Software : RS Components launches Raspberry Pi bundles |
- RS Components launches Raspberry Pi bundles
- Roundup: Your favourite free phone and tablet apps
- Buying Guide: Best image editing software for photographers: 8 programs compared
- In Depth: Best free video editing software: 9 top programs you should download
| RS Components launches Raspberry Pi bundles Posted:  Electronics distributor RS Components has made two product bundles available for Raspberry Pi, which it says saves 20% on the cost of buying the items separately. One of the bundles is a Raspberry Pi Model A board with 256MB RAM and an 8GB SD card, and the other is a Model B board with 512MB RAM and an 8GB SD card. The cards have pre-installed Raspberry Pi Foundation New Out of Box Software (NOOBS), which is recommended for first time Pi users. NOOBS gives the user a choice of operating systems to install, including Raspbian, Pidor and two versions of XBMC. Affordability ethosGlen Jarrett, Global Head of Product Marketing for RS Components, said: "The whole ethos of the Raspberry Pi is about providing an affordable, inclusive environment for enthusiasts and young people around the world to develop their interest and skills in computer programming, irrespective of background." While Raspberry Pi was initially developed for schools, some businesses are also making use of the low cost, single board computer for purposes such as software development, monitoring connectivity problems and building dashboards for business intelligence.
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| Roundup: Your favourite free phone and tablet apps Posted:  One quiet day, we idly asked you what your favourite smartphone and tablet apps were. You answered in droves with loads of brilliant-sounding apps we had yet to happen across in the various app stores. So we thought: why not put them all together in one giant list for all to see? That list was so giant, we decided we'd split it into two - free apps and paid for apps. What you see here is a run down of TechRadar readers' favourite free smartphone and tablet apps. Later this week, we'll publish your favourite paid-for apps and after that we'll also let you in on what apps the TechRadar editorial team can't live without. What a week. Think we've missed something? Downloaded an essential free app you just have to share with the world? Let us know in the comments below, over on Facebook or on Twitter. All-In-One ToolboxProductivity | Android | Recommended by Justin Gorka With more than 20 handy uses, this toolbox helps you get the most out of your handset. From task-killing and system clean-up to tweaking volume settings, managing your SD card and simply using the flash as a flashlight, it's a nifty, easy to navigate one-stop Android-optimising shop.
Beach Buggy BlitzGaming | Android | Recommended by Michael Conradsen Tear down the beach in a souped-up beach buggy, chasing coins and running over the occasional seagull and, er, yeti. This great game is Tegra 3 only, unfortunately - but well worth it, with water physics that make this cartoon racer seem as real as Formula 1.
MyFitnessPalHealth | Android | Recommended by @andybslater If you're watching what you eat, this app could be just the thing to help you count calories: we really like the barcode scanner which lets you keep track of your calorie intake by just scanning food packets. The at-a-glance daily summaries make it quick and easy to see how you're doing on your journey to a healthy weight - and if you need a bit of moral support, it can be linked to your social networks too.
CityMapperTravel | Android | iOS | Recommended by @crablin If you live in London, are planning a trip to London or just really like London, this is a must-have app. It incorporates live bus, tube and train times along with the best routes for walking or cycling, tells you how long your journey will take, how much it'll cost and how many calories you'll burn on the way, lets you know what the weather is like where you're going and even searches for where the closest toilet is. Our only complaint is that the fun (yet, ultimately, fictional) teleportation option seems to have been done away with.
Clash of ClansGaming | iOS | Recommended by Dariusz Rompa, Mark Alvin Ani Egar Build, train, conquer! With this freemium strategy game you can build your village, train your troops and conquer thousands of other online players. Upgrade your items ready for battle, or speed up your progress with in-game currency that you buy with real-life money.
DotsGaming | iOS | Recommended by Kris Reno Harris CAUTION: do not download Dots if you hope to get anything done for the next, oh, say, forever. Don't let its deceptively simple colour scheme fool you: Dots is a tactically demanding brain teaser and it's more addictive than crack. Not that we have ever partaken in any crack-based activities, obviously.
EvernoteProductivity | Android | iOS | Windows | Recommended by Saqib Khan and @jonpartridge The answer is in the question: this is a note-taking app. Add media, images, links and videos to your reminders for a fully-featured to-do list. There is a premium edition, but while some users will be glad of all the extras, you can get along just fine with the free version. However if use offline is a dealbreaker for you, you'll have to shell-out for Evernote premium.
FeedlyProductivity | Android | iOS | Recommended by @rhian82 and @MrRobinson This RSS reading app takes any website and turns it into a readable eye-friendly format - and has proven a god-send in these post-Google-Reader days. As @MrRobinson puts it, Feedly is "dependable, smooth and functional".
Productivity | Android | iOS | Recommended by@segunsazo Magazines may be dying but Flipboard is at least harking back to the heady days of print publication. It pulls in articles from various publications and websites based around categories you choose - like, oh we don't know, technology? - as well as social updates and the like, and displays the whole lot in a classy, easy-to-read magazine format.
Grumpy BearsGaming | Android | iOS | Recommended by Venkatesh Palepu Grumpy Bears is a fun survival-based game. You're a honey mogul trying desperately to protect your sweet nectar from the grumpy bears in hot pursuit. You can buy weapons to fend them off - which you might want to do now that mummified-bears, pharoah-bears and god-bears have been introduced.
LetterpressGaming | iOS | Recommended by @callumsewell15 Letterpress is basically an app version of Boggle but about 74,000 times more addictive.
Opera MiniBrowser | Android | iOS | Recommended by Ahsan Naseer Maybe you've decided to make do with your phone's default browser - that's fine, that's absolutely your prerogative. But if you decide to dip your toe into the exciting new pool of third-party phone browsers, Opera Mini won't steer you far wrong. It's fast and reliable and we like features like fast-scroll shortcuts The homescreen widget on Android shows you news, weather and your most-visited sites - both a tip and a warning.
Paper Toss 2.0Gaming | Android | iOS | Recommended by Bryant Windom Sr. Anyone who has ever been bored at their desk has amused themselves by chucking paper into a bin. Paper Toss 2.0 takes that concept and runs with it, chucking an office fan into the mix. Hours of fun. Well, "fun".
Productivity | Android | iOS | Recommended by @victorypigeon Another reader app but one that's perfect for longer reads. The real beauty of Pocket, aside from its visual nous, is that you can save links to it from other apps and web browsers - be they on your phone, tablet or even the desktop.
Real Racing 3Gaming | Android | Recommended by Justin Gorka It's real. It's a racing game. And it's the third one. Yes, this is Real Racing 3, the track racing freemium where you race in some of the worlds best cars on some real circuits. You know, like Silverstone. Unlike real racing, it's totally free - unless you decide to upgrade your automobilic bits and pieces, that'll cost you. Just like real racing!
The Simpsons: Tapped OutGaming | Android | iOS | Recommended by Darren Cullen It's another strategy game but this time it's got a whole lot more Simpsons. After yet another blunder by Homer, can you rebuild Springfield from scratch? May we suggest a Monorail! Monorail! Monorail!? The gameplay and animations are smooth, and you don't need Mr Burns' bank balance since the game doesn't rely too heavily on items that have to be bought with money. Monorail!
SoundcloudMusic | Android | iOS | Recommended by @segunsazo Where did Beyonce choose to share her latest official track? What streaming service gets all the best mixtapes? Where do MKS upload all their tracks first? Not Spotify, not iTunes - not even YouTube: it's Soundcloud and if you're not on there, you're missing out on the best new music. The mobile apps have a nice simple interface, and although there's no offline caching (boo) the streaming is generally of a high quality over Wi-Fi.
Subway SurfersGaming | Android | iOS | Recommended by Ahsan Naseer If your daily commute isn't exciting enough, maybe Subway Surfer can jazz things up. Can you escape from the grumpy inspector and his dog? Dodging trains and tunnels, you'll be collecting coins to customise your character or upgrade items. A fast and fluid game with enough in-game features to motivate you to keep on playing even when you get to work. Sorry boss.
TridGaming | Android | iOS | Recommended by Kenn Salinas A visually effective puzzle game in which you have to recreate the patterns as quickly as you can, The more you complete, the more time you gain to get stuck into the harder levels. If you seem to be slacking, the puzzle will rotate just to keep things spicy. Fiendish.
And the rest...You know about these guys already, come on: Angry Birds: still angry - recommended by@callumsewell15 Candy Crush Saga: just keep your progress to yourself, yeah? - recommended by Michele Boyle, @SPBuk Facebook: duh doy - recommended by Shilton Lilvoy Jr. Google Now: your personal PA, Mountain View style - recommended by @RockyDayaraman Skype: free video calls, free IMing, freeeeeedom - recommended by Saqib Khan Wordpress: blogger's delight - recommended by @TechMitchell YouTube: say no more - recommended by @MuhdRaziq99 |
| Buying Guide: Best image editing software for photographers: 8 programs compared Posted:  Photoshop has become a by-word for image editing, the standard by which all other programs are judged. But it's also expensive, complicated and daunting for non-experts. And that's not all - the digital imaging world and user's expectations have moved on. Once, all we wanted was an image editor. But now, several years into the digital imaging revolution, we realise we need software that can help manage and organise our ever-growing photo libraries too. We need to be able to search tens of thousands of images and apply enhancements to dozens at a time. And the development of raw processing technology has shifted the balance in other ways, so that what was once a simple and routine raw conversion process has now become an important alternative editing process in its own right. With the latest advances in raw converters, how much do we really need programs like Photoshop? That's exactly what we aim to find out... Corel PaintShop Pro X5 - £60/US$60/AU$80
At one time, Corel PaintShop Pro was almost a de facto standard among PC owners as a low-cost but high-powered image editing tool. But times have changed, and although Corel continues to develop and promote PaintShop Pro, it doesn't have the presence in the market it once did. It is, however, a powerful and versatile tool, combining Photoshop-style image adjustments with integrated photo management tools. If you're used to Adobe's interface, Paint Shop Pro might require a little getting used to, but the basic principles are much the same. It's designed both for novices and more advanced users, and has some interesting tools. Unlike Serif PhotoPlus and Photoshop Elements, its chief rivals, PaintShop Pro does not use a separate image cataloguing application. It's an all-in-one program with three tabs: Manage, Adjust and Edit. You use the Manage tab to organise your photos and display the contents of your folders or create 'virtual' Collections - including Smart Collections, which use search criteria to bring similar images together. The Adjust panel is used for quick photo enhancements, including a wide range of nice-looking effects (the Retro Lab is especially good), but the serious work is done in the Edit tab, where you can use layers, selections and masks to edit your images in much the same way as Photoshop, although the controls and dialogs are different and will need re-learning. But although PaintShop Pro can open and edit raw files, its Raw Lab tools are pretty basic, and once your images are open in the main editor, you're likely to find its adjustments sometimes painfully slow - especially if you opt for the live preview. Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 - £75/US$65/AU$130
Elements boasts a whole series of beginner-friendly tools, features and working modes that make it ideal for non-experts but reinforce the idea that it's not a 'serious' program. Underpinning the Elements Editor is an Expert editing mode with almost all the tools you need for sophisticated and advanced image editing techniques. It's missing a few of Photoshop's high-end features, but it's so close in other respects that it's an effective substitute. In version 11, Adobe has not made any great changes to the software's tools, but it has updated the interface to give it a cleaner, brighter and more accessible look. The new interface does sometimes get in the way. You can still choose Expert mode to access the full range of tools, but the options have been moved from a thin strip along the top of the screen to a fat panel at the bottom. If you have a largish, high-resolution display it won't be a problem, but on a laptop Elements 11 could feel cramped. Besides, most of the new features in this version are found in Elements' companion application, the Organizer, with its new people, places and events views. Elements 11 also has new templates for printed photo 'creations' and online albums, and there are fresh filters and 'Guided Edit' effects. These are mostly superficial changes. The main editing tools are largely unchanged, though they're none the worse for that - Elements supports selections, layers, layer masks and adjustment layers, just like Photoshop, and there's not much you can do in Photoshop that you can't do here. But there is a more serious difference. The version of Adobe Camera Raw that comes with Elements is much more basic than Photoshop's, with no lens corrections, Gradient Tool or Adjustment Brush, for example. Read our Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 review | Compare the best prices Serif PhotoPlus X6 - £80/US$90/AU$90
Serif's good at producing low-cost alternatives to big professional applications, matching their features, tools (and even screen layout) but at a fraction of the price. It's actually two programs rather than one. PhotoPlus X6 is the image editor, and competes head-on with Photoshop, but there's also a companion program, the PhotoPlus Organiser, which you use to manage your photo collection - this is a database program designed for fast searches and large collections, so in this respect it's one step ahead of Adobe Bridge, Photoshop's equivalent. Unfortunately, the reality doesn't quite live up to the dream. PhotoPlus feels rather dated and slow - the Organizer took an age to render thumbnails of our test folder of Nikon raw files, for example. It's not particularly intuitive to use, either - if you select a photo in the Organiser and then click the Edit in PhotoPlus button, nothing appears to happen, and you have to manually switch applications via the Windows taskbar to see your picture in PhotoPlus. On paper, PhotoPlus does tick almost as many boxes as Photoshop does, but while some tools are familiar - such as PhotoPlus's adjustment layers - others are not. The Raw Studio, Serif's equivalent of Adobe Camera Raw, does have a number of raw-specific adjustment tools, but these are mixed with many others that aren't - and these also appear in the program's PhotoFix window, an app-within-an-app which offers adjustments similar to but not quite the same as those available in the main program. This is confusing. The lack of a free trial version is another downside, together with the software's constant nagging to register. Money-conscious photographers will probably persevere and find a lot to like in PhotoPlus X6, but by the standards of its rivals it feels fussy, clunky and old-fashioned. DxO Optics Pro 8 - £95/US$100 (around AU$160)
DxO Optics Pro has a more restricted function than the rest of the programs in this roundup, but deserves to be included because of what it does and how well it does it. It uses a huge database of lab-developed lens and camera tools to fix chromatic aberration, distortion and corner shading. In the early days these worked only on JPEG files, but Optics Pro now contains a raw conversion engine, so it can do two jobs at once. Its image editing tools are limited - its real function is to make the results from your camera and lens combinations better than you ever imagined they could be. DxO's focus is on quality rather than scope. In addition to its automatic lens profiles, it has a range of raw optimisation tools to further improve your images. Version 8 brings an improved Smart Lighting tool for brightening underexposed areas, the ability to restore detail in areas of intense colour and the removal of dead pixels in long exposures. It can also counter moiré effects from cameras such as the Nikon D800E and Nikon D7100 that don't have optical low pass filters. But DxO Optics Pro is very much a one-trick pony. The Organize tab is principally for locating the images you want to convert rather than organising your photos as a whole. The Customize tab is where you make your image adjustments and the Process tab monitors your batch conversions when you've finished. The image enhancement options are extensive and detailed, but don't include localised adjustments. DxO Optics Pro is essentially just a raw conversion tool - you're still going to need an image editor. And that's not all; if you own a high-end DSLR, you'll have to pay extra for the Elite rather than the Standard version. Adobe Photoshop CC - £18/US$20/AU$20 per month
Photoshop has taken a few knocks recently. Programs like Adobe Lightroom have made photographers realise there are newer, cheaper, simpler ways of editing (and managing) their photos, and while Adobe's switch to a subscription-based system might make sense for professional designers, it's stirred up plenty of debate among photographers. Photoshop is now part of Adobe's Creative Cloud service, a professional creative community where you can share your ideas and your work with colleagues and clients alike - so you do get more for your money than a simple software package, and as soon as Adobe can address user concerns, such as how you open your PSD files when you no longer subscribe to Photoshop, the objections may fade away. This isn't the only new feature in Photoshop CC, of course. It comes with Adobe Camera Raw 8, which has three important new tools: the Radial Gradient tool can be used to highlight your picture's focal point, the Advanced Healing Brush can now clone out irregular shapes and the Upright too does a terrific job of correcting converging verticals and other perspective issues. You can also apply Camera Raw adjustments as layer filters in Photoshop itself, there's a new and improved Smart Sharpen tool and a clever Camera Shake Reduction tool that analyses the direction of shake and then attempts to correct it - it's a nice idea, though it doesn't always work and it's very slow to use. But these aren't huge changes, and superficially Photoshop CC is little different to its predecessor, Photoshop CS6. It's the integration with Creative Cloud which could have the longer-lasting impact for photographers, with automatic software updates, 20GB free storage space and collaboration and sharing tools. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 - £105/US$150/AU$180
Lightroom isn't simply an image editor. It's an all-in-one photographic workflow solution that can organise your whole photo collection using a searchable library database, enhance your images with a Develop module and share them as slideshows, web galleries or even books. It introduces a new way of working. All your image editing adjustments are non-destructive - they're saved in the Lightroom library as processing instructions and no changes are made to your original photos at all. Lightroom can edit raw files, TIFFs, JPEGs and PSD files alike, and you simply export new, edited versions of your images as and when you need them. You can create as many versions of the same image as you like but without creating any new files to clutter up your hard disk. The editing (or 'Develop') tools are actually identical to those in Adobe Camera Raw, which comes with Photoshop CC, but they're arranged in a much more accessible, streamlined manner. Its new Advanced Healing Brush, Radial Gradient and Upright perspective correction tools mean it crosses even further into full Photoshop territory - and for those jobs where only Photoshop will do, you can export images to it directly and have them returned to your Lightroom catalog automatically as new images when you're done. Lightroom doesn't have to move your files from their current location if you don't want it to, and its new Smart Preview option means you can edit your images even when they're on a disconnected external hard drive. The problem with Lightroom is that it can only take you so far. If you need to work with layers, masks, composites and advanced effects, you'll still need Photoshop (or Elements). Read our Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 review Nikon Capture NX2 - £135/US$140/AU$220
Every Nikon DSLR comes with Nikon ViewNX 2, a basic image browsing, editing and raw conversion tool, but if you want more advanced editing options you need to get Capture NX2, which is a separate purchase. It combines raw conversion tools which are faithful to the white balance and Picture Control settings on your camera with Nik Software's unique 'U-point' adjustments, which make it easy to select and enhance areas of your image in a single step. Because it comes from Nikon, Capture NX2 mirrors many of the settings and options displayed on a Nikon camera, but its layout and operation is quite unlike that of any other program - it's an acquired taste. Capture NX2 uses collapsible palettes on the left side to browse your folders and photos and a floating window in the centre to display images you've double-clicked for editing. Over on the right are a series of stacked palettes containing the editing tools, with the Crop tool, Colour Control Point, selection and other tools in a strip along the top. You do soon get used to the layout, and the way you can stack adjustment 'steps' to create a cumulative effect. But Capture NX2 blurs the distinction between the raw conversion settings and the regular editing controls, so that you're not always sure whether you're working on the raw data or converted RGB data. Apart from that, the tools are both extensive and effective. The white balance and Picture Control settings are faithful to the camera's, and the selective adjustment points work really well. Where NX2 falls down, though, is in its lack of support for layers and its rather basic image browsing tools. It's good at enhancing your Nikon DSLR images, but its scope is otherwise quite limited. Phase One Capture One Pro 7 - £230/US$300/AU$330
Capture One started out as a tethered image capture and enhancement tool for medium-format digital cameras, including those made by its Danish publisher Phase One. But its raw conversion engine has been extended to include an ever-wider range of DSLRs, compact system cameras and high-end compacts. Its raw conversions are regarded by many as the best, and it now has some very effective image enhancement tools. Version 7 brings Lightroom-style database features, so that what was once a specialised studio tool has now become a versatile and powerful alternative to the big names Capture One Pro 7 is not designed (or priced) for beginners. But for those with a knowledge of image editing, a thirst for quality and a willingness to experiment with new software, it's an important contender. The number of tools (and 'tool tabs') available can make Capture One look pretty daunting at first, but some tools are repeated between tabs and there are others you won't use at all. There's a 'Quick' tool tab that has White Balance, Exposure and Dynamic Range, a Lens Correction tab for fixing distortion and a Local Adjustments tab for modifying specific areas of your pictures - and they're the ones you'll probably use the most. Capture One's interface and workflow don't spring any surprises, but the quality of the raw conversions does. Its processing engine seems able to extract more natural shadow detail and more sharpness from your raw files than any other, and colours are rich, dense and natural-looking. It can apply automatic lens corrections for many DSLR lenses, and its localised adjustments, applied using Capture One's internal layers system, are easier to work with than Lightroom's. Verdict: best image editing softwareAnd the winners are... Adobe Photoshop CC and Lightroom 5. There's no getting around it. Photoshop CC still is the best image-editor there is - it's just unfortunate that it's also the most expensive, though Adobe's new Creative Cloud plan means the cost threshold is much lower. Users have been quick to focus on the downside of subscription-based software, but there are upsides too. The problem with Photoshop is that it concentrates on image editing and pays little attention to image management or sharing tools. This is left to Adobe Bridge, which is essentially a photo browsing tool and is out of its depth with anything more than a modestly-sized photo collection.
That's why we're making Lightroom 5 the joint winner. It doesn't offer layers, compositing tools and advanced image manipulation effects, but it can do 90% of the photo enhancement tasks you carry out on a routine basis, completely non-destructively. It also happens to be a really good raw converter, with automatic lens correction profiles and local adjustment tools. In fact it uses the same raw conversion engine (Adobe Camera Raw 8) as Photoshop CC. The point is that if you get Photoshop, you'll probably feel the need before long for a proper image cataloguing tool to go with it - and Lightroom fits the bill perfectly. Similarly, if you use Lightroom, you'll soon realise that now and again you need a powerful external editor for more advanced jobs - and what better than Photoshop? |
| In Depth: Best free video editing software: 9 top programs you should download Posted:  It's the first law of movie-making: no matter how expensive your camera, or how skilled you are at using it, your raw footage will always be rubbish. And so, if you're looking to add a little professional polish, then installing a video editor will be essential. Commercial video editors can be very expensive, of course, but you may not have to go that far. Whether you want to trim your clips down to size, add a soundtrack or captions, apply transitions or special effects, there are some great free tools which can help - and these are the very best around. 1. Windows Movie Maker 2012
Windows Movie Maker is supremely easy to use. Just drag and drop a few clips onto the program (most formats are supported) and immediately they're assembled into order; transitions and special effects are just a click away.
It's just as simple to add a soundtrack, captions and credits, and you can save the results as a video file, or upload them directly to YouTube, Facebook and many other sites. You can take a little more control when you need it, for instance trimming clips and applying a few other basic options. The program's main focus is on making it very simple to produce quality movies, though, and for the most part it's a great success. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. Kate's Video Toolkit
While there's nothing too surprising in Kate's Video Toolkit, it does provide some basic but useful editing features. So you can trim files or join them, link two videos with a transition, create a sequence of videos with a custom soundtrack, and there's a simple file format conversion tool as well.
There are plenty of limitations, too (you can't maximise the program window to use your full screen resolution, for instance), but Kate's Video Toolkit is extremely easy to use. If you don't want to read Help files and your editing needs are simple, it could be a great choice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Avidemux
Avidemux is a small but capable open source video editor which can help you join clips, cut them (without re-encoding), and apply a lengthy list of useful filters (Add Logo, Crop, Flip, Rotate, Resize, Sharpen, Remove Noise, tweak brightness, contrast colours and more).
While this sounds basic, there are lots of options and fine controls to help make sure everything goes as you expect, and an excellent online wiki which documents everything. Overall, Avidemux is well worth a look, as long as you're happy to spend a little time learning how it all works. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. VSDC Free Video Editor
Non-linear video editors can take some time to learn, and VSDC Free Video Editor is no exception (a lack of useful documentation doesn't help, either). If you persevere, though, you'll find a capable editor with plenty of functionality: drawing and selection tools, plenty of colour and lighting corrections, some useful filters, transitions, audio effects and more.
When your project is complete, there are options to save it to file, optimise your movie for various mobile devices, or even burn it to DVD. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. MPEG Streamclip 1.2.1b6
With a download size of only 327KB, you'd expect MPEG Streamclip to be, well, a little underpowered. And yet, the program opens multiple files, DVDs or URLs of video streams; can trim, cut, copy or paste parts of your footage; and has options to rotate your footage or export the soundtrack, while its Export dialog provides more control over your finished video than some commercial products.
It's not all good news - we had problems playing back some MP4 files - but if you're just looking for trimming and file conversion features then MPEG Streamclip is definitely worth a try. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. VirtualDub
It looks a little dated now, and only works fully with AVI files, but if that's your format of choice then VirtualDub has plenty to offer. A clean and clear interface helps you navigate through and trim your clips, there are plenty of filters - sharpen, blur, resize, rotate (at any angle, not just 90 degree increments), brightness, colour and contrast tweaks - and optional plugs add even more capabilities.
Learning how to use all these functions can take a little while, as you'll need to explore some very lengthy menus to find them. But if you need an AVI processor, though, VirtualDub is still worth the effort. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. Free Video Dub
At first glance Free Video Dub looks like just another video trimming tool: step through the source movie, select the left and right points, cut that section from the video and save the results.
What's different here, though, is that the program doesn't re-encode your movie, so no matter how much trimming you do, no video quality will be lost. And if you have a lengthy clip which requires a lot of work then that could be very useful indeed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. Lightworks
If it's real editing power you need, then Lightworks is the best of the free package. Its feature-packed timeline, strong multicam support, realtime effects and smart trimming tools are so impressive, in fact, that the program has regularly been used to help produce top Hollywood movies such as Mission Impossible and Batman.
There is a price to pay for all this functionality, though: an extremely steep learning curve. This is not a tool for beginners, and you should expect to spend plenty of time reading the documentation before you can do anything useful at all. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9. Freemake Video Converter
As you'll probably guess from the name, Freemake Video Converter is primarily a video conversion tool (and a very good one, too) - but it can also double as a simple video editor.
Drag and drop your clips onto the program and you can arrange them into order, cut each one to suit your needs, flip or rotate individual clips and convert them to your preferred format (or even upload the finished movie directly to YouTube). And all in a polished, professional and very easy-to-use interface. |
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