Looking for free program that allows PiP, and cutting/splicing

Question

I'm looking for a free program with no watermarks, that allows PiP, and cutting/splicing. Before you recommend VSDC, I don't like that because there's only sound on the preview, so to know when to add a PiP you would have to go back and forth between the preview and timeline. Also, you can't cut and splice from the timeline, you have to have another window opened to cut/splice. Oh, yeah, I tried Filelab, and it doesn't work, either.

So is there such a program that follows these rules? I hope there is. Thanks for reading.

Answer 1

Every Mac comes with iMovie. Every PC comes with Windows Movie Maker. Both of them do cutting & splicing. iMovie does one PIP at a time; you can't have more than one PIP onscreen simultaneously unless you do a workaround. I used iMovie for hundreds of short YouTube videos with LOTS of editing (and PIPs). I don't know whether Windows Movie Maker does PIP but I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

(edit)

Just Googled "Windows Movie Maker PIP" and found out there are free add-ins that do PIP. (At least there were for the Windows Vista version. I bet the current O.S. has add-ins as well!)

Answer 2

Here's the rub: the cheaper the software the harder it is to do good work. Also asking for a 'easy learning curve' when it comes to a beginner editor is like asking for an easy time learning to play the organ. It ain't gonna happen. You may do better thinking about compositing with something like After Effects than with a full function editor. You may be able to find older versions of After Effects (anything around version 8 or 9, before the 'CS' series would work and can be found sometimes for less than $150). There are scads of online tutorials for this program.

Answer 3

For $100 you can buy a very good video editor that can do everything on your list. I recommend Sony Movie Studio.