I am a judgment broker who writes a lot. Over the last few years I have copied several VHS tapes to my computer, so I could finally throw out my old VHS tapes and VCRs. I used the Elgato Video Capture solution.

I enjoy high definition TV and video as much as anyone, however a good plot and entertainment are even more important to me. Because my rented cable provider’s DVR was not a high definition model, I found that I could take its output, and save it onto my computer with Elgato’s device, software, and cables; the same way I did before, with my old VHS tapes.

Of course, I only copy videos to my computer for my own enjoyment; and I only copy video that I have either created, or already paid for in one way or another. There is usually more in most videos than I want to watch or keep. I appreciate having the option of deleting certain scenes, commercials, boring parts, ultra-long closing credits, etc. I searched for a simple and cheap video editing program for the Macintosh.

Apple’s Final Cut Pro and Adobe’s Premiere Elements both offer a free 30-day trial period. However, my needs were very simple, and I found them both way too complicated. All I wanted to do, was to remove certain portions of my existing videos. I found that Apple’s QuickTime Pro version 7 was exactly what I was looking for.

Apple’s QuickTime Pro is very simple and cheap, and has only three drawbacks. The first is almost every time Apple comes out with a new version, you must again pay the full price for that new version. The next drawback is a naming confusion, because Apple’s QuickTime Pro is not what you actually use. When you buy QuickTime Pro, what you are really getting, and will use, is QuickTime Player Pro. The last drawback, that might be a feature for some, is that QuickTime Player Pro is very limited and simple to use. It cannot do precise video editing, however it works well enough for me.

The way you start using QuickTime Player Pro to trim video movies, is to open the videos, or drag them to the QuickTime Player Pro application. There are two “sliders” on the time progress track, at the bottom of the video window. Notice that you can drag the sliders around.

There are two kinds of simple trims you can perform using QuickTime Player Pro. You can remove any portion of the video from either end, or from the center. To trim your video, drag the left hand slider to the start of the video that you want to save or delete, and the right hand slider to the end of what you want to save or delete.

The two choices for what to do next are “trim to selection” or delete. Trim to selection, deletes everything not selected (outside the sliders). Delete, will delete the video that is currently selected (inside the sliders). When you are done trimming, click File:Save as, saving your trimmed video file, choosing a different name than the original file. Make sure to select the “self-contained movie” option. You can always toss out the original video file later.