Converting Flip Mino HD video files to edit them on a PC

Chris — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:48:48 +0000

I am dearly love my Flip Mino HD. It is convenient, easy to use, and well designed. So much so, that most all of the videos on my newest project – SpanTube – have been recorded on the Flip Mino HD. Typically, I just import them directly into iMovie on my Mac and edit with no problems.

Recently, however, I decided I might like to try a little green screen fun. I do have a copy of Final Cut Express which I suspect does chroma keying, but I was already familiar with how to do it in Pinnacle Studio 10, which I have installed on my Windows XP machine at work. I also have Adobe Premiere 1.5 that I could use for the same purpose.

The trouble came when I tried to import the .mp4 files directly into either program, as the programs did not support the file format, or so they said.

Now bear in mind that yes, I did install the 3ivx codec on this machine. I even reinstalled it, to no avail. After a series of tweets looking for help, most folks responded thinking I had the regular Flip camera, which saves videos as .AVI files. The high definition Flip Mino does not, it saves files as .mp4.

Well, finally, I have figured out a system to convert these files to a format friendly to the two programs I have on this machine (Pinnacle Studio 10 and Adobe Premiere 1.5). And it’s using freeware software, which is even better.

Some time ago, I had downloaded the Quick Media Converter program that Lifehacker mentioned. I didn’t realize it was as good as it is.

First, go download it and install it. I am using version 3.6.5.

Then, export a clip using the FlipShare software.

Then, drag and drop your exported clip onto the Quick Media Converter screen.

Then, choose AVI DivX Custom Resize from the top menu.

Change the dimensions of the file to 1280×720, which are the same dimensions the Flip Mino HD records in.

Press the convert button.

After conversion, the file appears on your desktop with an appended file name.

I hope this helps. I haven’t seen this answered to this degree anywhere else, so I am hoping this serves the larger community well.

When I exported the video from Pinnacle Studio 10, I used the following settings.

Size: 1280×720

30 FPS

I figured out that the native settings when recording with the Flip Mino HD records audio as 64kbps AAC/AAC+. I didn’t know that. It does sample at 44100, though.

Good luck, and enjoy your HD video editing on a Windows machine!

I’ve only tried this on XP, so keep that in mind.

Crucial Thought » video editing

Converting Flip Mino HD video files to edit them on a PC