yeah for basic loop chopping and batch compressing virtualdub is great. It takes a bit of getting used to as it is a bit quirky but when you do it,s great for it,s price
While we,re on the subject of free software, has anyone tried
http://ubuntustudio.com ? It includes some interesting looking open source video editing software:
pitivi - Video editor
cinepaint - A painting and image retouching program designed to work best with 35mm film and other high resolution high dynamic range images.
ffmpeg - Multimedia player, server and encoder
ffmpeg2theora - Theora video encoder using ffmpeg
kino - A non-linear editor for Digital Video data
stopmotion - A program for creating stop motion animation.
dvgrab - Grab digital video data via IEEE1394 links