How do I import photos and videos into Movie Maker?

You can import photos and videos from many different kinds of cameras and devices to your computer using Movie Maker. When you import photos and videos, they are copied from the camera or device to your computer. After that, you can use them in your movies in Movie Maker, and they'll appear in Photo Gallery too.

Here are some devices that you might import photos or videos from:

A digital camera
A flash memory card, such as an Secure Digital (SD) or CompactFlash memory card, that's in a card reader
A data CD or DVD
A video camera that records to an internal hard drive or flash memory card
A videotape that's in a digital video (DV) camera or High‑Definition Video (HDV) camera
A mobile phone that you've connected to your computer

If Movie Maker is running on Windows 7 and you have a webcam connected and installed on your computer, you can record live video from a webcam. Webcams are often connected to your computer through a USB connection. However, some newer laptops have a built-in webcam on the top of the screen.

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To import photos and videos from a digital camera, hard drive or flash memory-based video camera, memory card reader, or data CD or DVD

Open Movie Maker by clicking the Start button . In the search box, type Movie Maker, and then, in the list of results, click Movie Maker.
Do one of the following, depending on the type of device that you're importing from:
- Connect your digital camera to your computer using its USB cable, and then turn on the camera.
- Connect a video camera that records to an internal hard drive or flash memory card to your computer using a USB connection.
- Insert the flash memory card into a card reader (if you have one).
- Insert the data CD or DVD into the disc drive on your computer.
Click the Movie Maker button, and then click Import from device.
If the Photos and videos will be imported into Photo Gallery message appears, click OK.
In the Import Photos and Videos window, click the device that you want to import photos and videos from, and then click Import.
(Optional) Click More options, make the changes you want, and then click OK. Options can include where to save the files and what format to use for the folder and file names.

If your camera can detect whether you take photos vertically or horizontally, your computer can automatically rotate JPEG photos to the correct orientation when they're imported. To turn off automatic rotation, clear the Rotate photos during import check box.
On the New photos and videos were found page, do one of the following:
- To review, organize, and specify photos and videos to import, click Review, organize, and group items to import, click Next, and then go to the next step.
- To import all the photos and videos at once, click Import all new items now, type a name for all the photos and videos, and then click Next.
  
  All the photos and videos will be imported. Go to step 9 to continue.
On the Select the groups you want to import page, do one or more of the following, and then click Import:
- The photos and videos are grouped by the date they were taken. To change the time interval for the photo and videos groupings, move the Adjust groups slider.
- To import a group of photos and video, select the check box next to the group. Clear the check boxes for groups of photos and videos that you don't want to import.
- To view all of the photos and videos in a group, next to the group, click View all items.
- For each group of photos and videos that you want to import, click Enter a name, and then type a name for the group.
- To assign tags to a group, click Add tags, and then type a new tag name for that group of photos and videos or click an existing tag. If you want to enter more than one tag, type a semicolon between each tag to separate them.
In Photo Gallery, select the check box in the upper-left corner for each photo or video you want to use in your movie.
On the Create tab, in the Share group, click Movie.

The selected photos and videos are added to the storyboard in Movie Maker.

Notes

Before you remove your photos or videos from your memory card or camera, you might want to copy them to recordable DVDs or CDs, an external hard disk, or to a web-based storage service so that you have a backup copy.
Video and music files that use digital rights management (DRM) can't be used in Movie Maker.

To import video from a videotape in a DV camera

Open Movie Maker by clicking the Start button . In the search box, type Movie Maker, and then, in the list of results, click Movie Maker.
Connect your digital video (DV) camera to your computer by using an IEEE 1394 cable, and then switch your digital video camera to Playback/VCR mode.
Click the Movie Maker button, and then click Import from device.
If the Photos and videos will be imported into Photo Gallery message appears, click OK.
In the Import Photos and Videos window, select the DV camera, and then click Import.
(Optional) On the Import video page, click More options, do one or more of the following, and then click OK:
- Select the options that you want to use, such as where to save the files and what format to use for the folder and file names.
- If your videotape contains several different scenes, each scene can be imported as a different file. To do this, select the Import videos as multiple files (unavailable for HD video) check box. If less than 30 seconds elapsed between the end of one scene and the beginning of the next, they're imported as a single file.
On the Import video page, type a name for the video you want to import, do one of the following, and then click Next:
- Click Import the entire video to import all the video on the videotape to your computer. Go to step 10 after the video is imported.
  
  The videotape will be imported to your computer and rewound automatically.
- Click Choose parts of the video to import, and then continue with step 8.
- Click Burn the entire video to DVD and enter a DVD menu title.
  
  The video will be imported to your computer and burned to a DVD. After it's burned to DVD, on the Your DVD is ready page, click Close.
  
  To use this option and burn the video directly to a DVD, Windows DVD Maker must be installed on your computer. You also need to have a DVD burner installed with a blank recordable DVD in it.
  
  In Windows Vista, Windows DVD Maker is included in Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate editions.
  
  In Windows 7, Windows DVD Maker is included in Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, and Windows 7 Ultimate editions.
In the Import video window, use your camera to find the part of video that you want to import first, and then click Import.

If you want to stop importing video after a certain amount of time, select the Stop importing after (min) check box, and then select a time period.
Click Stop to stop importing video, and then do one of the following:
- Use the camera to go to another part of the video that you want to import, and then import that part of video too. Click Finish when you're done importing all the video you want from the videotape.
- If you've imported all the video that you want, click Finish. The video is imported and saved as a DV‑AVI file.
In Photo Gallery, select the check box in the upper-left corner for the video you want to use in your movie.
On the Create tab, in the Share group, click Movie.

The selected photos and videos are added to the storyboard in Movie Maker.