So I learnt a new trick with Windows Movie Maker today. To a beginner, the application may seem easy to use, but when you’re trying do advance customizations on it, it’s horrible.
Things I don’t like about it:
- The only way to create clips of long videos is by using the beginning and endng trim lines. What they need is to be able to enter start time and end time for this. Also the trim lines jumps in increments determined by the program so by default it hops every 5 seconds giving you even less control of where you want it to end
- Only 2 default aspect ratios. 4:3 or 16:9. If you’re video is not one of those ratios, then it stretches one of the dimensions.
- During save, it doesn’t explicitly allow you to set the resolution nor bitrate. Instead you have the option of choosing the max size or going through a list of video settings that’ll choose the size for you.
Things I like about it:
- Really easy to use
- Everything’s pretty much drag and drop
- Allows you to set a max size to determine the best bitrate. Good when video servers cap you at a certain file size (YouTube: 100MB / PutFile: 25MB)
- Works with almost all video files. (there were a few that I had problems with)
- Creates .wmv files that plays in any Windows Media Player
I did have another problem with it before was that trying to move the begin and end trim lines was an arduous process. On the bottom of the screen, there’s a time line that by default shows about 3 minutes worth of clip and you can scroll until you hit the end. If I had a 60 minute clip before, I would have to move the begin trim line 3 minutes in, scroll, and repeat the process. I didn’t find a easy way to zoom in or out of the time line, until I accidentally found out how to do it today.
Apparently, by holding down CTRL and using your scroll wheel (CTRL + SCROLL WHEEL), you can zoom in and out of the time line like you would in a picture. Now I can zoom out so far that the entire timeline fits on one screen and then move the trim lines from there. Afterwards, I would zoom in to both trim lines, so the increments/decrements will be small and I could be more precise on when to exactly start and stop. Still not as great as being able to enter the stard and end time, but way better than what I had before.
So I went ahead and made these clips where I took screenshots of and posted in one of my previous entries: Favorite Detective Conan moments:
Detective Conan – NEED NOT TO KNOW (mirror).
Detective Conan – Identity Almost Revealed to Ran (mirror)
If you’re using the PutFile link, you might need to change View Size to WIDE for the dimensions to be correct.