How to upload video clips from Canon T3i/EOS 600D to Windows Movie Maker

Trouble importing/uploading Canon T3i (EOS 600D) video files to Windows Movie Maker for further editing? Look no futher, find an easy workaround here!



Featuring Canon's DIGIC 4 image processor and an 18.0-megapixel CMOS image sensor - plus cutting-edge technologies like Full HD video recording, Live View shooting, wireless flash photography and even a vari-angle 3.0-inch LCD monitor - the EOS Rebel T3i offers the best of EOS photography in a compact package. This camera is also ideal for video shooting and the capturing of spectacular stills. With a new Vari-angle LCD and more Fps options in 1080p HD, the Canon EOS Rebel T3i is a fierce warrior in its class. The point here, you may find it a painful experience to import video files from Canon T3i to Windows Movie Maker for editing. And there're some frequently asked questions quoted as below.

"When I record a video on my Canon Rebel T3i and try to upload the file to my computer, it saves as a Quick Time Movie file. I have a PC and want to use Windows Movie Maker to edit my videos, and the Quick Time Movie file isn't compatible with Windows Movie Maker. Is there anyway I can choose the file type of the video???"


"I want to upload video clips from my Canon T3i to windows movie maker to make a short bike edit but it pops up with a weird error message about the wrong codec."

The problem lies in that Windows Movie Maker can not support the H.264 codec, not the .mov extension and editing and playing are not the same thing. So the simple change of the file extention means nothing to the problem. Another reason for the impressive video image quality of Canon’s EOS digital SLRs is their use of the sophisticated H.264 compression method for recording video files to the camera's memory card. This is an ideal file type for video capture in an SLR camera, delivering relatively compact file sizes with image quality noticeably superior to alternate video compressions (such as Motion JPEG). So, how to get Windows Movie Maker work perfectly with Canon T3i 1080p .mov clips?

In order to ingest Canon T3i/600D video files into Windows Movie Maker for smooth editing, the easy workaround is to transcode Canon H.264 MOV to a more editing-friendly format, such a Windows Movie Maker's WMV.

To get the work done, first you need to download Brorsoft Video Converter, a powerful high-quality video converter, player and editor. If you're editing Canon T3i MOV files with Windows Movie Maker, Avid Media Composer, Premiere Pro, Vegas Pro, Pinnacle etc. non-linear editing systems without qualit loss, chances are you already installed this great utility. If not, download it from below.



So, what does the workflow look like?

1) Install and launch the Canon T3i Video Converter on your PC, and then click "Add" button to browse to Rebel T5i MOV footage either from cam HDD or SD card or drag the footage from your 700D camera to the program.



> Tips 1: Converter supports batch conversion so that you can add multiple files to convert at one time.
> Tips 2: Check “Merge into one” box to join GoPro H.264 clips together if necessary.

2) Hit the Format box and select HD Video -->WMV HD(*.wmv) on the dropdown menu as output format. Besides, you can also choose Divx HD(*.avi) as output if you have not installed the .wmv codec.



Tip: Click the "Settings" button and customize proper video/ audio parameters if necessary.

Finally, click "Convert" icon and your files will converted into .WMV files ready to be imported into Windows Movie Maker.

You're done! Now you can easily import Canon Rebel T3i/EOS 600D 1080p .mov clips into Windows Movie Maker for editing smoothly.

See Also:
Convert & Trim Canon T3i H.264 MOV clips
Canon T5i to Final Cut Pro workflow
How to ingest Canon T5i video files to iMovie