Summary: If you’ve captured tons of AVCHD .mts clips on your E-PL3, and want to import them to Windows Movie Maker for basic editing, you may find it’s hard to do so, because the Windows Movie Maker does not recognize E-PL3 AVCHD files at all. This post introduces a workaround to make Windows Movie Maker work with Olympus E-PL3 AVCHD mts clips.
The Olympus E-PL3 is not the best in any particular aspect, but it is a smart choice for people who are looking for an excellent balance of size, features, performance, photo quality, and design for the money.
As a modern camera, the Olympus Pen E-PL3 has the ability to shoot 1080i60 video in AVCHD format at an average bitrate of 17Mbps. Additionally, a 13Mbps option at the same resolution and two 720p options at 13Mbps and 17Mbps are also available. More than that, there’s a 720p mode that shoots editing-friendly Motion JPEG .avi files at 30fps and a standard resolution 640×480.
If you’ve captured tons of AVCHD .mts clips on your E-PL3, and want to import them to Windows Movie Maker for basic editing, you may find it’s hard to do so, because the Windows Movie Maker does not recognize E-PL3 AVCHD files at all. See a user question, “Hi, I have shot lots of AVCHD video files on my Olympus Pen E-PL3 camera. They are mainly my son’s school performances. I have only shot motion jpeg before as I did not shoot much video in the past. Now I want to edit the E-PL3 footage using Windows Movie Maker. Unfortunately, WMM refused opening them. Do I have to transcode E-PL3 AVCHD to something else that Windows Movie Maker can read? If so, can you please advise what program should I use? Thank you.”
If you are in the same situation as mentioned above, we would recommend that you use Video Converter to convert E-PL3 AVCHD to WMV for Windows Movie Maker.
The Video Converter is a converter program designed for transcoding HD media, including camera and camcorder videos files to whatever format you need with best video and audio synchronization. It supported camera brands include Canon, Sony, JVC, Nikon, Panasonic, Fujifilm, Pentax, Red, Blackmagic, Sanyo, and so on. With this little tool (it comes with Windows version and Mac version), you are able to create editable files for NLEs like Windows Movie Maker, Pinnacle Studio, iMovie, Final Cut Express, FCP X, FCP 6/7, Avid MC, DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro CS 6, Sony Vegas, etc. and export playable files for iOS devices, Android devices, HD Media Players, Game consoles and more.
Download a free trial of Video Converter
How to import Olympus E-PL3 AVCHD to Windows Movie Maker?
In order to import E-PL3 mts clips to WMM for editing, follow these steps:
Step 1: Run Video Converter as a professional Olympus AVCHD to WMV Converter. When its main interface comes up, click ‘Add File’ to import Olympus E-PL3 AVCHD media.
Step 2: Select output format for Windows Movie Maker
From the format bar, choose ‘General Video’ > ‘WMV – Windows Media Video (*.wmv)’ as target format or choose ‘HD Video’ > ‘HD WMV Video (*.wmv)’ as output format.
Step 3: Convert Olympus E-PL3 AVCHD MTS files to WMV for WMM
When ready, click ‘Convert’ button to start transcoding Olympus E-PL3 AVCHD MTS clips to WMV for Windows Movie Maker.
As soon as the conversion finished, click ‘Open Folder’ button to get the generated WMV files for editing with Windows Movie Maker.
Also read
Is it possible to open Olympus E-PL3 AVCHD files in FCP X?
How to import and edit Olympus E-PL3 AVCHD video in iMovie?
Can I import Canon H.264 MOV footage into Windows Movie Maker?