Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
If you own a point and click camera that records video, there's a good chance that it saves the files as QuickTime Movies (mov files). Unfortunately, Windows Movie Maker (free) doesn't read that file format. If you want to edit the files (to add a watermark for example) then you're going to have to convert the files first before you can edit them. Here's what you have to do.
You're going to need a program called MPlayer. You can download it for free. It doesn't use an installer. Unzip the files and run it from the extracted folder.
- Download MPlayer and extract the files.
- Download mov2avi.bat and wmv2mp4.bat into the MPlayer directory.
- Drop the mov files (it can be located anywhere) one at a time onto mov2avi.bat
See also: Podcast primer, Movie watermark, MPlayer invocations
Re: Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
Do you have or can you make a mov2wmv.bat file? I used mov2avi.bat, and imported the file into Windows Movie Maker, but when I play it or put it in the timeline, only the audio works - there is no video.
(I tried with a few files. The files work alright, except in WMM.) Would a mov2wmv.bat file be better?
Re: Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
Dude,
This worked AWESOME! It was superfast. I tried converting my videos on a previous program called handbrake and it messed up the sound really bad. I tried every combination I could think of but handbrake just couldn't do it. Plus handbrake took forever compared to this. Thanks for the links.
Re: Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
Yes, could you please elaborate on the steps required after point number 3.? There seems to be something more that is missing. Thanks again. Seems like a good idea that should work great for converting .mov files. Can they then be used in moviemaker for further editing? Or does it have an editing feature like movie maker?
Re: Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
For Step 2, you download the two batch files (.BAT) and put them in the same folder as mplayer.exe from Step 1.
In Step 3, you drag and drop your .MOV file over mov2avi.bat, and let it run.
Once you're done, I assume QIC means that you can edit the new .AVI file in Windows Movie Maker in any way you want - extract segments, add watermarks, compose with other media clips etc.
Re: Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
Simple stuff. Just make a folder in the old c drive, give it a name. Download the 3 files (programs) mentioned into this folder. Unzip the mplayer file into the folder you've made. take a copy of the mov2avi.bat to your desktop. Drag your MOV file from your collection over the icon of the mov2avi on the desktop. the program will then make an avi file in the folder where you got your mov from. Simple!
Re: Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
Nice little standalone procedure. For those having problems after #3, you drag and drop your .mov file onto mov2avi.bat file (which should be in the mplayer folder). This will create another file, which in my case was film.mov.avi. I deleted the .mov part of the name to leave film.avi and all worked well.
One thing that suprised me was that annonymous March 10th said his .mov file was 250MB and came down to a 75MB avi file, I started with a 3.5MB .mov file and ended with a 15MB .avi file which is nearly 5 times larger but it worked well.
Thanks again for the heads-up
Re: Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
I cannot get this to work. I think the problem is on point #2 (Download mov2avi.bat and wmv2mp4.bat into the MPlayer directory.)when I click on those files it just opens a link with a command. I saved the commands in notepad as mov2avi.bat and wmv2mp4.bat and it shows that they are a windows batch file, but I'm not 100% on that. I cannot drop the files onto mov2avi.bat. It just creates the file in the same directory that file is in. Please Help!
Re: Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
I cannot get this to work. I think the problem is on point #2 (Download mov2avi.bat and wmv2mp4.bat into the MPlayer directory.)when I click on those files it just opens a link with a command. I saved the commands in notepad as mov2avi.bat and wmv2mp4.bat and it shows that they are a windows batch file, but I'm not 100% on that. I cannot drop the files onto mov2avi.bat. It just creates the file in the same directory that file is in. Please Help!
Re: Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
this still isn't working for me. I think step #2 is my problem. when I click the links to download the batch files they give me a command line. I copied and pasted the commands into a text file and saved them as the corresponding .bat files. it says they are batch files, but it's not working. when I drop the files onto mov2avi.bat it just copies the file into the same folder as that file. Please Help!
Re: Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
This worked fine for me.
I actually changed the code somewhat though as I needed it to be converted as the maximum possible quality, the bat files listed above did reduce the size, but also lost quality.
Here's what's in my mov2avi.bat file..:
"%~d0\%~p0mencoder" -oac pcm -ovc xvid -xvidencopts fixed_quant=1 -o "%~1.avi" %1
@pause
I basically changed it to XVID instead and added a quality setting of 1 (best possible). It came out equal size to the mov and equal quality, excellent.
Re: Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
This program works GREAT. If it's not working for you, then you didn't follow the directions.
When you extract the files you should have a directory called mplayer that has other subdirectories and files in it... the two files you download in step two go in the MAIN mplayer directory.
If you drop your .mov files into that mplayer directory prior to dropping them into the mov2avi.bat file your output file will also appear in that directory with an .mov.avi extension which you can then rename to just .avi.
Otherwise your converted file will appear in the same directory where your original file is located.
You could also set up another bat file with the info James Badges posted and you'll have two options: smaller files or better quality files.
Re: Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
It works for me, I'll try to work on a video on how to do it to show you guys. I do agree the author hasn't bother to be more specific.
To James Badges:
I used your line of code for my .bat file, and to be honest i didn't notice any quality change on the movie i converted.
Re: Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
oki.. I had big problems with stupid stupid stupid windows when saving those 2 bat files. Stupid windows was saving them as txt what ever I have done. So.. save them as .txt go to command prompt, go to the folder where you have saved them and write rename mov2avi.bat.txt mov2avi.bat and same for the second file.. when you do that then you can really drag your mov file to that icon and the magic happens ! OMG i hate windows..
Re: Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
Please help! This program is brilliant; but i can't get the audio to work. I've tried everything. Using windows.
During encoding it says "opening audio decoder:[faad]
FAAD: failed to initialize the decoder
I've tried downloading faad, faad2, changing to something besides pcm on -oac, etc. but nothing is working.
Please someone that knows how fix this please advise.
Re: Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
I'm confused. When I click onto the links in step 2, they don't download. It just opens a new window with this: "%~d0\%~p0mencoder" -oac lavc -ovc lavc -lavcopts aglobal=1:vglobal=1:vcodec=mpeg4:acodec=aac -of lavf -lavfopts i_certify_that_my_video_stream_does_not_use_b_frames -o "%~1.mp4" %1
@pause
And I don't really understand what people have said in the comments to fix it.. I'm not the greatest with computers (stating the obvious!) so please help!
Re: Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
you have to save the " %~d0\%~p0mencoder" -oac lavc -ovc lavc -lavcopts aglobal=1:vglobal=1:vcodec=mpeg4:acodec=aac -of lavf -lavfopts i_certify_that_my_video_stream_does_not_use_b_frames -o "%~1.mp4" %1 @pause " in notepad. it's not an actual download link
also i found some very basic and easy instructions to do this at http://forums.techarena.in/windows-software/1014311.htm . just follow the same instructions for the wmv2mp4.bat file as well and then follow step three and you're good to go. i also spent hours trying to figure this out before i found the simpler and more informitive instructions