VideoSpin: Free video editor gives Windows Movie Maker a run for its money

by Brad Linder Feb 9th 2008

Windows Movie Maker is probably the most widely used free video editor for Windows. And there's a good reason for that. It comes free with Windows XP and Vista. But Windows Movie Maker might not always be the best tool for the job. VideoSpin is a free video editing application that has all the features of Windows Movie Maker and a few more for good measure.

Overall, the two applications have a similar look and feel. Both are designed for use by people who don't have a degree in video editing. You simply locate your video and audio files, arrange them on a timeline, and start snipping or rearranging. You can add a variety of transitions or sound effects to your movie. And unlike Windows Movie Maker, VideoSpin sports a pretty decent title editor. There's also an option to upload your finished videos directly to YouTube or Yahoo! Video.

The program is almost too user friendly in some places. For example, VideoSpin assumes your files are in your My Videos folder, which is fair. But while you can easily change directories, there's no simple way to navigate to a separate hard drive or partition. Fortunately, you can drag and drop audio and video files into VideoSpin from Windows Explorer, no matter what drive their on.

VideoSpin is basically a slimmed down version of the commercial Pinnacle Studio, which normally sells for $50. As such, there's no official support for VideoSpin, and you have to put up with some in-program advertising. And while you can save files in a variety of formats, you'll receive a notice the first time you run VideoSpin letting you know that your MPEG-2/4 codecs will expire if you don't purchase a $15 codec pack within 15 days. But you can try to use other codecs installed on your computer with VideoSpin.

[via Digital Inspiration]

Tags: pinnacle, video-editing, videospin, windows-movie-maker

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

kuanhoong said 11:16AM on 2-09-2008

OMG not again!, you guys should really be more authentic.. If every Digital Inspiration's postings are going to be appearing in Download squad.. I don't see what's the point subscribing to your rss feed.

Ben Wright said 3:20PM on 2-09-2008

I was looking for a free, simple video editor. Any users recommend something different?

jfjb said 4:34PM on 2-09-2008

Just check this link, dude:

http://www.osalt.com/movie-maker

Hany Hanna said 7:09PM on 2-09-2008

The main reason I despise Windows Movie Maker is because of its scene detection feature where it divides your clips for you b4 you even get started. Videospin does the same thing. How can ANYONE be that braindead to think we want software to do that for us? It's like making a car that can drive by itself...but it decides where it takes you. You wanna go to the store, it takes you to the bowling alley. Just import the d*$# clips and we'll do the editing, if you don't mind. Mankind can be soooo retarded.

iuqiddis said 7:09PM on 2-09-2008

you can select the clips and then merge them. Or you can just leave the cut clips and merge/ cut where you think it is necessary. I actually like that it cuts the film into smaller clips. Becomes more manageable for me.

Linz said 8:37AM on 4-08-2008

Hany...

A little tip if you don't want to waist your time reemerging each individual clips is once you import the clips and they become divided is to hold down ctrl-shift on the keep board select the very first and then the very last so that all the clips are highlighted then finally press ctrl-M to merge. It saves you a lot more time I find. Then you can go on cutting and cropping the clips on how you want it. Just remember a piece of advice, decent video editing isn't something you can rush through with doing. It's obviously going to take some time.

Hany Hanna said 9:03PM on 2-09-2008

iuqiddis ....why waste time to unmerge stuff that was merged then more time to remerge them. It's rediculous and NEVER EVER has it helped me....it ALWAYS wastes my time. I guess if you know what you're doing, you don't need a program to do something unsatisfactorily for you that you know how and want to do for yourself.

Name said 3:41PM on 2-12-2008

Why don't you uncheck create clips before starting capture?

Mark said 11:08PM on 2-09-2008

Avoid this piece of $@#$ like the plague!

Shame on you DS for even mentioning this horrid software.

It took forever to install, it never loaded a single avi clip I tried to load because I had to go online and register for some kind of codec registration and after cancelling the prompt the clip would not load.

It then took forever to uninstall too. It was in an endless loop asking me to shut down programs that were closed already. Eventually it uninstalled itself but, what a hassle!

AVOID!

rumon_uttara said 8:20AM on 2-12-2008

i think thiz softwar iz da best,i lik thiz....

Hany Hanna said 7:10PM on 2-12-2008

Name....I'm not talking about capture.....I'm talking about IMPORT you no name, know nothing knuclekead.

tara said 8:28PM on 3-04-2008

im looking 4 a free video maker!! but i dont have windows xp. does that def. mean i cant get a free video maker!?!?!

lantis said 9:17AM on 3-07-2008

Hany Hanna,

Like Name said, just "uncheck create clips". Are you blind or you just can't see it?

Hany Hanna said 11:23AM on 4-08-2008

There is no option to "uncheck create clips"

EternalAshley225 said 4:24PM on 3-08-2008

can someone please tell me where to get a good movie maker that can import GIFs into it? please?

Androu1 said 6:09PM on 3-11-2008

OMFG! Pinnacle.I am downloading this simply because I want to try,but I have REALLY bad experiences from Pinnacle's Studio.Yeah,it's good until you try something awesome.I did an awesome video and what next? It fucked up my Project file.Before I even got to render it... (because the motherbleeping thing just didn't render right).

I hope VideoSpin isn't the same shit.

britt-britt said 7:51PM on 3-16-2008

I HAVE THE NEW WINDOW'S VISTA, WILL THIS WORK OR SHOULD I JUST NOT EVEN WASTE MY TIME DOWNLOADING IT???. . .

Annna Banana said 8:45PM on 3-18-2008

so i have windows movie maker and i think it sucks so i have been looking for somthing new....so idk if this works good and stuff cuz i like to do slide shows and my last one was so gay cuz the pics comw out blury so im downloading this one hopeing it doesnt suck.

davina said 2:52PM on 4-26-2008

what dose this do???

Tempe said 7:38AM on 4-30-2008

There is an option to uncheck create clips. If you are running Movie Maker 2.6 9 or older (read: not Vista), the option is right in the "Import Videos" dialog box, at the bottom- look for a checkbox.

The Vista version of Movie Maker (version 6.0) does not even have a "create clips" option, as far as I can tell.

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