Very simplist lightweight .wmv video cutting bits out solution (software?, portable?)

[DocAElstein]

Hi,
I already got a good advanced solution for video making (OBS) and video editing (DaVinci) from some threads here
( https://eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=39414
https://eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=39359 )
, but that is tied up on a fairly good PC,
and/ but I also need something right at the other extreme of performance, perhaps something that I can use easily on a few more low end PCs and laptops, everything from Windows XP upwards.

What I have is a few hundred downloaded YouTube learn tutorials in .wmv format, ( 1920 x 1080 ). I can play them end to end easily by just putting them in windows media player and by default it plays them all one after the other, over and over. So I don’t need anything to stick them all together: I prefer to keep it simple in individual files, (To get them to play in the order I wants is easy, - I just add a number at the start in the video file title shown in the explorer window, like
001 How do it work ….,
002 How to mess with it …. etc.)
But what I want is: I would just like to do one simple thing: Go quickly through each video, chopping out bits I don’t want, things like adverts or bits that are immediately obviously stuff I am not interested in. I don’t care about quality of the transition or any other niceties, - I really just want to get the meaty bits of info I want out of each video into a shortened video.

I have started looking, but am getting totally swamped in what seems an infinite amount of video editing software, most of which seems to do a lot more than I want, and loads of reviews almost all of which have their own favourite or different top 10 list.

So while I continue doing my brain in trudging through all the available stuff, I thought I would ask in parallel if anyone here with more experience with these things can suggest a solution.
_ I prefer something light weight so that there is a good chance I can do it on the various computers I have laying around where and wherever I have the time.
_ If it is software and portable (a thing that starts when you double click on a .exe file ), then so much the better, so I can keep it all on a big USB stick or two

(I suspect there may be some built in windows thing for this, But I think for this I would want to avoid that, as that might get a bit messy as those things seem to change, update, be discontinued etc., which would confuse things when I am moving about on different computers). Playing the final files as I want to in windows media player always works very consistently across all the PCs and laptops I have, so I am only interested in something to cut some bits out of the files, as simple as possible).

Thanks
Alan

[JoeP]

Check out VLC. It is free and handles just about every kind of video file. If you download the ZIP or 7-zip version either is a portable version.

[DocAElstein]

Thanks Joe. That VLC has cropped up a few times in the past with me, and it is something I have often almost got around to checking out several times. I was thinking that might be a more intermediate "middle" solution, but maybe as its portable I might reconsider it again now.
_._____

So far the many more lightweight software I have been looking at have dome easily the opposite of what I want, but not so easily what I want: Just to make it clear in case I likely did not explain so well, I can try and explain it pictorially. Let’s say, pseudo like this is my video
jjvbjvXXskksdjYYYdlkjkdfjjfZZsdjklsd
, then I want to very quickly look at the video, perhaps at a moment when I have a bit of time but my brain is not ready to concentrate too much on that subject area, and then I want to quickly chop bits out that are obvious at first glance not of interest so I end up with this
Jjvbjvskksdjdlkjkdfjjfsdjklsd
More often I find a simple solution to get all these
XX
YYY
ZZ
Or alternatively all of these
jjvbjv
skksdj
dlkjkdfjjf
sdjklsd
, which is a solution, but then I have extra work to stick them together or have a lot more files to organise so that they run back to back


Whilst checking out software and tutorials in the last few days, I come across occasionally tutorials on the older Microsoft classic windows live movie maker, that seemed to easily do what I want. But as I expected it is a bit of a Jungle, with no clear answer about what that actually is, - There is a lot of confusion about what where is was Windows Live Movie Maker and Windows Movie Maker.
Approximately, on average, the story currently seems to be that Windows Movie Maker was the original from about XP era, maybe a bit before, then at Vista there was two in parallel, the Windows Movie Maker then a later coming Windows Live Movie Maker, and to help with the confusion that later coming Windows Live Movie Maker then became known as Windows Movie Maker later, which had been/ is the name of the earlier first versions of "it"
Official documentation for Microsoft is always subject to change later on what is, or even was, and since the official end of "it" , ( around 2012 – 2017 depending on who, where what when you read), it would appear that since then there may be something close to the latest newest "it" that was called Windows Live Movie Maker then became called Windows Movie Maker available from a lot of different places, maybe some dubious, some kosher, but it might not be, as it was the latest/ newest it might have been called Windows Movie Maker from its start.
So depending if I can sort that spaghetti out without going totally mad, I might at this stage either
_ consider the Windows Movie Maker/ Windows Live Movie Maker option, or
_ a portable version of VLC
_ I will keep looking to see if I missed any simple lightweight software

Thanks for the reply. It all helps steer me perhaps to the best solution for me.
(As I mentioned this requirement is just to get me a simple solution, in fact initially I will be wanting to condense a bit quickly a few 100 tutorials I have on OBS video recorder. - I am hoping to get a portable earlier version of that OBS, maybe from the version 17, 2017 era, working on many of my computers, old and new. Then all the final editing will be done on just the one most newest high end GPU PC that I had to buy especially to run the DaVinci resolve Video editor to get the final video

_.____________

... If you download the ZIP or 7-zip version either is a portable version.

Interesting, that is the story with OBS as well – the zip has the portable.
In that link you gave there seem to be some archive files that end up in some .xz stuff
https://i.postimg.cc/hthP167T/1-VLC-for-windows.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/4xM4LPzM/2-archives.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/sxV3QNrB/3-2014-2020.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/CKqhW87K/4-dotxz.jpg
I think that .xz stuff is maybe some sort of zip.
Or, maybe I want to look at the stuff hidden behind the 32 Bit bit? ( I will always go with the 32Bit to improve my chances of it working on older computers). Something here perhaps?
https://i.postimg.cc/QtZ8sMYJ/4b-32-Bit-bit.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/ydhVNzw4/4c-32-Bit-bit.jpg
Maybe you or someone can steer me a bit better there on what I might want. Or otherwise I will certainly have a little play and experiment sometime later with that

Thanks
Alan

[jolas]

Try this free video cutter/Joiner https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2F2 ... ?hl=&gl=US

[DocAElstein]

Thanks for the reply, jolas. That looks like the simple sort of solution I was originally looking for.
At first glance I think it might not work on earlier Operating Systems, but I will check it out fully later.

( In the meantime I have been spending a lot more time than I had intended or had wanted to getting my head around the standard windows movie maker and all its many versions and apparitions. It’s had a very complicated and colourful history and has been sabotaged one way or another including some very nasty, if lucrative, naughty going ons, which I stumbled over. It’s a shame because it can be a very good simple/ intermediate solution across the entire operating systems. I could write a book on what I discovered, so I am , , mostly for my own later reference, but it could be a best seller later, ( if someone naughty does not set a contract on me, or offer me a large sum to keep quiet, Lol… ) )

Alan