how can I best edit .MOV files?

January 7, 2010 6:09 AM

best/cheapest way to get .mov's edited? it would mostly involve cutting out clutter/swerviness and combining footage from different videos. I'm savvy with audio but I'm a novice in digital video editing.

I have a PC and a cheap digital camera that takes videos. I do a lot of vlogging in the car and taking vids of camping and outdoor sports.

video files off my camera are .MOV's; Windows Media player doesn't even play them, so up to now, I've been uploading them to youtube to find out what they are and label them.

what I'd love to know is what software has worked for the hive. focus would be on free, downloadable a la Audacity for audio, but obviously I'm not holding my breath. I'd love to hear about anything that has worked for you, and a note on the price range so I can look at the big picture and see what's best for me at the moment. thanks

posted by herbplarfegan to technology (8 answers total)

The cheap and free solution, for now, is Windows Movie Maker. Comes with Windows XP and Vista and it supports a pretty good variety of video formats. However, after a brief search, looks like it can't handle MOV files.

You could transcode the MOV file into an AVI file using free software. CNET has this download that looks about right for your needs.

Coming soon, the makers of the VLC media player are making a video editing solution. I can't wait for this to come out. Here's the link: http://vlmc.org/
posted by chitlin at 6:17 AM on January 7, 2010

.mov is a Quicktime file. Quicktime is a free viewer; QuicktimePro is not free but does editing. I don't know any more than that, it's something true of my digital (still) camera also, that I'd been meaning to figure out sometime.
posted by aimedwander at 6:18 AM on January 7, 2010

The quicktime download link is here. That should at least start allowing you to view them without uploading them to the tube. Next step would be Windows Movie Maker
posted by DreamerFi at 6:20 AM on January 7, 2010

Yeah, no need to upload to YouTube just to see them. Quicktime is a free download and will let you view and label them.

A few years ago I bought QTPro, and have used it a few times. I generally find it hard to use, that the documentation is minimal.
posted by anastasiav at 6:21 AM on January 7, 2010

I have the same issue, my Panasonic camera can take videos in Quicktime format but I've never used that feature much since it's so hard to find a way to edit them.
posted by octothorpe at 7:24 AM on January 7, 2010

WinFF will convert your mov files to avi - then you can edit them with just about anything, including Windows Movie Maker, which would do what you want, for free.
posted by COD at 8:08 AM on January 7, 2010

I learned to do basic editing in Premiere in an afternoon after watching Adobe's video tutorials. Edits any video in its native format.

You can get a 30 day trial here.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 1:14 PM on January 7, 2010

Coming back to an old post after a week to add that, after much grief just trying to trim the footage of me turning the camera on and off at the ends of a clip, I found a very simple solution, which might help others, though unfortunately probably not the OP.

I downloaded two converter programs for .mov to .avi or .wmv conversion, but Windows Movie Maker kept complaining about the resulting .avi codecs, and although it would let me edit .wmv files, would not then allow a save as movie. ( Apparently the save problem I was running into was not uncommon and involved mystical rituals to fix, that I never figured out.) Then I got spyware warnings off one of the applications I'd downloaded, and gave up on the whole thing, did a system restore to before I stated messing with it, and used my husband's mac, with installed QuicktimePro for the editing, but was not happy about it.
Then today, I discovered that in fact Picasa does the very simple editing that I want. But not much more. Although it will trim .mov files, and create .mov slideshow presentations out of still images, I do not think Picasa can splice multiple .mov into a single movie. Either that, or I'm oblivious. Still, it's perfect for me, because it's already installed, and does what I need.
posted by aimedwander at 7:40 AM on January 16, 2010