Slowing down for easier cutting?

[Annclarke]

Sorry if this has been asked already- it's difficult to find. I'm trying to edit a video for the first time and it's tricky to make cuts with the video playing at normal speeds. I find myself anxiously trying to pinpoint the right place and the video has already moved past me! Is there a way to slow down playback just for editing purposes (without changing the speed of the final clip)? Appreciate the help.

[asik1]

How do you cut?
you can hit S

[pogonips]

I find it more efficient to use Avidemux (free video trimming utility) for initial cutting/trimming of video files. You can scroll the scrubber or play your clip until you get to the right area and then move a frame at a time, or a key frame at a time to decide where to cut. Saving the trimmed files seems to be much faster than rendering in VS too. Then I load the trimmed files to VS for more detailed work like effects, transitions, etc.

[tletter]

Your profile doesn't indicate what version of VS you're using, but splitting/trimming your clips is basically version invariant.

it's tricky to make cuts with the video playing at normal speeds. I find myself anxiously trying to pinpoint the right place and the video has already moved past me! Is there a way to slow down playback just for editing purposes (without changing the speed of the final clip)?

The way that you're trying to split/trim your clips is not the norm. Using the VS properly , you can split/trim your clips with frame accuracy (see following extract from the user guide). The user guide can answer many basic questions.

Hard_Drive_Capacity: Toronto

I know that Toronto's population is some 6M people, but I'm curious how many gigabytes does Toronto have?

I find it more efficient to use Avidemux (free video trimming utility) for initial cutting/trimming of video files.

There is no obvious benefit from using Avidemux as VS, like any NLE, can readily split/trim your clips. It seems that you're just adding an unnecessary step to your workflow.

tletter
https://www.youtube.com/user/tletter