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Having copied a video file to your PC, convert it to a suitable format for editing.

So you have a video file that you want to edit and upload to YouTube or a similar video sharing site. What next? Well, this file may have come from any of a number of possible sources, and as it stands it quite possibly isn't compatible with your video editing software. The answer is to convert it to a suitable format using a video encoding utility. We'll use SUPER, an encoding program from eRightSoft, because it's free of charge and relatively straightforward. Don't be put off by its main screen, which is full of stuff that will mean nothing to you at first; it's actually very easy to use.

We'll use a 3GP movie file copied to a PC from a Nokia mobile phone, but the basic principles shown here will work for a wide variety of video formats and codecs. All you really need to know is that you want to create an AVI file in an MPEG-4 format, encoded with Xvid and using MP3 audio. (And you do know that, because we just told you.) SUPER will do the rest.

	1 Download SUPER and install the program as instructed. Drag your 3GP file onto the file queueing area at the bottom of SUPER's main screen. Ensure the tick box next to it is enabled. If you have a collection of files to encode, it makes sense to drag them all into this area at once.

	2 At the top of the SUPER screen you'll find three main options. The first is where you choose the Output Container. Set this to avi to create an AVI file. The second option, Output Video Codec, needs to be set to MPEG-4. Finally, the third box governs the audio format of the video file you'll create. Choose MP3.

	3 Click the Encode (Active Files) button at the bottom of the screen. When asked, choose the Xvid codec. The program will now spend a fairly long time processing the video. If you have more than one file in the queue, you should leave the PC for at least a few minutes.

	4 The converted files should appear as AVI files in the same directory as your originals. Check that they work in Windows Media Player by double-clicking each. If they play, you're ready to move onto the Editing walkthrough to make important changes to your content.