This is an abridged excerpt from Breakthrough Windows Vista from Microsoft Press. If you find it interesting, you can save 37% on the book through our special reader offer.
If you’re like us, you’re guilty of taking lots of pictures and home videos and then shoving the prints, disc or tape in a drawer to be viewed ‘someday’. Chances are, that someday never arrives because the thought of digging through all that stuff is just too overwhelming.
Now, however, you have a nifty little helper in the Windows Vista operating system. Depending on the amount of stuff crammed into your drawer, you can be watching movies of your memories after just a couple of hours in front of your computer.
And you’ll have fun – thankfully, Windows Vista takes what used to be manual drudgery and turns it into creative, high-tech entertainment through the extensive use of click-and-drag options and ready-to-use effects and transitions.
Multiple video files
Sometimes, Windows Movie Maker will create more than one video file when you import a video from videotape. This isn’t necessarily a problem, but it’s important to know about it so you can be sure to keep track of all your files.
Windows Movie Maker will create multiple files when the format of the video on the tape changes or when the aspect ratio (see ‘Aspect Ratios’ in the following text) of the video on the tape changes.
Analogue to digital
Use an analogue-to-DV converter
Using an analogue-to-DV converter offers the most flexibility when converting your tapes. This kind of converter captures VHS video directly to your computer’s video-editing program, which means you can edit the video as you make the conversion. However, it is also the most time-consuming method because you have to encode the video to MPEG-2 and then author a DVD.
Use a hardware analogue-to-mpeg capture device
With this method, you can capture your video directly to your computer. You have limited flexibility, but this is a quick way to make the conversion, and it offers pretty decent quality. You can usually at least add a DVD menu to the video.
Use a camcorder and stand-alone DVD recorder
This option is really just a DVD copy of your tape; there is little flexibility, and it’s unlikely you can add a DVD menu using this method. However, it is hands-down the fastest method of conversion available today.
Import existing videos
You may have videos in a variety of formats, and that’s OK – Windows Movie Maker will accept most of them.
You can also import videos from your digital camera as well as use Windows Easy Transfer to import existing video files to your new computer. If you have video files to import from your network or don’t want to use Windows Easy Transfer, don’t worry. It’s really easy to do in Windows Movie Maker.
Aspect ratios
An aspect ratio is the relation of width to height on the video display, which will show you how your video will actually display in your final published movie. If you want your movie to display like the full-screen view of a standard television, use the 4:3 aspect ratio.
If you prefer a widescreen appearance (which typically displays black bars at the top and bottom), then choose the 16:9 aspect ratio. You can have both in your video library, of course, but if you plan to mix and re-use clips, it’s generally a good idea to stick to just the one aspect ratio to keep file types at reasonable numbers.
What to do when an error message occurs
When you import video, you may sometimes see an error message pop up on your screen. The most common errors involve digital rights management (DRM) and unsupported video file formats. DRM errors are triggered when copyright protections are in place. You cannot import protected DRM files into Windows Movie Maker.
Unsupported video format errors occur when you try to import a file format that is not recognised by Windows Movie Maker. If this type of error occurs, don’t panic. Simply try converting the problem file into a format that Windows Movie Maker does support. You can do this using a non- Microsoft video-editing program, and then try importing the file again.
Making the conversion
If you have home videos on analogue tape, you might want to consider converting them to digital format. Although digital formats may change in the coming years (of course they will!), it’s clear analogue is not making a comeback anytime soon. And for those of us old enough to remember the Beta/VHS wars, well, let’s just say anyone still holding on to a Beta tape is either extremely stubborn or trapped in a time warp. (If you still have LPs, though, it’s actually a badge of honour. Albums are cool!)
Don’t let yourself become the butt of analogue jokes; make your getaway while it still seems reasonable to have a relic in your video archives. Although the conversions may not be perfect quality, they will still be better than having no video at all – and that’s the serious alternative not too far down the road. We’ve highlighted the three main types of conversion in ‘Analogue to Digital’ to the right here. If you don’t have the equipment mentioned, we strongly suggest you head to your local high-tech store, and get one before you lose precious memories.
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