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I just got a little Flip Ultra mini camcorder. I'm looking for something to cut down longer videos into short clips and maybe add fade in and fade out, then save and upload to Youtube or to my website. Looking for something very simple. I don't need advanced editing features.

I appreciate your suggestions or comments based on programs you use or know of. Free or inexpensive is what I need. Thanks

Ulead link but Windows Movie Maker will do all the basics including compression for the internet.

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Thanks Karyoker, I tried messing around with windows Movie Maker and it's not a very good program, I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how to use it. I did make a short clip from a longer clip with a fade in and a fade out. Pain in the keester though. Maybe it's just that I'm not familiar with the program yet?

The Flip Ultra saves the file as an AVI file and the Movie Maker program saves it as WMV file. I uploaded the raw AVI file to Youtube as a test, but I don't know if Youtube takes WMV files. I just started messing with this, I don't know anything about this stuff yet.

I could probably find a freeware program that converts between different video file formats. I'm surprised that WMM doesn't give you the option to save the file as an AVI or MPEG file.

Hang in there stogie! It takes time. One thing for sure... You get what you pay for.
As karyoker suggested... Ulead. Not a bad choice. I have ulead media studio pro 8.
It ranks right behind Adobe Premiere. Ulead has been bought out by Corel.
Too Bad Corel Won't Upgrade media Studio Pro 8 to Vista. Now I have switched to Avid XPress Pro.

TIP: If you're having trouble with Windows Movie Maker, which is practically featureless,
read up on "codec compressor decompressor". Then you'll understand why Windows Movie Maker will give you the dreaded, "Cookie Cutter Effect."

ALSO: Uploading to Utube usually require the files to be CONVERTED TO FLV format...
AVI OR MPEG files are WAY TO BIG.

sw00000p

Not true. You can upload over 100 different file formats or codecs, they will automatically convert them to FLV format.

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True! That's precisely what I meant. Perhaps it didn't come out right.
The Avi and Mpeg inport to Utube without Conversion to flv is simply to large.

sw00000p

To learn all about Windows Movie Maker, try searching on YouTube for "Windows Movie Maker Tutoral". Also, see http://www.papajohn.org/.

WMV files are perfectly fine for uploading to YouTube. They compress nicely, much smaller than AVI files, and will be accepted and processed by YouTube with no problems.

You will find that you can actually do a fair amount with Movie Maker. If you want to graduate to the more powerful stuff, try Sony Vegas Movie Studio. It is a very robust and feature rich video editor with tons of free tutorials available from Sony, YouTube and many websites. You can buy it on eBay for about $30. I am a professional trainer in Sony Vegas and know that beginners can get up and running very quickly.

Good luck.

Sony Vegas! I totally agree. Compared to WMM... it like Day and Night!

sw00000p

Thanks, I noticed that Sony Vegas was available on ebay for a reasonable price and it was highly recommended on other forums too. Since I may be doing quite a bit of this I will likely get Vegas and invest the time to learn how to use it. I may eventually be able to make some money editing video for other musicians and some business people that I know. Thanks for the suggestions and advice from everyone.