Hi W7Fers,
Is there a shareware or free video editing app out there for Windows 7 that is better than another?.
And can any of them handle the .kmz or .kml format from Google Earth?
Thanks for any input that you can give me.
digiday
It sounds like you want to seriously edit files but on the off-chance you're just looking to record the screen, this seems to get good reviews:
FRAPS show fps, record video game movies, screen capture software
Hi Sleepingsun + FliGi7,
Thanks for your refs.,
I'm not sure about it's ability, but the "AVI Video Converter" webpage "says" it can convert KMZ files to AVI format...
see this link... Convert google kmz to avi file at PTF
But according to several others, the KML/KMZ format is completely proprietary.
I posted the question above and one other question on several forums yesterday... this is what I found...
The KML (Keyhole Markup Language) is just an XML file... it is not a video file at all. The KMZ is just the KML file zipped up with the extension changed to KMZ... these are tiny 1 kb to 5 kb files, even for a Google Earth tour that is 2 minutes long... so there isn't much there to get ahold of... these files just draw from the resources in Google Earth.
So the KML/KMZ are most likely unbeatable.
The Google Earth Pro Movie Maker Module is apparently the only way to sort of treat KML or KMZ files like they are video files and convert them in to working video files... the GE Movie Maker Module now comes stock in the $399 Google Earth Pro app.
So for us peasants not willing to drop the four benjies on GE Pro, the alternative, that most people who have posted these GE animated travel-tour videos on YouTube, etc. have used is a desktop recorder/video capture app that simply records the GE tour playback from the desktop and then makes a video file, like an MPEG, MP4, WMV, or AVI.
Currently, in the realm of free software, not being willing to spring even for the $59.95 that some video capture software is priced since one never knows what software is going to be like unless one tries the free version first... and that isn't even the best indicator since much of the free software out there, with a few exceptions, is vastly inferior because these free versions are meant to be a disappointment so a user will then pay for the "Pro" version software... or one is lucky enough to try full version software before hand to see what it really does.
I've now tried the free version of "NCH Debut Video Capture" software... it works but produces a terrible, choppy result... I've heard the "Pro" version is good and samples look good, but based on the free version, I wouldn't go for it.
Then I tried FRAPS, recommended by a helpful well meaning responder... but it didn't have an interface for doing anything and the webpage for it said that pressing a certain hotkey would start and stop the video recording action when one is in a "game interface"... it didn't really work for me.
I still have some searching to do, but so far, for a free desktop video capture device that is actually free and works, the best with the most control that produces by far the best result that has all the features one might hope for that are simply easy and intuitive to use, is a piece of software that works through a webpage in a web-app.
It is called Screencast-o-Matic... http://www.screencast-o-matic.com... and it is the simplest, best little website that I've ever seen... you just click "create" and it gives you an adjustable dotted line perimeter that stays on your screen after you minimize the webpage, and it stays on top of everything from there on until you are done. You can pause it, move it over a new window, un-pause it, save it to one of 3 video formats, export whatever you "filmed" on the desktop, and it produces a very good rendition of the original that played on your screen in any size that you choose before or after you record the video.
The only drawback to this amazing free, online web-app is that it puts a "Screencast-o-Matic" watermark/logo in the lower left hand corner of one's video... it's not exactly small, but not overwhelming... this is to encourage one to pay $9, that's nine dollars, per year for a desktop "Pro Account" that gives one more features and produces video captures with no watermark/logo. But somehow this "Pro Account" is limited to one hour of desktop video a year, so I'm not sure how much it costs beyond the one hour.
I'm just experimenting, but I made a pretty nifty little video that zooms and flies from place to place in San Francisco and then goes to the Cristo Redentor statue in Rio de Janeiro, then back to SF to zoom in to and away from the Transamerica Pyramid building... I pumped up the color during playback in Quicktime 7.6 and sped it up a bit, then re-recorded it in Screencast-o-matic to create a slightly smaller video file for emailing.
I still want to find a good desktop video capture device that doesn't put a logo on the videos, but for now, this Screen-o-matic thing has allowed me to do what I wanted to experiment with to start.
Thanks for your input,
digiday
Thanks Sleepingsun,
I've heard Camtasia is one of the leaders, but the buy price is $165 to $324 according to cnet... and I don't usually install trial software.
I found a bunch of other free editing apps in the last two weeks since I originally posted this question... an inside industry expert that I've been corresponding with by email recommended some lesser known free apps that top any of the popular free apps that are loaded down with secret adware and such.
Some of these better video editing apps are written under the GNU GPL license, but you don't have to be running the GNU operating system to use most of the GNU apps... read here about GNU and all the available photo editing, desktop publishing and video editing apps, and many others, that you can get, all for free and they work very well WITHOUT all the adware and malware stuff that most of the others are loaded down with...
The GNU Operating System ← link
The most notable free GNU apps are GIMP, which is a very good knock-off of Photoshop, Scribus, which is a free alternative to QuarkXpress or InDesign, and avidemux, which is a decent video editor.
The best choice for a free video editing app under the GNU free license seems to be avidemux by SoureForge...
Avidemux - Main Page ← link
I've also found that the common little CamStudio is the best free screen video capture app to use... the version 2.0 is the one to use currently (NOT the version 2.5 beta or 2.6 beta)
CamStudio - Free Screen Recording Software ← link
And the best codecs for CamStudio to get the best frame rate and quality seem to be (1) Windows own built-in stock codec "Microsoft Video 1"... and (2) the "CamStudio Lossless Codec v1.4" that can be downloaded at the link below...
http://camstudio.org/CamStudioCodec14.exe ← link
Also the "MSU Screen Capture Lossless Codec v1.2" is recommended, though I haven't tried this codec yet after putting it in CamStudio...
MSU Screen Capture Lossless Codec ← link
This is the info that I have found in the last two weeks.
digiday
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