Good video editing software for a n00b?

[forrestcupp]

it does avis....but maybe only in Vista? you choose the dv option and it outputs to avi

I guess I never saw that option. Can it edit avi's too?

 

[atomic tofu]

guess I'll go home and check for you
I would think so...but I'll do it for myself just to make sure...
the only catch of course is this...
say I have my 14gb hd home video...it's 1440x1080....if I convert to dv/ntsc it goes to 720x480 (I think) but still 14gb...or sometimes ends up bigger! lol

I'm currently in the process of revisiting all my home movies to further tailor them...adding texts and effects, etc. So testing that is no bother

EDIT: from MS kb...Recording Video into Windows Movie Maker (Part 3 of 3)

Importing files
You may have material such as existing photos, audio clips, or other video files stored on your computer that you want to use in your movies. You can use these files after you import them into Movie Maker. When you import a file, a clip that refers to the file is created. Clips are the basic building blocks of your movie. The combination of clips, when added and arranged on the storyboard or timeline, forms your entire movie. Movie Maker lets you import many different file types, including the following:
• Video files with an .asf, .avi, or .wmv file extension.
• Movie files with an .mpeg, .mpg, .m1v, .mp2, .mpa, or .mpe file extension.
• Audio files with a .wav, .snd, .au, .aif, .aifc, .aiff, .wma, or .mp3 file extension.
• Windows Media-based files with an .asf, .wm, .wma, or .wmv file extension.
• Still images with a .bmp, .jpg, .jpeg, .jpe, .jfif, .gif, or .dib file extension.

 

[forrestcupp]

guess I'll go home and check for you

I'm using Ubuntu predominantly now, so it's not as easy for me to check. I just remember that it had some file type limitations. You've shown that it can work with a lot of different kinds, but maybe it can only output in a couple of different formats. I didn't think it could output an mpg. But I'm sure I'm totally wrong.

Edit:
I was right. It can only output files to wmv or DV avi. That is the limitation that I remember.

 

[atomic tofu]

nah, I think it imports more than it exports
and wouldn't you know, I didn't check my trusty wiki...
Windows Movie Maker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

specifically states it can only output to wmv or DV/avi

edit: good addendum link for all of us to refer if we have import issues
Windows Live Photo & Video Blog : Movie Maker Vista File Format Support

 

[nOcLuE98]

thank you for all the replies. I appreciate it. I am gonna give my friend some programs to try tomorrow afternoon probably, I will update yall on how they worked out.

 

[EricB]

if you want just one program to edit. use nero vision. if you want to make any video into 3gp use nero recode