National Bill Murray day. Yes, really. Okay, not really. If you’re snowed in, this is the movie to watch today:To those of who how have absolutely no clue what any of the above means:...

One of the de facto standard movies in every geek’s movie collection is Tron. One of the most exciting scenes from that movie is of course the Light Cycle race:All movie vehicles whether prop or computer-generated usually find some way of making their way into real life… …and now the Tron cycle is a real, street-legal vehicle. It looks very,...

Windows 7 includes DVD creating software called Windows DVD Maker. It is by far one of the easiest programs to create a DVD with. If you wanted any easier, you’d have to use iDVD on a Mac. The software works wonderfully save for one thing – it doesn’t always handle widescreen formats properly. In some instances you may encounter the situation...

To note up front: This is for Windows Live Movie Maker and not the older Windows Movie Maker. WLMM is something which is a separate download in the Windows Live suite of applications. It does not come bundled with Windows 7 but can be added in easily. The last time I tried this software it was in beta form. Admittedly, I hated it. But now the software is...

Said honestly, Windows Live Movie Maker Beta, in a word, sucks. It lost so many features compared to the old Windows Movie Maker that it’s just not worth using. Are you stuck without a free video editor in Windows 7 at this point? No. You can install the old – and far superior – Windows Movie Maker in Windows 7. All you have to do is download...

Since upgrading to Windows 7 I was finally about to try out Windows Live Movie Maker Beta. Summary: I hate it. This software is awful. I have tried hard to find anything good about this app, but the XP version was just so, so much better than this. The only saving grace of this app is that it’s in beta, so I am praying when out of beta this software...

This chapter is a video presentation. [hidepost=1] IMPORTANT NOTE: There is no sound in this clip. This is strictly to show how continuity works in video. [flv:http://pcmech.s3.amazonaws.com/videoediting/continuity.flv 610 458] [/hidepost]

This chapter is a video presentation. [hidepost=1] [flv:http://pcmech.s3.amazonaws.com/videoediting/04_exporting.flv 610 458] [/hidepost]

This chapter is a video presentation. [hidepost=1] [flv:http://pcmech.s3.amazonaws.com/videoediting/03_working_with_timeline.flv 610 458] [/hidepost]

As stated earlier, most simple video editors allow for adding additional audio such as background music and sound effects. Important things to remember: With free video editing software such as Windows Movie Maker, you only have one additional audio track. If you choose to have music played throughout the entire presentation, that audio track is being used and...

A title slate is simply text on-screen and nothing else. Slates are using to introduce scenes into your video should they be necessary. Sometimes the only slates you need is at the beginning (such as stating the title of the video) and at the end (for credits). At other times you may need slates during the video to separate different chapters. For example, if...

A transition from one video clip to another means under most circumstances that an effect is being applied. For example, dissolving (sometimes known as fading) from one clip to another is a digital effect. [hidepost=1] Why Use Transitions? Transitions can be used to make a presentation seem less “harsh”. For example, when starting a presentation it may be...

In simple terms, the difference between video and audio is that video is for motion imagery and audio is for sound. However the way in which video and audio are edited are distinctively different. [hidepost=1] How Video Editing Works When using simple video editing software like Windows Movie Maker or iMovie you only have one primary video track at your...

This chapter is a video presentation. [hidepost=1] [flv:http://pcmech.s3.amazonaws.com/videoediting/02_timeline_and_basic_editing.flv 610 458] [/hidepost]

The timeline is a horizontal bar typically located at the bottom for any video editing software you may use. You use this bar to “jump” to specific points in your video to make edits, such as adding video, removing video, transitions and so on. Using the timeline in modern-day software is very easy because all you have to do is literally drag and drop...

This chapter is a video presentation. [hidepost=1] [flv:http://pcmech.s3.amazonaws.com/videoediting/01_importing_video.flv 610 458] [/hidepost]

When working with video editing software it’s important to understand the file formats you will be working with. The most common formats will be files that end with the extensions AVI, MPG (or MPEG), MOV and WMV. [hidepost=1] AVI AVI means Audio Video Interleave, originally developed by Microsoft in 1992 as part of Video for Windows technology....

In this video, we will introduce Microsoft’s web browser, Internet Explorer. While we’re at it, we’ll introduce the number one search engine online: Google. [hidepost=1] [flv:http://pcmech.s3.amazonaws.com/SiS2/01_internet_explorer.flv 610 458] [/hidepost] [hidepost=2] Download video...