Barriers to vidding. Sigh.

[hope]

I am trying to get back into vidding again, and to do so I'm using Sony Vegas on a Windows machine. There are two things that are frustrating me (and that escape me from the last time I vidded, many years ago).

Can anyone recommend me some software to do the following:


1) Convert AVI files to MPGs (Vegas only lets you work with mpg source files, right?)

2) Clip my source files with.


Characteristics I would like the software to have:

- streamlined interface - it's relatively intuitive to use (eg. for clipping, simple "start clip here/end clip here/click here to export selection" controls)

- doesn't result in unexpected/unwanted changes to the source - e.g. altered aspect ratio, visible compression

- is free.

Software can be for Windows or Mac.

Halp?


ETA: Slightly unrelated, but um - if I bought Parallels, I would have to buy a copy of Windows as well, wouldn't I? Parallels doesn't come bundled as the parallel software + Windows? The site is very unhelpful in answering this.

Comments

[irradiatedsoup.livejournal.com]

Vegas should work with .avi clips (and just about any video source files you want to dump in there) just fine, as long as they're not too big?

I use VirtualDub (http://www.virtualdub.org/) to clip and compress. But I clip to .avi, so I'm not sure what the deal is for .mpg

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

I know nothing about Sony Vegas, but MPEG Streamclip is my clipping/converting program of joy. Google it - you can download it for free.