Im new at all this so maybe this is just a noob question. Eather way i still cant figure out what the problem is. I cant use more then half of the videos I have saved on my computer. Says file cannot be opened. Do I have to format them or something so the software can use them? All of them are just a collection of clips i have collected off the net. I wanted to try out the editing software before i went out and shot my own footage and out my own stuff togeather. SO whats the deal?

the clips from the 'net have probably been encoded in Mpeg1 or Mpeg4 or using some other codec that compresses them a lot.

The software you're using is designed for DV-AVI, uncompressed video from a camera, so although it will support some of the clips you've downloaded, it won't support all of them, and these clips won't give you an acurate idea of the quality you'll get when using proper DV-AVI in your projects.

You could try and borrow someone elses camera and capture some footage, or I think some magazines have uncompressed sample footage from cameras to play about with if you don't have a camera of your own.

If you really want to use the stuff from the 'net, you'll probably have to convert it into a format that the software can use (DV-AVI).

There's plenty of software for doing this, like VirtualDub, Stoik video converter etc.

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P4 1GB Ram 50+160GB, Win XP, Premiere 6, Encore+Photoshop, Lite-on 4x dvd rw.
Sony TRV-250, Panasonic NVGS-75, Canon MV600i

TY. I got it now. U are the only person on all of the boards i posted on that helped me out.

no problem. Glad I could help.

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P4 1GB Ram 50+160GB, Win XP, Premiere 6, Encore+Photoshop, Lite-on 4x dvd rw.
Sony TRV-250, Panasonic NVGS-75, Canon MV600i