Hi guys,

I was wondering if any of the video editing gurus on here can help me!

A friend of mine recenly bought a Toshiba High Definition Camcorder - its not a mega expensive one, but still a nice peice of kit; it has an 80gb hard drive. The problem is once you record your footage and download it to the PC it is in .mp4 video format. The only video editing software she has is Windows Movie Maker and that doesn't support this format. Does anyone know of any (free! ) software available that can convert from .MP4 video into a format that Windows Movie Maker can load? Quite a few seem to come up with a google search but the few she has tried don't seem to do the job.

Thanks,
Anees

[url="http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html"]http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html[/url]

[quote name='aquanuke' post='612536' date='Dec 8 2008, 04:44 PM'][url="http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html"]http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html[/url][/quote]

Thanks

I have this on my PC for when I want to convert movies for use with my Nokia phone; but it has so many settings and seems really complex. Have you actually successfully converted from an MP4 movie to say a .mpg with this?

I actually use it for the same thing as you do which it does really well avi - mp4 for my iphone. Although it also has settings for MOV MPEG and WMA. and im pretty sure movie maker requires WMA.

But I dont think moviemaker is good for HD you will need to lower the quality. Adobe premier would be better.

You shouldn't be converting out FROM mp4, you need software to edit the footage IN this native format if you can, to preserve quality.

Mac users edit mp4 in high-def using iMovie HD which is free with any Mac.
[url="http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/"]http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/[/url]


Surely there is some (not to expensive) way of doing this on Windoze?

[quote name='Tyger' post='612616' date='Dec 8 2008, 07:51 PM']You shouldn't be converting out FROM mp4, you need software to edit the footage IN this native format if you can, to preserve quality.

Mac users edit mp4 in high-def using iMovie HD which is free with any Mac.
[url="http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/"]http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/[/url]


Surely there is some (not to expensive) way of doing this on Windoze?[/quote]

Seriously?!

Thats obviously no help to him as he doesnt have a mac, so why post it?

[quote name='sparkystav' post='612658' date='Dec 8 2008, 09:01 PM']Thats obviously no help to him as he doesnt have a mac, so why post it?[/quote]
I think we can guess why he posted it though

Sparky:

a) Read the first line.

I posted a link to show that this can be done and free software is available and so should be also on Windows.

OK?

Right.

I have in fact been looking for something to do what he wanted, rather than making an even more pointless post than you thought mine was.


Try This:

It looks quite scary but the Beginners Link may be the place to point your friend

[url="http://www.dogcamsport.co.uk/how-to-edit-mpeg4-mp4-video-files.htm"]http://www.dogcamsport.co.uk/how-to-edit-m...video-files.htm[/url]

EDIT: I think that was the same software aquanuke linked to! Oh well!

I'm sure there are some very good freeware video editors for Windows, I'll have a search around and find some.

[quote name='sparkystav' post='612658' date='Dec 8 2008, 09:01 PM'][quote name='Tyger' post='612616' date='Dec 8 2008, 07:51 PM']You shouldn't be converting out FROM mp4, you need software to edit the footage IN this native format if you can, to preserve quality.

Mac users edit mp4 in high-def using iMovie HD which is free with any Mac.
[url="http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/"]http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/[/url]


Surely there is some (not to expensive) way of doing this on Windoze?[/quote]

Seriously?!

Thats obviously no help to him as he doesnt have a mac, so why post it?
[/quote]

Thanks for the help Stav I do actually have a Mac, but this is for my friend, so I can not suggest using a Mac because she doesn't have one!

Tyger - thanks for the link to iMovie HD.

What version of Windows does your friend have ? Vista Premium and Ultimate editions have a version of Windows Movie Maker that can import HD video.

[quote name='Steviewevie' post='612675' date='Dec 8 2008, 09:19 PM']What version of Windows does your friend have ? Vista Premium and Ultimate editions have a version of Windows Movie Maker that can import HD video.[/quote]

Windows XP

[quote name='Anees' post='612681' date='Dec 8 2008, 09:28 PM'][quote name='Steviewevie' post='612675' date='Dec 8 2008, 09:19 PM']What version of Windows does your friend have ? Vista Premium and Ultimate editions have a version of Windows Movie Maker that can import HD video.[/quote]

Windows XP
[/quote]
ok, so Windows Movie Maker isn't going to be able to handle the HD. Not sure your friend is going to be able to do much for free with HD video. There are various free conversion utilities as has been said, I've used SUPER myself (although not for this same purpose).

You could try something like [url="http://www.virtualdub.org/"]Virtualdub[/url] which does conversions and could be used for some basic editing (e.g. splitting the video into sections).

If your friend has an HD camcorder, then why not invest in some proper editing software so as to be able to make full use of it ?

[quote name='Steviewevie' post='612685' date='Dec 8 2008, 09:34 PM'][quote name='Anees' post='612681' date='Dec 8 2008, 09:28 PM'][quote name='Steviewevie' post='612675' date='Dec 8 2008, 09:19 PM']What version of Windows does your friend have ? Vista Premium and Ultimate editions have a version of Windows Movie Maker that can import HD video.[/quote]

Windows XP
[/quote]
ok, so Windows Movie Maker isn't going to be able to handle the HD. Not sure your friend is going to be able to do much for free with HD video. There are various free conversion utilities as has been said, I've used SUPER myself (although not for this same purpose).

You could try something like [url="http://www.virtualdub.org/"]Virtualdub[/url] which does conversions and could be used for some basic editing (e.g. splitting the video into sections).

If your friend has an HD camcorder, then why not invest in some proper editing software so as to be able to make full use of it ?
[/quote]

Thanks for your suggestions. Apprecaited it
She has only just got the camcorder, so having a play at the moment, but I'm sure she will look into some decent software.