"Cropping" pieces of unwanted video footage?

Question

I have AVI files on my computer of footage I took. I imported it into Windows Movie Maker to make a nice little video to send to friends.
The problem is - the main thing I was trying to focus the camera on is only about the bottom 1/2 of the screen. Is there any way i can get rid of the top half of the footage?

Answer 1

The only free solution I can come up with is a free program called Windows Media Encoder which you can download from Microsoft's website here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

It has an encode from a window feature that allows you to specify the dimensions of your computer screen you'd like the program to convert to a Windows Media Video file.

I would open the video you'd like to edit in Windows Media Player as large as you can manage without going full-screen, then set the dimensions of your encode area to the bottom part of your screen.

Remember that you'll need to keep the encode area dimensions the same aspect ratio (shape of area) as your source video, probably 3:2 or 16x9 for widescreen.

Answer 2

No, not with amateur editing programs. You can crop out frames, but cannot edit within a frame. Make sure you fill the screen with your subject!