Any free alternatives to Windows Movie Maker?

KeithP

In your other thread, you state that your WMM problem has been resolved...

<snip>
but at least it's sorted now!

I cannot suggest a free alternative to WMM because WMM suits me fine. But please can you remind us just what is the problem you have with WMM, as if it was ok you surely wouldn't be looking for an alternative.
:beer:

jmc160

WMM is now included as one of the options on Windows Live. You could try installing that one. Get it from here.

BE WARNED -this is Beta software, which means it's not fully released, and not fully supported. The fact it's gone to public Beta means you'll probably be OK, but you should be aware it could potentially cause issues with your computer.

herman2811

KeithP wrote: »

In your other thread, you state that your WMM problem has been resolved... I cannot suggest a free alternative to WMM because WMM suits me fine. But please can you remind us just what is the problem you have with WMM, as if it was ok you surely wouldn't be looking for an alternative.
:beer:

Yes, although that previous problem has now been sorted, the issue I have with WMM is as follows:

I want to make DVDs of some home footage from my new camcorder, and unfortunately I seem to lose most of the quality from the footage when I use WMM. Apart from that, WMM does exactly what I want!

EDIT: now when I try to load the relevant mpg files onto WMM, they don't play at all... weird.

I can use the software supplied with the camcorder, but frankly, it's rubbish and apart from the issues above, WMM is much better.

So I'm just struggling to find an alternative that does exactly the same stuff, but will actually load the files and NOT lose any quality!

herman2811

jmc160 wrote: »

WMM is now included as one of the options on Windows Live. You could try installing that one. Get it from here.

BE WARNED -this is Beta software, which means it's not fully released, and not fully supported. The fact it's gone to public Beta means you'll probably be OK, but you should be aware it could potentially cause issues with your computer.

How is this different from WMM that came already on my vista computer?

timbim_2

For dual booting linux, download and burn the ubuntu live cd, install onto a new partition on your HDD, which can be set up from within the installer, and then use add/remove programs to install kino dv. Simple to me, but I appreciate that linux isn't suited to everyone.

herman2811

jmc160 wrote: »

WMM is now included as one of the options on Windows Live. You could try installing that one. Get it from here.

BE WARNED -this is Beta software, which means it's not fully released, and not fully supported. The fact it's gone to public Beta means you'll probably be OK, but you should be aware it could potentially cause issues with your computer.

Would installing this beta version overwrite WMM that I already have on my computer? Or could I keep both? (I'd prefer to keep the original WMM, just in case!)

Was also wondering how this new version differs?

jmc160

herman2811 wrote: »

Would installing this beta version overwrite WMM that I already have on my computer? Or could I keep both? (I'd prefer to keep the original WMM, just in case!)

Was also wondering how this new version differs?

In all honesty, I haven't a clue as I haven't istalled it myself. You were lookig for a free alternative as you said you're having issues with the currentl installation. My suggestion was an initial one based on the info you'd given.

You say you're losing quality somewhere along the line - what options are you selecting when you save to the computer?

What's the make/model of the camcorder?

What method are you using to transfer the footage to your computer? What options are you chosing at this stage? Are you using WMM to do the transfer?

You say the files won't even play now... Wat exactly do you get when you try to play them? And is this in WMM or Media Player?

Donnie

Not much for free...you could try VirtualDub.

I would have thought that you need an MPEG2 editor, such as from Womble. Trial versions are available from the website.

You can use the free program SDCopy to rename your files, if necessary.

herman2811

jmc160 wrote: »

In all honesty, I haven't a clue as I haven't istalled it myself. You were lookig for a free alternative as you said you're having issues with the currentl installation. My suggestion was an initial one based on the info you'd given.

You say you're losing quality somewhere along the line - what options are you selecting when you save to the computer?

What's the make/model of the camcorder?

What method are you using to transfer the footage to your computer? What options are you chosing at this stage? Are you using WMM to do the transfer?

You say the files won't even play now... Wat exactly do you get when you try to play them? And is this in WMM or Media Player?

Ok, I'll start at the beginning...

I bought a Canon FS100 camcorder (writes only to SD card), and the first issue I had was when I transferred the footage to my PC. Initally I took the SD card and put it directly into the PC, which resulted in .MOD files on my PC, that WMM would not read. Eventually I found out that keeping the SD card in the camcorder and using the supplied software to transfer the footage over resulted in .mpg files being saved instead, which could be read by WMM!

The next issue was that WMM does not create DVD files, so I couldn't burn a DVD, but I found some other software on the net that will convert for me.

Anyway, my PC has been acting very strange... just lately, when I try to watch any of my camcorder footage using windows media player, I get a strange buzzing noise in the background, however the files are fine when using other media players. Bizarrely, as of last night, this issue no longer exists and they work fine in windows media player again.

So when in the past I tried to use WMM, I found the finished quality of the video to be noticably reduced... which is why I was after an alternative... however, as I said, something changed on my PC last night, which means after I tried it again last night, it now looks ok! The file size of this movie is still smaller than the original footage, but the quality of the video, to the naked eye, was not visibly reduced.

So I guess in theory, as long as nothing changes again, I no longer need an alternative, although it might be nice to have a back-up just in case!

I'm considering downloading WMM beta as someone suggested, but I'm a little wary... if it aint broke, don't fix it!

It would be helpful if I knew what changes have been made on WMM beta (ie if it's worth getting), and whether or not I will still have the original WMM on my PC if I installed beta.

jmc160

I agree, if it's all working again now, don't make any changes!

I have a Windows 7 machine I'm testing out at home currently and, as that doesn't have WMM pre-installed, I'm happy to install it and let you know if anything's different.

As for keeping your original WMM installation, I don't know the answer to that one but I'd hold off on installing that for now if I were you. You can always download and keep the installation files, just in case, then install it if you feel it's necessary later on.

I'll get it installed tonight and let you know what's changed.

Just out of interest, have you tried importing directly from the camcorder into WMM? IIRC, doing it this way lets you choose the quality you want to save it as.