Trimming video files: Windows Media File Edit is acting up

Hello,

I have a whole bunch of WMV videos that I made using Windows Media Encoder and my av/dv converter.

All the editing these WMV files need is to be trimmed at start and end. I've run into a problem with Windows Media File Edit: After setting the "Mark In" and "Mark Out" locations, I save the file (and it goes through the process of saving) but the file trimmed goes untouched.

Now, File Edit has worked for me in the past 2 months that I've had it installed. It didn't trim soon after I installed it, but for some reason in the weeks following, it did. I trimmed 7 videos this way, no problem.

But now I want to trim some more videos, but so far its only correctly trimmed one more, and that after some battleing.

My question is: has anyone else experienced this lag in using the childishly simple Windows Media File Edit? Would anyone be able to suggest a (free, hehe) video trimmer that would make small trims on my WMV files?

Thanks for your time and forum!

Hi,

To be honest i have loads of problems with Windows Media File Editor, it just constantly crashes on my system, however there are loads of shareware tools that you can try, one is
http://www.cleansofts.com/softdownlo..._Splitter.html which may do what you want, although its not free its very cheap and you get a trial so you can test it.
You could always try the trial versions of mainstream software like ulead or premiere, but they are probably overkill for what you are doing.

I will have a look around and see if there is anything better you can use for free, and let you know.

thanks

Avgod, thanks for taking the time. Aye, I was wondering if Media Editor was inherently evil. I guess so. Thank goodnes the encoder still works.

Yes! Splitter is just what I'm looking for ... I think. I've already dloaded it, and I'll run it and see if it fits the bill. Thanks very much for the link.

No problem,

I just remembered the most obvious solution which slipped my mind, and that is to use "mircosoft windows movie maker" which is free, you can trim clips in that easily.

Avgod, I tried Movie Maker, and I ran into the same issue I encountered using the above Splitter, and that is, it takes so darned long to render the trimmed file. With the Windows Edit, it would go quick, and it would render it in the same profile as it was originally. With these other progs, they ask me to choose a WMV file profile and thats where I glitch up.
Partially because, even though I do have the Encoder version 9 installed on my comp, only version 8 is offered in the list of profiles.
Also, because I'm ignorant as to what the original profile is. I've heard that if you render a video with its original settings, it will render faster, which was I assume Media Editor does. In my case, the original wmv file is created with Media Encoder, under the setting "File Archive" with these settings, Medium Quality Video (VBR 75) and FM Audio (CBR). Later, when I'm asked for a wmv file profile under progs like Movie Maker and Splitter, I don't know which to pick. Clearly I'm noob in this area. :^)

Also, I'd appreciate any advice you have on the format I'm encoding with. I've been using the above settings for the wmv files, because I've been burning all these videos to a CD (about 7 fit on each one) but now I'm hoping to put them online. I plan to make them accessible to those with say, broadband at 200 kbps. (I'm currently living in Brazil, and my audience will be Brazilian, so thats why I don't go higher in the broadband range.) If you have any advice as to what format/profile to convert these wmv files into, I need it.

I know in movie maker you can "send to web" , then choose custom, and you should see a lot of options, one is broadband (150k), this will save your movie for you at the required settings for online broadband automatically

Here is a good starting guide if you manually choose settings for creating movies for broadband.

As a starting point try

Audio: 16 Kbps, 22,050 Hz, 16 Bit, Mono.
Video: 15 fps, 320x240, Play around with the target bitrate between 80 and 120 kbps

If you go for a larger frame you might lose some quality trying to squeeze it in to that bitrate