What's a good free Windows video editor that crops out data in the MP4 video frame?

In article , lid says...

What's a good free Windows video editor that crops out data in the MP4
video frame?

Googling is *almost never* the best way to find the best freeware for
certain things because someone who is trying to sell something isn't always
neutral on the pros and cons of the freeware.

We all know there are plenty of freeware gotchas, from watermarks, to time
limits, to missing features, to registration requirements, to spyware
insertion, etc. so that's why I ask you this question.

Of course, I googled, but Googling is only useful when *every* review says
the same thing, which almost never happens.

*Testing* each piece of software for the target function is the best way,
but that's expensive in terms of time (but is often needed because it's
often impossible to find someone who knows the answer).

Hence, I ask the question here if anyone here has used Windows freeware to
crop out portions of an Android screen-recording MP4 video where this
screenshot below shows the portion of the MP4 video that is needed to be
cropped out on a one-time need.
http://i64.tinypic.com/27xi5hf.jpg

I'm seeking the canonical Windows 10 freeware video editor of MP4 files
that can blank out areas of the video. Googling, this is what comes up so
far, which isn't really helpful for the stated question:

- Top 5 Video Editing Software for Windows 10
http://www.techkhoji.com/best-video-editing-software-windows/
* WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER
- The best free video editor 2017
http://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/the-best-free-video-editor-1330136
* Lightworks
* Shotcut
* Hitfilm Express
* VSDC Free Video Editor
* Avidemux
- Video Editor for Windows 10: Best Movie Editor for Windows 10
http://www.techisky.com/software/video-editor-for-windows-10-best-movie-editor-for-windows-10.html
* Windows Movie Maker
- 21 Best Video Editors For Free
https://www.ezvid.com/21-best-video-editing-software-for-free-download
* Ezvid
* VideoEasy
* Cyberlink Free
* Aura Video Editor
* Full Motion Video
* Moviestorm

I use VirtualDub, With the plugins it does pretty much anything I've
ever required. Note - not always the most intuitive to use but you can
always find a page on google that will guide you doing something you
don't know how.

In article , Mayayana
wrote:

| If you want to paint in each frame that might
| be a challenge. A good editor will do things
| like crop and resize, sharpness, color adjustment,
| etc. But painting specific items would of course
| require a separate operation for each frame. In
| theory you could have a video where you want the
| exact same area of each frame painted black, but
| I'd be surprised if any editor provides that functionality.
|
| most, if not all can do that.

I'd be interested to know of even one free video
editor for Windows that has drawing tools like
line, rectangle, etc, that can be applied on a
per-frame basis, or even to the whole video.
I spent an afternoon exploring at one point and
Avidemux was by far the best option I found.

the usual way is to add any image as an overlay, usually one with an
alpha mask (but that's not a requirement).

that image can be whatever you want it to be, whether it's a boring
black filled rectangle or something more interesting. it could also be
a title, either static or scrolling.

if you've seen tv news reports, the lower thirds are overlays, and done
in real time. for example, this could be added to a live newscast:
https://i.pinimg.com/474x/ba/55/b5/b...0c7c491932--lo
wer-third.jpg

more advanced video editing apps can track motion, so you could, for
example, put flower petals over someone's body parts (or just blur it),
and it will track as they move, moving the overlay (or blur) as needed,
without having to manually alter each frame individually. or, you could
have the overlay track whatever path you want if that works out better.

So... do you actually know anything about
this? Do you know of even one such product?

quite a bit. i used to do a fair amount of video editing long ago using
adobe premiere and adobe after effects.

today, more capable apps than what i used back then now run on
smartphones.

adding an overlay is child's play.

In the Win7 group someone just recommended
VirtualDUB. I downloaded it. First it wouldn't open
mp4. So I gave it an AVI. It allowed me to copy
a frame and paste it into Paint Shop Pro, but I
was unable to paste the edited frame back into
the video. That function is not on the menu.

user error.

He who is pjp said on Thu, 28 Sep 2017 12:34:13 -0300:

I use VirtualDub, With the plugins it does pretty much anything I've
ever required. Note - not always the most intuitive to use but you can
always find a page on google that will guide you doing something you
don't know how.

What's interesting, which often happens with Freeware, is not only that the
suggested app doesn't even show up on the first two pages of Google hits
for the best freeware for the task, but that someone else (Pooh the Cat)
suggested VirtualDub, but Mayayana kindly tested it and it wouldn't even
open his MP4 file!

Of course, if it's just that VirtualDub can't handle MP4 files then that
can be fixed with the older versions of Super freeware (before they went to
the dark side) or the newer versions of Handbrake freeware on Windows, but
video-format conversions are almost never pretty affairs.

Looking at the VirtualDub web site for clues about handling MP4 files
http://virtualdub.org/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualdub/

The first reference says outright "VirtualDub is mainly geared toward
processing AVI files", so, Mayayana's observations that VirtualDob didn't
handle MP4 files from Android screen recorders seem to be on the mark.

The good news is that this first reference does mention that it can "blur"
video, but it doesn't say whether it can do that within a selection area.
http://virtualdub.org/features.html

The second reference implies VirtualDub is mostly for "capture" and not so
much for editing of video but then it references the first site for more
information.

As we all know, the cost of freeware is finding the right one for the job.
The *easiest* and *best* way to find the right freeware for the job is to
find someone (usually an expert but not always) who has done the job with
freeware or with Payware (Payware is great to learn "how" it's done and
that it "can" be done).

From my cursory due diligence on VirtualDub, with conversion of MP4 to AVI,
VirtualDub might be able to "blur" selected areas of the screen - but, from
experience, I find conversion to have its own set of problems with almost
no gain so it would be best if we can solve the original question of:

Q: Has anyone on this ng ever "blurred out" selected sections of an MP4
using Windows Freeware (if so, what do you recommend)?

He who is J. P. Gilliver (John) said on Thu, 28 Sep 2017 15:24:19 +0100:

You might be better including the Windows 10 newsgroup, rather than the
Windows 7 one.

Unfortunately, the Windows 10 newsgroup is not archived by deja-google.

Nonetheless, there is a separate question to the Windows 10 newsgroup, but
it didn't include rec.photo.digital due to the limitation of newsgroups in
the news server (it included the android and freeware folks).

If it were archived, I'd point you to it, but the title is:
"How to edit Android screen recording to remove WiFi MAC address & SSID?"

He who is Big Al said on Thu, 28 Sep 2017 10:49:08 -0400:

I did a lot of editing years ago with a paid version (yes I know, the OP
wanted free, but..) of Magix Movie Maker in Win7 or 8(?). It allowed
multiple video layers (as well as audio). It had no ability to edit
the video as you want, but I would think you might be able to make a
transparent PNG image of a black rectangle(s) and put it in a 2nd video
track or overlay or whatever the programs term is. It would be an
engineering feat to get the black spots to fit in one PNG but...

I've used Avidemux lately but only to convert formats, trim and
brightness levels.

One of the two great advantages of Payware is that Payware tells you the
possibilities of what can be done with freeware. The second great advantage
of Payware is that it gives you a *technique* for solving the problem (and
usually lots of good search keywords).

So this overlaying of a black PNG rectangle technology makes sense for the
task of blocking out or blurring out certain areas of a video.

He who is Mayayana said on Thu, 28 Sep 2017 11:00:52 -0400:

In the Win7 group someone just recommended
VirtualDUB. I downloaded it. First it wouldn't open
mp4. So I gave it an AVI. It allowed me to copy
a frame and paste it into Paint Shop Pro, but I
was unable to paste the edited frame back into
the video. That function is not on the menu.

Yikes! The only suggestion so far was VirtualDub, from Pooh, who is well
known to be helpful (unlike nospam who has zero honorable intentions).


Here's what p-0''0-h the cat (coder) said on Thu, 28 Sep 2017 15:00:22 +0100:

VirtualDUB. Worked for me.

And this was my response today:

Thanks for that suggestion of VirtualDub because if you've done the task,
then that drops out dozens of failed freeware tests right off the bat!

Freeware isn't free.
The cost of freeware is knowledge.
The knowledge is gained at the expense of time & effort.

So I appreciate that you put in time and effort in the past, with
VirtualDub freeware, so I will check that out when I get home later today.

Googling for the canonical location, I find this:
http://virtualdub.org/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualdub/

On 9/28/2017 9:47 AM, harry newton wrote:
He who is harry newton said on Thu, 28 Sep 2017 13:40:55 +0000 (UTC):

All I'm asking here is for someone who has done this type of editing what
they feel the best free Windows 10 video editor is for cropping out
information in an MP4 video.

[...]
What is the technical term for the cropping of video data like this?
http://i64.tinypic.com/27xi5hf.jpg

You can do this with the paid version of Filmora by creating a block for
text at that location and omitting the text. It would only have to be
done once for it to cover the duration of that video segment.

--
best regards,

Neil

In message , harry newton
writes:
He who is J. P. Gilliver (John) said on Thu, 28 Sep 2017 15:24:19 +0100:

You might be better including the Windows 10 newsgroup, rather than
the Windows 7 one.

Unfortunately, the Windows 10 newsgroup is not archived by deja-google.

I was going to say there is more to life than deja-google ...

Nonetheless, there is a separate question to the Windows 10 newsgroup, but

.... but that implies that you already have more access to newsgroups
than that limitation anyway.

it didn't include rec.photo.digital due to the limitation of newsgroups in
the news server (it included the android and freeware folks).
If it were archived, I'd point you to it, but the title is:
"How to edit Android screen recording to remove WiFi MAC address & SSID?"

FWIW, I had been thinking of suggesting VirtualDub too, but I didn't
know if it could blank or blur parts; I've used it mainly for format
conversion (without terrible results that parts of this thread have
suggested; I don't know if it can use mp4s though) and cropping (which
it does fine).
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"To YOU I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the Loyal Opposition." - Woody Allen

On 28/09/2017 14:40, harry newton wrote:
What's a good free Windows video editor that crops out data in the MP4
video frame?


I'm currently using Shotcut (for simpler things than that) and am pretty
impressed. I *think* I have seen this done on one of their demo videos
where they applied stabilisation to a hand-held "interview" type of
thing, then used cropping to get rid of the blurry edges.

Don't have time ATM to read the other responses, but will look forward
to doing so having had the same grief after my paid-for editor
(Pinnacle) turned out to be unsupported by W10. Also lost access to
Movie Maker when I had to do a full reinstall of W10 from scratch, and
*really* did not fancy all the registry tweaks that are said to be
needed to get it back.

"nospam" wrote

| I'd be interested to know of even one free video
| editor for Windows that has drawing tools like
| line, rectangle, etc, that can be applied on a
| per-frame basis, or even to the whole video.
| I spent an afternoon exploring at one point and
| Avidemux was by far the best option I found.
|
| the usual way is to add any image as an overlay, usually one with an
| alpha mask (but that's not a requirement).
|
So you don't actually know a single Windows
program that can do it.