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Flip cameras and MP4s

The new Flip Ultra camera (120 min. version), as well as the HD models, use an MP4 format. This doesn’t import directly into WIndows Movie Maker like the AVIs do, but the conversion process to WMV files is very easy using the built in Flip software.

To do this, you’ll first need to install the FlipShare software, which you can do directly from the camera. Then:

  • Plug in your camera and run FlipShare.
  • Select the videos you want to convert.
  • Click Online under Share at the bottom of the screen.
  • Select Other Web sites. Click Next.
  • Click the radio button next to Other. Click Next.
  • Click Go and wait until you get a message that the conversion is done. (There’s a status box in the lower left corner. Depending on the number of length of clips you’re converting, it can take a while.)
  • The converted clips will be put in a folder on your desktop.

Other notes of interest….

- This process reduces the resolution of HD movies. Depending on your application, this may or may not be important.

- Make sure you do this BEFORE you take movies off your camera. Also, don’t rename the movies on your camera, or FlipShare won’t recognize them. (You can rename them after you do the conversion.)

- For Mac users, the MP4 files will import directly into iMovie.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Flip cameras and MP4s”

  1. Traci Landry Says:
    August 4th, 2009 at 4:42 am

    Hi Karen, Thanks for this info. We are considering purchasing some more flip video cameras. Do you think we should just stick with the old kind? Or is the new one worth this extra effort? Just wondering. Thanks.

  2. Karen Says:
    August 5th, 2009 at 6:59 am

    Unfortunately, there isn’t really an option. All the Flip cameras are using MP4 format now. Fortunately, the conversion really isn’t bad, and for those on Macs, it’s actually easier.

  3. Mobile Musings » Blog Archive » Flip tip Says:
    November 8th, 2009 at 6:50 pm

    [...] while back, I wrote about a way to convert the MP4s that the new Flip cameras create into WMV files, so that they are able to be imported into Windows [...]

  4. Lindsey Says:
    November 12th, 2009 at 7:30 am

    This is THE most helpful blog post! Thanks so much!! Perhaps there has been a change w/flipshare, b/c I had already cut and renamed my clips in flipshare before following this process and it still worked.

  5. Karen Says:
    November 14th, 2009 at 6:48 am

    Thanks, Lindsey. I’m glad it was helpful. I think that renaming in Flipshare is fine, but if you rename then out of Flipshare (on the drive itself), it creates problems.

  6. Mobile Musings » Blog Archive » Flipshare conversion to WMV Says:
    March 9th, 2010 at 10:53 am

    [...] reported here earlier about an easy way to convert Flip camera movies to WMV files so that you can import them into Windows Movie [...]

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