The Video Queen > How to Edit Flip Video OUTSIDE of The Flip Video Camera


24 Sep 2010

The Flip used to create video files that could be edited in ANY video editing software, but not any longer.

Flip’s software doesn’t even allow me to EXPORT or even MAKE a MOVIE in another video format!  All Flip videos originate, export as, and makes a movie ONLY in a flip video codec wrapped in an mpeg-4 format.

Bye bye AVI and WMV options.

THE RESULT: Not one of my six video editing software programs on my PC can import any video or movie made by The Flip.

It’s true that some people don’t realize their Flip camera is only an upgrade away from being completely useless to them. This is because some people continually refuse the free software upgrade that Flip prompts them to install each time they plug in their camera to a computer.

THAT’S PART OF THE PROBLEM – The camera I bought is NOT the same camera I own today. The software that runs your flip is called FLIPSHARE and lives on the camera itself.  So if Flip wants to limit your ability to use competing software they just prompt you to install the newest upgrade to FlipShare.

From Wikipedia: “Flip Video’s accompanying software is called FlipShare. The current release, version 5.6, no longer includes a function to convert video to WMV format. While this has been acknowledged by Cisco as a defect, a fix has yet to be announced. Furthermore, there is no way to revert to a previous version once the new software is installed.”

SOLUTION #1
Buy the Kodak Zx1 which also originates its’ video in high quality mpeg-4 format BUT Kodak’s mpeg-4 doesn’t contain the proprietary codec soooo they easily import into other video software programs (for now)! The Zx1 also has an external MIC JACK option!

SOLUTION #2
My second suggestion, use a free software called Super © to convert your flip videos to usable videos that every video editing software program will understand. SUPER  © offers video and audio file conversions into many other formats. I use this gem of a freeware often. And it’s a must have if you own a Flip Video Camera.

Nerissa Oden
http://www.TheVideoQueen.com

PS – If you’re interested in more freeware for video, please visit my website http://www.freemediaguide.com/free_video_makers.html

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