.MOV files/Movie Maker interaction probelems

I have Windows Vista Home Premium (SP2), take videos w/ Nikon Coolpix L320 which produces .MOV files which I view using VLC player but cannot view w/in Movie Maker. I used VLC player to convert a test .MOV file to .AVI so that Movie Maker would accept it. When I loaded it into Movie Maker, only the audio played and even that was distorted. What to do? Son chomping at the bit for me to put together his baseball highlights. Thanks.

 

Firstly, as you found out, Windows Movie Maker doesn't play *.mov files.
Secondly, even though VLC Media Player is one of the best, it's not ideal for converting video files.

Try converting the video file with Format Factory.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/format_factory.html

And read the text in RED prior to downloading.

 

If I go this route, which extension do you recommend to convert to? Any tweaks to compression, etc.? Thanks.

 

I would convert to the Windows Media Video (.wmv) format. The bitrate and resolution will determine the quality of the end product - only you can decide. That said, converting from one format to another, and then editing, is not ideal. I suggest you first do the editing and then convert to another format. That means you'll have to look at another program instead of Windows Movie Maker.

Unfortunately there are so many free video converting/editing/splitting/joining programs available that's it's difficult to recommend one that'll do everything. And the free ones that can do most of what the average user needs are often not that easy to use.

What are you trying to do with the videos in Windows Movie Maker?

Also, have you tried using VLC media player to convert the videos to .wmv?

 

Re: .MOV files/Movie Maker interaction problems

So I have taken a number of videos of son's baseball at-bats, and transferred them to my laptop and need to edit into short clip highlights to assemble in one "movie". It doesn't need to have the audio since I tend to talk during while videoing. Thanks.

 

Did you see this?

 

Attached pictures is what I see for convert options in VLC. I tried the WMV + ASF option but Movie Maker didn't like it. I tried again giving the file .MWV extension but Movie Maker said the file wasn't indexed. Exasperating.

 

I don't understand why the WMV + WMA (ASF) isn't working. Unfortunately I don't have a MOV file to test.

I think your best option would be to convert the MOV file to WMV with a professional program. Head over to Digiarty and download WinX HD video Converter Deluxe. It costs $49,95 but... it's FREE until mid-July. I have this in Windows XP and it's realy a great program and doesn't come bundled with any :crap

http://www.winxdvd.com/giveaway/

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

.wmv is probably one of the worst formats you can convert to, mp4 is a much more common standard format.

 

Try this converter
http://www.pazera-software.com/products/mov-to-avi-converter/

convert one to avi and another to mpeg and see which works better.

I have used Pazera audio and video converters for years. Unfortunately, I do not have an MOV file to run some tests.