Using VideoPad on a PC

Mac some with good video editing software (iMovie) but PCs and Windows provide editors that are not as capable. I have personally used several different video editors on a PC in addition to Windows Movie Maker 2.6 and Windows Live Movie Maker. The best one I have found, at least for my purposes, and the one I recommend for use in courses I teach, is VideoPad by NCH Software. CLICK HERE if you want to explore their web site. It's great that they offer a free version for personal use! I tried that and liked it so much that I licensed the paid version. The free version is fine for your use in doing class projects. Here is what the VideoPad editing screen looks like:



VideoPad lets you combine video clips, remove segments, copy segments, insert still images, extract frames and insert them as images, adjust sound track level or remove sound tracks, insert a music sound track, adjust the brightness and contrast of a clip, use a wide variety of transitions, and apply special effects to clips. The free version creates .avi files which are fine for uploading smaller projects, but one reason I licensed the full version of the software ($69) was that it can output .mp4 files which are more compact than .avi and seem to load to YouTube better. For screen capture and inclusion in instructional videos I use Camtasia (big ticket software!) or Hypercam 3 (free) and then combine and edit video segments using VideoPad. Here's what the vendor's web site look like: