New to Video editing

Hi all,

I'm having trouble editing my video footage. The main problem is when I upload from my camera, it saves the footage in MOV. format which is not recognised by Windows Movie Maker. So, how do I change this to upload to ?MPEG? format so I can use WMM, or do I use a free video editing package that recognises .MOV?

I don't know the advantages or disadvantages of either format, so if anyone does please enlighten me!

Thanks, D.

Super converts between most standard formats - including .mov to .wmv, .mpg, .avi - all the formats WMM recognizes It's free.

More info:http://www.erightsoft.com/Superdc.html

download link is at the bottom of this page: http://www.erightsoft.com/S6Kg1.html

You may need to dig around into codecs a bit more. .MOV .MPEG are just file extensions or containers and don't really tell you what's in the compressed file.

My camera outputs .mov files but the codec is h.264 MPEG4 codec. This is a bitch to edit, so I have to move it into an editable codec which my editor likes, so I convert them all into Prores 422 using Streamclip.

If all this is a bit double dutch, have a look through the web, there's lots of stuff out there about codecs.

Streamclip is free btw and is a great tool, can be found here http://www.squared5.com/

Good luck.

CC

Thanks guys,

ok, so I've managed to convert a few files from .MOV to MPEG now and started to mess about with WMM, not impressed really, its ok and does the job but very basic...

Is there a better free package out there or even a cheap one for sale?

Also, after conversion, it seems the quality has become slightly worse, is this normal? Surely not for digital files...?

Bottom line is that Window Movie Maker is a horrible NLE, very cheap and buggy. You might want to consider moving up to a decent NLE for PCs like Edius or Premier Pro CS5. However, the suggestion to use the free MPEG Streamclip is a good one. You can set your in and out points and export into almost any codec you may want. I have heard that it can be problematic on a PC. I wouldn't know but on a MAC it is perfectly stable.

Steve

Bottom line is that Window Movie Maker is a horrible NLE, very cheap and buggy. You might want to consider moving up to a decent NLE for PCs like Edius or Premier Pro CS5. However, the suggestion to use the free MPEG Streamclip is a good one. You can set your in and out points and export into almost any codec you may want. I have heard that it can be problematic on a PC. I wouldn't know but on a MAC it is perfectly stable.

Steve

Movie Maker is free, so I didn't expect much. I was very surprised how easy it is to use and how well it works with SD footage. My HDV footage stutters bad, but I can still edit it in Movie Maker.

My local UW photo/video club is 99% photo people. I've gotten some members to experiment with video on their point & shoots. For 1st timers shooting non HD, Movie Maker is very good to learn on. People who have never edited video often find the whole timeline concept confusing. The storyboard option is great for beginners and they can switch back and forth between timeline view and storyboard view.

After they get up to speed they can buy a better editing program. Maybe something at the entry or middle level from Adobe, Sony Vegas, Pinnicle. But, they have to get past the initial editing hurdle 1st. Many give up on video as a hobby because they don't know how to edit. Movie Maker can be worth a try for those type of people. Best of all, the software is free.

The Corel product isn't half bad. It is normally $99 but there are specials at $59. It does not do frames but you can adjust per clip setting the white balence, color, brightness etc. You can also split and trim clips. It will handle h.264. I used Premier a LONG time ago and it was better but more complicated. If all one wants to do is adjust a few clips, stitch them together and add a sound track it is more than good enough.

Generaly speaking it is good to set white balance for every clip. You need a grey glove, fin or something.

Regards,