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Compatible Video Audio File Formats for Windows Movie maker

Windows Movie Maker, which is included in Windows Live Essential package, can be freely used by all Windows users. It supports drag and drop and has a basic timeline. With Windows Movie Maker, you can record microphone over video, add titles, captions, effects, credits, animations, visual effects. You can split, trim, change the speed, change the start and end points of a video. However, before loading any file types into Windows Movie Maker, make sure that those file fomats are included in Windows Media Maker supported file formats displayed as below.

Windows Movie Maker

Video audio files can be used in Movie Maker

Video files

Video file types (format) File name extensions 
Windows Media Video (WMV) files  .wmv
Windows Media files .asf and .wm
AVCHD files .m2ts, .mts, and .m2t
Apple QuickTime files .mov and .qt
DV‑AVI files .avi
Microsoft Recorded TV Show files .dvr-ms and .wtv
MPEG‑4 movie files .mp4, .mov,.m4v, .3gp, .3g2, and .k3g
MPEG‑2 movie files .mpeg, .mpg, .mpe, .m1v, .mp2, .mpv2, .mod, .vob, and .m2t
MPEG‑1 movie files .m1v
Motion JPEG files .avi and .mov

Notes:

- Video files that use digital rights management (DRM) can't be used in Movie Maker.
- Support for using MPEG2 and Microsoft Recorded TV Show video files in your movie is available only if your computer is running one of the following editions of Windows: Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows Vista Home Premium, or Windows Vista Ultimate.
- AVCHD video files that contain Dolby Digital audio can be used in Movie Maker if your computer is running one of the following editions of Windows: Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, or Windows 7 Ultimate.
- MPEG4 video files that contain AAC audio can be used if you're using Movie Maker on a computer running Windows 7.
- 3GPP and 3GPP2 video files that are often recorded on a mobile phone can be used in Movie Maker if the file contains MPEG4 video, AAC audio, and if Movie Maker is installed on a computer running Windows 7.
- 3GPP video files might contain AMR audio and 3GPP2 files might contain AMR or QCELP audio instead. In these cases, the video will often play, but the audio won't. Files that contain H.263 video might not play in Movie Maker without installing additional codecs.
- Some MPEG4 video files can be used when you're using Movie Maker on a computer running Windows Vista if the necessary audio and video codecs are installed.

Audio files

Audio file types (format) File name extensions
Windows Media Audio (WMA) files .asf, .wm, and .wma
Pulse‑code Modulation (PCM) files .aif, .aiff, and .wav
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) files .m4a
MP3 files .mp3

Notes
- Audio files that use digital rights management (DRM) can't be used in Movie Maker.
- You can use video files that are supported in Movie Maker as audio files.

Import unsupported files with Windows Movie Maker

As Windows Movie Maker supported file formats are very limited, in addition, sometimes, even the file formats that you plan to load into Movie Maker are included in the list above, you may still need to install additional video/audio codec or upgrade your Windows to a premium operating system to let Windows Movie Maker recognize that file types. To release you from this head-scratching issue, a video to Windows Movie Maker conversion tool called Pavtube Video Converter is highly recomended to you, the program has ehanced compatibility with various different media types, you can easily and efficiently convert any insupported file formats such as MTS, M2TS, XAVC S, MXF, H.265/HEVC, FLV, AVI(Divx or Xvid), VOB, MKV, Tivo, etc to Windows Movie Maker native WMV or WMV HD format for fast and smooth post video editing workflow.

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Alternative video editor to Windows Movie Maker

Besides transcoding unsupported file formats for Windows Movie Maker, the program can also act as a simple video editing tool to allow you do do some basic video editing work. You can trim or cut video to remove unwanted parts or segments, merge separate video clips into one file, split large files into small parts by file size, length or count, crop the black bars around the video frame, add video/image/transparent text watermark to video, apply special rendering effects to video, etc.

How to Import and Edit Unsupported Files Formats with Windows Movie Maker?

Step 1: Load unsupported files into the program.

Run the program on your computer and click "File" > "Add Video/Audio" or "Add from folder"  to add unsupported files into the program.

Step 2: Select output format and set destination folder

Click the pull down menu of "Format", then you will be able to select a Windows Movie Maker supported format from the output format profile, choose "HD Video">"WMV HD (*.wmv)" as your output format for editing HD video on Windows Movie Maker.

Tips: For common video, you can either choose to output high quality "WMV3(WMV9)(*.wmv)" format or fast conversion speed "WMV2(WMV8)(*.wmv)" format.

Step 3: Edit video(optional).

Check an item to active the "Video Editor" function, then click the pencil like icon on the top tool bar to open the "Video Editor" window, you can trim video length, crop video black bars, add watermark, apply sepcial rendering effect, remove/replace audio in video, etc.

Step 4: Click "Convert" button to convert video to Windows Movie Maker

Once the conversion is finished, you can click "Open Output Folder" button to get the output files effortlessly, and now you are ready to import and edit any files with Windows Movie Maker. Just import the converted files to Windows Movie Maker for editing via its "Import video" option.

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