But then sometimes you buy a product that saves your pictures and videos in a format which is not supported by windows movie maker. In that case, or if you want to do something that windows movie maker can’t, then you will need some other free video editing tools.

DVDx is a free tool that allows you to copy DVD and convert it as VCD, SVCD, DivX, AVI or WMV in one step. DVDX is a free and open source software. It has a simple user interface, and there is support available for free. There is also a paid version of the software.

MediaCoder is a free and open source transcoder that can help you convert your audio and video files from one format to another. It supports many popular formats such as AVI, XviD, DivX, MP, CD, VCD, DVD, Windows Media audio and video, mpeg, Mp4, among many others. For support options it has a Wiki with conversion tutorials and other related information.

DVDStyler is a free and open source DVD authoring application based on dvdauthor. It allows you to create your own professional looking DVDs that can be played on almost any standalone DVD player and your computer. You can create menus, buttons, add pictures, music, chapters, etc. You can even add your own subtitles to the movies. It has a simple uncluttered interface. Support is available via mailing list, user forum and Wiki. While downloading make sure that you download win32 version for your windows computer. DVDstyler is a cross platform application so you would also see links to downloads for other operating systems aswell.

I love Videohelp Forum for all my video editing related questions. It already has many well written guides to do just about anything with your videos. They also have tools directory that lists hundereds of audio video editing tools categorized as freeware, adware and non-free labes. So if there is something you want to do with your movies but don’t know how to do it and don’t want to spend money on expansive video editing software then videohelp forums is the place for you.

Windows Movie Maker not only has an excellent support for adding text to your videos, it also supports RTL languages such as Urdu, Arabic and Hebrew. However you must have the language support enabled with your operating system. If you can write text in these languages using Notepad then it means you already have this support enabled. Otherwise you will have to enable it by changing settings in Control Panel > Regional and Languages Options.

Windows Movie Maker is a basic video editing tool. It allows you to add titles, subtitles, captions to your videos. It also allows you to trim unwanted portions, Rearrange clips by using simple cut, copy and paste menus, add or remove videos, images and other media. It also gives you the power to add simple video effects to your video.

However there are several things I didn’t like about Windows Movie Maker. For example, when I added subtitles it does not create subtitles in standard formats such as vobsub, srt, and others which could be saved as separate files and then embedded in DVD video. This method would have given power to viewers to turn off subtitles. Now in the video I created with Windows Movie Maker there is no option to turn off subtitles.

Secondly Windows Movie Maker does not have support to create VCDs, DVDs that would play on any popular DVD player. However, you can do that using third party software. You will have to first save your project as a high quality video and then use some other software to create a DVD or VCD. I used Nero 8 for that.

Does any body know any software that could help me creating subtitles in Urdu and save them in standard .sub format?