NOT a Guru!
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
You’ve captured some great video clips but want to edit parts of your movie without paying for a video editing program. The good news is that if you have a Windows operating system, Windows XP and Vista come with a free movie editing software called “Windows Movie Maker.” Here’s your problem: Your digital movie camera’s output is .MOV, which works with Real Player or Quick Time. It will not open in Windows Movie Maker (or Windows Media Player, for that matter).
You can easily convert your video output with a free program called RAD video tools. The developer requests donations and given the ease and flexibilty of the software tool, it’s well worth it to send a few bucks.
Once you have downloaded and installed the program, choose the movie that you would like to convert.
STEP 1 - Choose the movie file that you want to convert.
After you have selected your movie, you will see a prompt that lets you specify the format that you would like to convert your file to. In the image below, I’ve clicked on the drop down menu so that you can see the different formats available. By default, the output will be .avi. You can rename your file in the box on the top left. In the example below, I changed the name of the file from a numeric designation to “Movie01.avi.”
STEP 2 - Select the output format.
After you have completed step 2 above, click the CONVERT button. A popup will appear that asks you to specify the compression format. If you are working with Windows, you should select one of the MPEG formats. I experimented with this before writing this post and found that the “full compression” and other options did not work with Windows Movie Maker or the Windows Media Player.
STEP 3 - Choose your compression format.
After selecting your compression output, RAD goes to work. Although the time shown in the image below is over two hours, RAD quickly converted the file and it actually took about four minutes. The video clip that I used for this example was stored in a folder on my second hard drive. RAD’s output was stored in that same folder.
RAD at work.
Once you have converted your video file, you’re ready to start editing! With Windows Movie Maker, you can add (or mute) sound, create captions or video effects, and more.
Posting videos to YouTube or adding them to your website are an excellent way to attract interested web surfers.
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