minimalist and free video tools
[ffmpeg
mpv
OBS
OpenShot
VLC
]
FFmpeg is what got me, back in 2014, into the austere power of the command-line. I use just a small part of it’s vast abilities - mostly just to compress videos, crop away unwanted borders, trim away unwanted lengths, remove the sound… I sometimes do fancy stuff like watermarking or changing a clips default playback speed.
For Windows
I grab the 7z
from FFmpeg Builds and cpi ffmpeg.exe $Env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\WindowsApps
so’s I can access it from anywhere in PowerShell
.
mpv (media player) is the biz on Linux
- minimalist and keyboard controlled - I love it.
OBS Studio is excellent, and can record anything that’s passing through your machine.
OpenShot is glitchy, so I only use it for extremely simple and short edits.
I keep VLC media player on my Windows
system because it’s so functional.