heritage972

Thanks Nat. I downloaded some sample mp4 files of various lengths. As far as I can tell, everything you say works perfectly with those files. I still can't edit my .avi files from my Cannon Powershot. The camera is old by modern standards. I will just be more careful when shooting video with that camera. Your comment that VideoPadEditor works with Win 8.1 seems fine. That was particularly interesting because a VLC developer says that VLC can't edit with Win 8.1. Again, thanks for your time. Always amazed at the expert help offered on forums like this one. Delay in answering was not lack of interest - out of town and very busy. Back to normal now.

Thanks to both replies. I appreciate your time. Unfortunately, the instructions are essentially the same as those on about 5 sites I looked at before asking. That included at least two on the NCH website. Nothing works. I wonder if the program is compatible with win 8.1. I used to do simple editing with previous versions of the NCH VideoPad Video Editor and VLC Media Player under Win 7 Ultimate. My new computer came with Win 8.1 (which works well for me despite a lot of chatter on the web with complaints). I can't edit with either. Just as an example, I open a short 7 second video (*.AVI from a Cannon camera). It plays and I can set the opening and ending points (Red and Blue) but there is no way to clip. If I drag it to the Video timeline, there are only the last two seconds. The program is free so I don't feel comfortable complaining. I am sure some smart people spent a lot of time on it and are proud of their work. Too bad it doesn't work for me.

Instructions (Help) for Video Pad seem to have significant differences from Version 4.08. The screen shots have similar buttons but not quite like the ones I see. I can set start and end points from the menu but can't clip the video. Anyone spot what I am missing?