Creating clips
Creating clips lets you separate your video clips into smaller, more manageable pieces.
Clips can be created when you originally import a video file into Windows Movie Maker if you have selected the Create clips for video files check box. However, if this check box is not selected when you import a video file, the file is imported as a single clip rather smaller multiple clips. You can then use clip detection later to divide a video file into smaller clips.
Clips are created in a variety of ways, depending on the video file and video source.
- Video from a DV camera. If you capture video from a DV camera that is connected to an IEEE 1394 port, clips are created based on the time stamp inserted in the video by the DV camera. If no time stamp or other markers are present, the resulting video file is divided into clips based on each significant frame change in the video.
If you import an existing DV-AVI file into Windows Movie Maker and time stamp markers appear in the AVI video file, the file is also separated into smaller clips according to time stamp information.
- Capturing video from an analog video camera or Web camera. If you capture video from an analog camera or Web camera, a clip is created when there is a substantial change in one frame of the video compared to the next frame. This method is used for both live and existing content from an analog source.
The size and duration of the clips is based on the duration of the entire video file. Therefore, video files that are longer in length will have clips that are longer in duration compared to the clips created when a shorter video file is clip detected.
- Windows Media files. If you import a Windows Media file with an .asf or .wmv file name extension that has file markers inserted, a clip is created for each marker. The markers help to divide the file into manageable sizes.
If the source Windows Media file contains no markers or only one marker, a clip is created when there is a substantial change in one frame of the video compared to the next frame.
The time it takes to detect clips in a video file increases as the length of the video file increases. If you click Cancel while clip detection is occurring, clip detection stops at the current point in the video file, the clips that have been detected appear, and the last clip contains the portion of the video file that remained when clip detection was cancelled. You can later click the last clip and then create new clips starting from the last clip at which clip creation was originally cancelled.
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