How to Convert Windows Movie Maker Project to AVI, MPG, MP4 or Other Video Formats
Written by Pavan Kumar on April 24, 2009
One of the esteemed readers here Ankush after reading the post on video to audio extraction services shared his problem on converting Windows Movie Maker format (mswmm format) to avi and then to any desired format like 3gp / 3g2 for mobile phones, asf, avi ( includes DivX, H263, H263+, H264, Xvid, MPEG4, MSmpeg4 and others), also dat, fli, flc, flv (normally online videos in this format – flash movie format), mkv, mpg (includes Mpeg I, Mpeg II), mov (for quicktime player includes H263, H263+, H264, MPEG4, etc), mp4 (latest format with high compression – H263, H263+, H264, MPEG4), qt, ogg, real media formats (rm, ram, rmvb), str (Play Station), swf (Flash), ts (HDTV), viv, vob(dvd format) etc.
Though this is a simple solution, I thought dealing with it here would benefit a large user community rather than solving for one. To begin with, let me make it clear mswmm is not a movie format which you can play with any media players, it is the format of movie maker project which should be opened with Windows Movie Maker and not any players.
If you want to convert it to your favorite format for using with different systems, you should first export the project into a movie format and then you may use different video format converters to convert videos from one format to other. After you open the project with Windows Movie Maker, click on Publish Movie.
Now, you will be presented with a window where you can follow the first two steps accordingly and to carry on the third step, you have some options for settings like if you want to keep it in default wmv format (it recommends it as best quality one!) or if you want to compress it to certain file size or otherwise you may also pick the option to convert to avi or also you can change the settings to some preset values in wmv format. It’s better to go with recommended as the quality and size would be better.
Now, you have got the movie in the wmv format with you. Half of the work is now done. Next, you can make use of any video format conversion tools to get it converted into your required format. Choose any best tool for you and convert movie maker video into any video format.
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thanks a ton! love you man…
Hello Pavan,
However what you told is applicable only for Vista users because in XP there is no task like “Publish Movie”. In XP we have to click on “Make a Movie” in the “file” option.