There is a lot of interest in editing Flip video with editors other than FlipShare -- particularly with the various flavors of Windows Movie Maker that are packaged with, or downloadable for, different versions of the Windows operating system.

Windows XP and Windows Movie Maker 2.1

I figured out a way to get Flip video transcoded for editing in the Windows Movie Maker 2.1 version that comes with XP, and then to create an HD movie from that, and wrote an article about it for FlipInFocus members. FlipInFocus members can find that article here:

How to Edit Flip HD Video Using Windows XP and Windows Movie Maker 2.1

Windows Vista and Windows Movie Maker 6.0

If you run Vista's Home Premium or Ultimate edition, you should have received Windows Movie Maker 6.0 with it. While it appears that you can't edit .MP4 files with it -- the filetype doesn't display when you try to import video -- you actually can edit Flip videos by simply dragging them into WMM6.0's workspace. It's a pretty powerful program, so that's a win.

Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Live Movie Maker

Windows Live Movie Maker is the next video editing application from Microsoft.  The program is available for free from Microsoft for Vista users, here, and ships with Windows 7.

The developers of Windows Live Movie Maker seems to have started from scratch.  It sports a whole new user interface.  I haven't gotten used to it yet, and haven't figured out how to do some things I could do with the older program, but the reverse is also true: It adds some features, like direct publishing to Facebook, YouTube, SmugMug, and others that weren't present in the non-Live (dead?) versions.  It's certainly a much more powerful program than FlipShare, and it's free, so it's at least worth a look.

Perhaps the most important feature of Windows Live Movie Maker is that it adds a number of video filetypes to its compatibility list.  The list is extensive, and you can see it here.  The most important of these, for Flip users, is that Windows Live Movie Maker is supposed to be able to edit .MP4 files.  However, it turns out that the particular 'flavor' of Flip's .MP4 files is only kinda sorta compatible.  They import fine, but when you play them, the audio is speeded up, and out of sync with the video.

Not to worry.  Here's what to do:

1. Export the videos from FlipShare that you want to edit with Windows Live Movie Maker.
2. Rename each file, changing the extension ".MP4" to ".MOV".
3. Import the files into Windows Live Movie Maker, which is also compatible with .MOV files.  Audio and video are now in sync.

Windows 7 Users who Want to Use Windows Movie Maker 6.0

In another members-only article, I describe how to save the necessary files from Windows Movie Maker 6.0 from your Vista installation, upgrade to Windows 7, and re-install Windows Movie Maker 6 on Windows 7.  That gives you two powerful editors for Windows 7. It's important to read this before the upgrade, though, so you know how to save it before it gets over-written.