Member Avatar for penbar1

I just purchased a Canon sx 20. The video is in mov format. I had a Canon powershot A series previously. I loved using the Microsoft Movie Maker (have Windows Vista) to make movies with pictures, video clipsand music from the camera shots. It was quick, easy simple to learn. Now I am at a loss how to do it since the camera has MOV. I would love a simple easy way...put in laymans terms I can understand... if that is even feasable. Is seperate a DVD recorder bypassing the hard drive an possible answer?

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Practical follow-up for and others dealing with camera MOV clips and a simple Movie Maker workflow.

Most consumer cameras put H.264 video (and AAC audio) inside a QuickTime/MOV wrapper. That wrapper is not the same as the older AVI/DV formats Movie Maker on Vista expects, so the editing program often refuses to import or behaves slowly. First step: inspect a sample clip to confirm the codecs with MediaInfo (MediaInfo). That tells exactly what you have before converting.

Two practical workflows:

  • Avoid re-encoding when possible: if you just need playback or to archive, rewrap the streams to a modern container (MKV/MP4). Fast and lossless.
  • If you want to edit in Movie Maker on Vista, transcode only the clips you will edit into an editor‑friendly format (DV-AVI for best compatibility, or WMV for smaller files). Two free tools to do this are HandBrake (GUI) and FFmpeg (command line). Example FFmpeg commands:
# lossless rewrap to MKV (no re-encode)
ffmpeg -i input.mov -c copy output.mkv

# transcode to edit-friendly DV-AVI (large files, good for Movie Maker)
ffmpeg -i input.mov -vcodec dvvideo -pix_fmt yuv420p -acodec pcm_s16le output.avi

Work on copies, test a short clip, and check the result in Movie Maker before converting everything. Re-encoding increases disk use and can reduce quality; DV gives best editability but very large files. Burning directly to DVD from the camera skips editing and limits control and quality — fine for a finished consumer disc, but not for making an edited keepsake.

As suggested, trying a different editor can eliminate conversion; as noted, converters help when needed; and ’s caution about vendor lock applies — keep master copies in an open format so future tools can still read them. For tools and docs see FFmpeg (ffmpeg.org) and HandBrake (handbrake.fr).

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for AckleyBarr

I think you have to try Ulead media player.It is best and i used this for movie making.

Member Avatar for penbar1

Thanks I'll look into it!

Member Avatar for remilt

Personal for me the best program for convert mov to avi there is VidLogo.

Member Avatar for justcrowd2010

I honestly have the same concern, Gladly I have found this thread

Member Avatar for penbar1

Thanks for the tip I will certaintly look into it!

Member Avatar for almostbob

never buy anything that locks you to a single proprietary format, routinely they go belly up.
apple consider they are the exception,
but 30 years and 3% of the market??

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