Like most people, I’m always ready to try something that might improve my video editing experience. After reading numerous glowing reviews, I downloaded a free version of a competing program (I’ll be nice and not name names). My experience:
Third try of install and uninstall - I give up. If I try “Open with…” I get this message: “Windows cannot find ntcardvt.exe”
If I try opening the program first, after a lo-o-o-o-ong time loading, I am required to register.
Hello? Freeware and you me to register and sign in just to open the program? Really?
I’m back to Shotcut.
Yeah, I like this program too! There is a learning curve involved, but I have successfully made a non-trivial video with Shotcut and it has been satisfactory!
I have tried some free programs in the wikipedia article. But they seemed either too slow or crashed on my computer a lot.
Shotcut is the only one which is free and open source and actively being developed.
Some people seem to suggest online that Lightworks is a good alternative, but they don’t provide sourcecode so I don’t trust it.
For some things I still use Avidemux - but it doesn’t offer some of the features that Shotcut does (for example, no way to level tilted videos, which is what motivated me to try Shotcut in the first place)). For really simple stuff it’s OK. Also it saves much faster and generates smaller files with what appears to be the same level of quality. For anything with any sort of complexity or variety, Shotcut is it.
I am new to this software (in fact all video editing software). However I must say that the download page is extremely confusing. There are innumerable pop-up ads for various downloads (none of them Shotcut) and it takes some time to locate the relevant download icon. I use a music recording software and have downloaded a large number of virtual instruments and other studio equipment, however none of them have as much ‘clutter’ as this site. Also, there does not appear to be a contact point for Shotcut. Nonetheless, great software and thank you.