Topic: importing DVD clips to windows movie maker

[searyder]

Any one know of a free program  to import DVD clips into Windows Movie Maker or something better free? I've got several clips on dvd's and thought I would challenge myself and create some music to them. Currently I'm ignorant when it comes to videos (i.e You Tube), would like to change that, and am looking to learn how to for the challenge.

[Kevin]

You will need to convert the DVD into a file format that Windows Movie Maker will recognize. It should recognize the popular ones like AVI, WMV, MPEG, etc. Get a program called WinX DVD Ripper Platinum:

http://www.winxdvd.com/resource/convert-dvd-to-wmv.htm

It looks like it's free for the time being although I still see another link for the paid version. Not sure if this "free" version is just a trial period from how they presented it.

Anyway, once you use that program to convert your DVD to the proper format, you should be able to use Windows Movie Maker to import it and do your edits.

[searyder]

Thanks Kevin, I'll look into it.

[searyder]

The free version unfortunately only allows one to rip 5 minutes of video per title. At any rate at this point in time for some reason I can't view any of my videos on my dvd using VLC 1.0.5 as it just keeps buffering and then skipping to various spots on the dvd. I thought it might be the dvd but when playing on another computer using a player other than VLC there is no problem.

[Kevin]

And when using VLC on another computer, does it give you the same buffer issue? Windows Media Player can't play them either?

[searyder]

Actually, the other computer I used has Cyberlink Power DVD player which came with it and not VLC. So what I was getting at was that I find it odd that the current VLC on my computer would not play the particular DVD while another would. I also find it odd that I was able to play that same dvd earlier on a different version of VLC prior to a few updates. Perhaps it might be a good idea for me to download the VLC onto another computer just to see whether VLC might play it. But at the moment my main concern is the other problem I'm having on my main computer located in another topic on the site. But I will keep you informed as soon as I check it out.

Incidentally Window Media Player wouldn't play the dvd either as I would get an error stating that I should change my window display settings and color resolution to a lower one. The settings have been the same for the last 3 years and had not a problem until now.

[Kevin]

A little perplexed here. So VLC does play the video properly on another computer? You mentioned that it didn't which prompted me to ask the question again and also to try using another player.

[searyder]

VLC won't play my video on any computer-it only goes into buffer mode.
Windows Media Player won't play it on my computer but will on a secondary computer.
Another player on a third computer will also play the video.

[Kevin]

What format are you saving your video files? VLC usually will be able to play most videos unless it's a specific format only playable on Windows Media Player.

One thing you can check on your computer is to see if the Windows Media Player is updated to the latest version. You can compare the version to your secondary computer and see if that's the problem.

[searyder]

I believe the video files were saved as ts. I'm not sure as I didn't do the encoding. Both computers have the most current version of the VLC. Same goes for Windows Media Player.

[Kevin]

See if the same problem occurs if you use Media Player Classic. I use this as my main video player and another user (see below) seems to have the problem resolved using this video player:

http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/media-player-classic-can-t-play-ts-files-t357179.html