Free Video Software

The best free video software in the world. Unless specified, programs are available for both Windows and Mac.

Video Playback

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  Miro

  Beautiful interface. Plays virtually any type of video file. Subscribe to video RSS, download, and watch all in one. Torrent support. Search and download from YouTube and others.
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  VLC

  Plays more video files than most players: Quicktime, AVI, DIVX, OGG, and more. Pretty good interface.
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  MPlayer

  The interface and buttons are not as nice, but it may play even more video files than VLC.
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  Perian (Mac Only)

  A plugin that allows quicktime to play additional video formats. (Included in Democracy Player.)

Animation

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  Blender

  Very powerful 3D animation and modeling software.

DVD Importing

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  Handbrake

  DVD ripper and MPEG-4 / H.264 encoding. Very simple to use.

DVD / CD Burning

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  CDBurnerXP (Windows only)

  Burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs, and burn and create ISOs. Despite the name, it does work on Vista.
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  Burn (Mac only)

  CD and DVD Burner. Burn any video to a disc that plays in your DVD player!
  

Editing

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  Jahshaka

  Full realtime editing and effects suite.
  
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  Avidemux

  Editing package.
  

Converting

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  Miro Video Converter

  Convert any type of video to mp4 or theora. Convert any video for use with iPhone, iPod, Android, etc. Very clean, easy to use interface.
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  Squared 5

  Converter and encoder, with cutting, trimming, and joining.
  

Effects and Compositing

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  DebugMode Wax

  Video composition and special effects software.