Avidemux

Description

Avidemux is a free, open source cross-platform video editor for Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and BSD. It is written in C++ and you can use it for various tasks such as encoding (convert videos from one format to another), cutting (cut certain portions from a recording) or filtering (resize, deinterlacing, add subtitles, color correction etc.). Has built-in support for many popular codecs and files: AVI, MP4, ASF, DVD, MPEG, MKV. It is one of the best free video editor whenever you need to automate video processing or editing process. The software is released under the GNU GPL license and has been released (binaries) in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Features

- support for non-linear video editing, visual effects and transcoding
- support for muxing (multiplexing) and demuxing
- support for popular subtitle formats: SUB, SSA, ASS, SRT
- has powerful scripting capabilities (tutorial available here)
- multiple filtering options: auto-resize, gauss smoothing, deinterlacing, chroma shifts, add black borders etc.
- comes with a GUI (graphical user interface) and command line interface
- various output formats supported: MKV, Flash, AVI, MPEG-1/2, OGM, MP4 etc.
- built-in video encoders for: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, FFHuffYUV, FFV1, H.263, H.263+, HuffYUV, MJPEG, MPEG-4, Snow, x264, x264, Xvid, Y800
- built-in audio encoders for: MPEG-1 Layer 3 (MP3), Vorbis, AAC, MPEG-1 layer 2 (MP2), AC-3, MPEG-1 layer 2 (MP2), Microsoft RIFF WAV PCM, LPCM

Avidemux Review

Pros

- Avidemux works on all major operating systems. Linux users will appreciate having a native installation instead of having to use an emulator program like WINE.
- It has a number of standard video processing features and a few extra capabilities that help make editing a breeze. There's a 'calculator' option that quickly estimates the final file size based on your current settings. In most other programs, you have to work through several export menus to get to the file size information.
- There are a number of presets to quickly process videos for different types of DVDs and common mobile devices. There are also settings to improve the quality of playback if you're working with a low quality file.
- Avidemux has been around for over a decade, but it still has a very active community. If you get stuck, just post a question on the message board and one of the members will help you.
- Have a number of videos to work on? This software can do group file editing.

Cons

- Avidemux has a somewhat dated interface. This is not the most professional looking freeware program out there. It has only a few icons and instead you have to rely heavily on the sometimes confusing menus.
- Some of the menu settings and names aren't intuitive for a raw beginner. Unless you're already familiar with terms like 'deblocking' and 'VBR time map', expect to spend some time looking them up first.
- You may need to download extra codecs to work with uncommon video and audio file types.

Conclusion: Avidemux is a simple, relatively easy to use video editor that stands out from the crowd of other editing apps. Unlike the competing software out there, Avidemux supports most major file types including .avi, .mpeg, and .mp4. This program handles both simple processes like cutting and editing video files and it also has a selection of filters.