for the brave new world of HD-DVD editing.

Download EVO Demux 0.627b6 in Softonic