I've got Windows Movie Maker 5.1 on WinXP Pro SP3. I am using it because I don't know what else to use except (I've heard) virtualdub. But virtualdub seems more complicated to use. Well in fact I did try it but it said the source file had variable bit rate audio, which was non-standard, and I should do the following..... something difficult looking..... I did try to use Adobe Premiere thinking that was the grouse gear, world beater, top drawer hunky dory fix-all, but it wouldn't eat the source file and their gurus on their forum said it can't do it.... They said use something 'more consumer oriented' (!) like WMM. So........ I am trying to extract the song and dance routines from an .avi file I have which has an xVid encoded movie in it. Never done any of this before. I make a new project. I import the .avi to collections - it is the ony thing there. I drag it into the timeline. I play a little to test and find the routine I want. I cut before the dance routine. I cut after the dance routine. I delete the before stuff. I delete the after stuff. I save the project. I make movie. I get a .wmv file which WMM doesn't play even though I clicked the box 'play movie when I click 'finish'' I play it with media player classic, with VLC media player, with windows media player and more....... they all play the sound, but no video. Earlier when I tried just highlighting a section cut off without deleting the stuff before and after, I managed to get a movie out of it (which was much bigger and took much longer to make) and it played video with no sound! Can anyone help me with this? There seems nothing to tweak or twiddle. I thought of the 'keyframe' thing but there seems no way to find them.....
avidemux .. load file.. just say "yes" if it asks you to make timemaps and stuff.. scan forward to where you want to start a section .. click the A/ cut tool .. find the end .. click the B/ cut .. save as (give it a name.. and extension.. .avi..) leave everything else to "copy" almost immediately you will have that bit .. do the same with any other sections you require one at a time.. IF you then run into keyframe problems investigate what differences there may be between the files.. tho avidemux does a good job chopping up video you may need to tweak them slightly.. a quick add of 2 line from top and bottom then run through again and crop them totally cures keyframe problems.. tho as you have built a new time map before starting it shouldn't be a problem.. read the wiki to know more. whats hard about that? what are you doing anyway.. ripping the music bits out of a Blooywood musical?
Load/drag the AVI into AviDemux. If you use Key frames as the cut points, you can select a bit with the A/B buttons and press the 'Del' key - then select the next bit you don't want and 'Del. When you are finished, save the file and give it a new name (make sure you add the extension, e.g. newfile.avi). When you use Key Frames to select the bits, you can save the file without any encoding. This ensures that you don't lose any quality. If you must single step at any point to make the cuts you have to change the settings on the left side of the screen before saving. Edit: ps355528, you beat me to it...
