Quick and dirty AVI editing

Just today, I discovered that my digital camera can actually record little movie files as well. (Why did this not occur to me before? Because I'm stupid.) So I'm at the point where I have an .avi file transferred over to my hard drive, and now I'd like to be able to edit it just a tad before I try to actually email it to various family members (posting it on YouTube for them may come after that, but first things first...) All I want to do is cut off some useless bits from the beginning and end. I already tried the crappy "DVD making" software that came on my computer, but apparently video editing is a feature only available in the premium version.

Surely, I thought, SURELY there is free software to do this, right? And surely someone on the Cellar will know what I need?

You want to edit an AVI of my sex life?

Clod, sorry but you will need the premium version or some other similar vid editing software from your local computer store or online. I use this:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2054275,00.asp

I haven't tried it, but can't you do this with Windows Movie Maker? I think it is free with XP service pack 2.

check it out here

Yeah.......I use windows movie maker. Are you running Microsoft?

Yes! MovieMaker does exactly what I need; I didn't even realize it was already on my machine. Thanks!

Anything for you.

The best program out there for slicing and dicing AVI files is Virtual Dub. It's not a movie maker, but it'll help you re-process individual files (resize, crop, adjust colors, stabilize jitters). If you set it to stream copy mode, you can cut parts out without having to re-encode the whole file.

Once you're happy with the files, you can use Movie Maker or Nero to build the final DVD.