Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast.

Tutorials Win: Microsoft Windows Forum

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    - Digital Video Beginner Questions Getting started and buying all new equipment. Have brand new Dell computer with high end video chip, USB and Firewire ports and DVD Burner. 1. Advantages of MiniDV verus little discs recorders? 2. What is best video editing software, can you add music to video? 3. How do I get my old VHS video tapes into digital format? Can they be edited using video editing software? 4. Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39304
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    - Weird audio issue after save? I have saved a movie to my hard drive in dv-avi format. When playing back, the music sounds tinny (like compressed or to much noise removal in Audacity) and skips and jumps, usually when text is appearing or some transition effect is going...or so it seems, maybe it's random. The overall timeline seems fine. The tunes were ripped into .wma format and the movie sounds great when played in MM before the save. Any ideas? I would like to burn this movie eventually... Thanks! Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39302
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    - Import Photostory wmv into Premiere This may not be the best place to post this, but I am hoping someone may have a clue.... I use MS Photostory 3 to make some nice slide shows, and like to incorperate them in with other family movies. I recently purchased Adobe Premiere Elements after using Moviemaker2 for some time. Premiere elements is supposed to import wmv files, however it seems that a number of users (judging from the Adboe premiere elements user forum) have had issues related to importing wmv files from Photostories. I am not sure if it is an issue related to just wmv files from photostories or any wmv (all the topics I have seen are about photostories wmv but not many other applications allow you to export only wmv files). The problem is that you can import the wmv files and they seem to play fine in Premiere, however at seemly reandom times the video fades to black, stays black for a few seconds, then the video comes back in. The music continues during this video blackout. I also recently tried Ulead's Movie factory to convert the wmv files to DVD MPEG files just as a test, and the black video also appears. TMPGenc seems to encode these fine to DVD MPEG files. I really want to be allowed to import them into Premiere elements as wmv files and was wondering if anyone has any ideas on what would cause this odd problem in some applications? Later, I am hoping to try Papa John's NTSC PS3 profile and see if that makes any difference. I had been exporting as 800x600 profile for computer since the qualiy of those files works pretty well for TV although I do lose some pixels since the dimensions are correct for the TV. I know that I could import them into MM2, and then export them as DV-AVI, however this takes more time, hard drive space, and doesn't increase quality so I don't really like that option, however will do that if there are no fixes for this issue. Let me know if you have successfully imported PS3 wmv files into Premiere without any issues. Thanks, Andrew V. Romero Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39301
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    - 4:3 vs 16:9 I know this really isn't a MM question, but I was hoping that some of you video guru's could shed some light on this for me. I use MM, but I am now starting to get into more upscale video editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5. My question has to do with 4:3 vs. 16:9. I have just a regular DV Cam which I assume it does 4:3. I have a 57" Widescreen TV that I want to take my video footage and play it on it. With my TV being 16:9 will I have black bars on the right and left of my screen because it is recorded in 4:3? Is there a way to get that footage to play without the bars on both sides and still look proportional? I can live with having the bars on the top and bottom. Any help on this would be great! -- Scott Micale Director of IT 330-877-3631 Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39288
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    - Saving on Memory Stick How would i save my video on to a memory stick so it can be viewed on the cameras play back options. - its a 512mb stick - video is 20mb and i have in .WMA and .MPG - camera is 4.1mb Sony Cybershot Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39287
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    - Slow Movie Maker I am producing a movie with still photos, music and transitions. It is 29 minutes long so far. It has been, since about 10 minutes long - taking at least 7-10 seconds to make every move or click. It also will freeze up and I'll have to end the session. It is really frustrating. I've tried to understand if it has something to do with the codecs mentioned. I have no idea what to do. Any QUICK fixes? I'm under a time restriction to get this done. Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39285
  - 7
    - No sound WMM 2.1 or background XP SP2 When I record on an XP SP2 box using WMM2.1 I cannot get sound playback nor can I get the background music for clips to play. I am having no problems using Windows Media Player for clips or for music I've ripped to my library. I am receiving no error information to give you and I have searched Event Viewer and cannot find any associated error for WMM 2.1 or sound. I would sure appreciate a fix or help. The MSKB came up empty, and I am not finding it on site but I am loooking in the Win Media data base for WMM 2.1 sound glitches. Is there any codec download , or .dll reregistration moves that might help me fix this? TIA, Chad Harris Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39284
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    - Poor Quality when Capturing DV-AVI I have a brand new P4 3.2GHz HT processor, 512MB Ram, onboard 64MB video (yeah I know!). Capturing from a sony digital camera via firewire. On my first attempt at video capturing with WMM I used the recommended setting and the picture looked great in the small window. At full-screen it looked quite good as well but you could see the difference. One hour of captured video was about 700MB or so. WHen I tried capturing the same tape using DV-AVI (a 14GB file!) it looked pretty bad on my computer, in any size. Im guessing this is not normal. Ultimately I want to burn these to DVD to watch on a TV. Im guessing that DV-AVI capture is the way to go if I dont want to lose quality, but it seems to be working in reverse for me! Any advice would be much appreciated. John Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39276
  - 9
    - Windows Movie Maker has encountered a problem and needs to close.. Everytime I start Windows Movie Maker I see this error message: "Windows Movie Maker has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." Why is it doing it, and how can I fix this problem? Thanks to who can help. Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39266
  - 10
    - titles on wrong pictures I added transitions after I added titles which I now know doesn't work. I saw an earlier post that said you could select the first title in the timeline and then hold the shift key and select the last title which would select them all and you could drag them over. I tried this and it didn't work. It did not select all of them. Could anyone advise? Is there a way to get the titles back on the correct picture without having to redo them all? -- TIA, Kirsten Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39265
  - 11
    - FAQ: #20050718 Crashes & Hangs Movie Maker FAQ 1 Last updated 6th January 2005 Crashing and Hanging ================ 1) What is a Codec? ============== A Codec is software that was first created to deal with the transposition of data from one form into another. One of the first important Codecs was a procedure still used today called Soundex. I believe the first proper use of Soundex was by the Mormons. Most of us use Soundex or its equivalent every time we use a spell checker. The Mormons use it in their vast database of all persons baptised by them. It enables very fast data searches on similar sounding words that are not necessarily spelled the same way. Soundex though is a one way procedure. Its a CODER The other part of the word Codec is derived from the word DECODER. Joining the two parts together we get the word CODEC...Codec. With regard to Codecs and any Video or Audio playing software. MP3 or WMA audio files have been compressed using CODER routines. When you play those files on your computer you are using the DECODER routines to produce a sound or video signal that can be seen/heard on your machine. With regard to Audio/Video editing software. A Codec is used to compress the data so that it occupies as small a space as possible usually on a hard drive. But in the case of editing a file the Codec must first expand the compressed data before the edit can occur and afterwards compress it again when the data is saved to a new file. The problems with Codecs arise from "Calls" A call is the expression used to define the way one software module talks to another so that information can be passed between the two. The problem occurs when the Call is not properly formatted, or the reply is not understood. This becomes a problem that the calling software must handle. When the calling software fails to handle the error it can do one of a number of things....the correct way is to contain the error and respond with an alternative approach and possibly inform the user that the error occurred, the other approach we are all to familiar with, either the software or the machine crashes and probably taking all of your hard work with it. 2) Movie Maker crashes, what can I do? ============================ From item one above there is a good chance that your problem arises from a problem with a Codec. Movie Maker version 2.1 was supposed to address this issue by giving you the user the ability to disable one or more of the Codecs on your machine. The problem however is not fully addressed and results in some Codecs not being exposed to the disable option. If its that particular Codec that is causing the problem you are stuck. You need to know which Codec it is, where it is, possibly what other software installed it and what other dependencies exist. In other words you need to know a LOT of things. The proper way of dealing with the issue would be to remove the offending Codec but that's not very practical as you may really need the other software that depends on it. There is a temporary solution available in the form of a program called "Rename Codecs" It has been in use for perhaps a year now by many hundreds of people and with great success. There have been a total of 6 times that the program did not solve the users problem (At the time of writing this) You can obtain your FREE copy of the program from www.the-kellys.org The basics of the program are that it will offer you the option of temporarily renaming Codecs that are known to be a problem for Movie Maker. You would do that before using Movie Maker. Once you are finished using the program you again run Movie Maker and use the RESTORE option to put those Codecs back into operation...its very easy to use. There is an additional option. You can use the options within XP to turn off the various levels of video acceleration that your graphics card has. Doing this is not a good idea but if you do you must understand that every program that relies on those abilities will either run badly or not at all. To turn the acceleration down right click your desktop and select PROPERTIES, then SETTINGS then ADVANCED and then TROUBLERSHOOT. You will then see a slider bar which should normally be positioned on the far right. You can move it one step at a time and then close the dialog down and re-try Movie Maker. You can repeat those steps until (and if) Movie Maker works properly. A lot of video programs give you the opportunity of taking a snap shot of the video displayed, Intervideo WinDVD 5 does a good job of this. Movie Maker also has this option. BUT, if you turn the acceleration down as above, you will no longer be able to take those snapshots. This is not a great problem of course as you can change the acceleration back. But it is rather tedious. 3) How do I make my system perform better and stop Movie Maker crashing ======================================================= This is by far the best way of doing things. Whilst the Rename Codec program is a MUST when you really do need to keep "other" software on your system, the following approach will ensure that your system runs at its best speed and will be less likely to crash at all from Video or Audio problems. You need to download the latest versions of DirectX and the Windows Codecs pack together with the latest version of Windows Media Player. You should NOT try to install these packages via the Internet, you should get the standalone versions. The reason is obvious once you know it. Suppose those updates you did some time back are not working properly...it may be that they were not installed properly or it may be that a file is either corrupt or simply missing. How would you know??? The more experienced may spot the problem but the average user will not. So why download the full package??? That's easy. When you unzip a package several checks are made to ensure the integrity of the files inside the zip. If there is a problem you will be told there and then...the file is corrupt or damaged in some other way....you do not need to trust an install over the Internet and the possibility of data being missed.... You can get the packages via these links... Codec Pack ----------------- http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/format/codecdownload.aspx DirectX ---------- http://go.microsoft.com/?LinkID=1081813 Windows Media Player --------------------------------- http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b446ae53-3759-40cf-80d5-cde4bbe07999&displaylang=en Movie Maker for XP --------------------------- http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.aspx The link for Movie Maker is actually a link to SP2 (Service Pack 2). This a large download. Its not to bad if you have a reasonably fast broadband connection, but if the download fails its a long way back to the start!!! Personally I would recommend you obtain A CD version of SP2...its available on the Windows Magazine and from Microsoft directly Drivers for your graphics card ---------------------------------- I have discovered that most people are confused on the issue of drivers for their graphics card in that when advised to acquire the latest driver they go straight to the Microsoft website and get one from them. Their is a problem with that in that the drivers supplied by Microsoft are Generic. I made the mistake of going direct to Microsoft some time back and the result was that I could only run the machine in the basic "Safe Mode" the driver was the most up to date and was definitely more recent than the existing driver. It took some time to understand what was going on I must admit...... The graphics card was an NVidia GForce 4 etc and was manufactured by Gainward. After several attempts at getting the Microsoft driver to install I decided that the download MUST BE corrupted in some way, So I went to the NVidia website and downloaded their driver (Same version number as the one from Microsoft) I had the exact same problems!!! In the end I went to the Gainward website and downloaded the most up to date driver they had.....once installed the graphics card performed better than ever and with more configuration options than I would ever need. So why did an older driver work better than the most recent from NVidia ??? Its simple when you know why .... Gainward produce high capability cards and in order to achieve some of their aims they change the way the NVidia chipset works. This requires a modified driver....and they produce their own. The card is still based on the NVidia and conforms to the basic design....but it runs very much faster because of code optimisation, and that optimisation is missing from the Microsoft or NVidia drivers. The result of all this is that you should ALWAYS go to the website of the MANUFACTURER of the card and not the manufacturer of the chipset (in my case NVidia) The Method ----------------- Reboot your computer and install SP2. After the install has completed you should reboot your computer twice...yes boring but desirable After the reboot you should now install the DirectX pack and reboot again. After that reboot install the Codec Pack and reboot yet again. After that install Windows Media Player and reboot again Finally install the latest driver for your graphics card. Rebooting the machine does perform an important task. It completes installation process's and ensures that previously existing file locks are removed. Under certain conditions XP will not overwrite a file if it has been locked. Note that this is not the same as marking a file as Read Only. Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility --------------------------------------------------------------- This utility can be obtained here... http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/portablemediacenter/decoder.mspx A very useful program but with a problem. It reports that I have the MGI MPEG-2 Video Decoder on one of my machines...I have NO MGI software on my system!! I would not let that put you off using it as it does have a useful purpose even though the same objective can be achieved via other already existing routes within XP. I am in favour of this program as it does give good advice on which Codec you should select as the preferred Codec 4) What files does Movie Maker NOT like? ============================== Any MPEG based file will cause Movie Maker problems even though they seldom cause problems for Media Player. There are a number of reasons...Media Player does not need the CODER part of the Codec and there are many methods/procedures/algothims used to Code an MPeg file and its that wide range of methods that Movie Maker can not address. Its not really a bug but the method of dealing with the issue, well there is no method...Movie Maker gives an error and crashes or it just crashes. The particular file extensions are Mpeg, MPG and MP3. JPeg still images can also be a problem and for similar reasons to MPeg files. There are a number of formats for a JPeg and it seems that the older formats are not properly dealt with. To work around the issue you can reduce the compression used in creating the JPeg and NOT use the progressive format method The best solution for these problems is to convert the file into a more acceptable format, and as it happens a format that is more easily worked on by Movie Maker...the conversion you should employ are MPeg, MPG convert to AVI, MP3 convert to WAV and JPeg, JPG convert to a standard bitmap BMP NOTES ====== There are several other approaches you can take to solving a Codec issue. I have seen several other methods of solving the problem, and basically they don't. Instead they treat the symptom and not the problem itself. Several other methods involve damaging the picture of your computers layout (that's a bad pun by the way) and simply doing that involves the risk of permanent damage to that picture. The program Rename Codecs also damages that picture of your system but it does at least provide a user friendly way of restoring your system and that method requires no prior knowledge on your part about where, which and how to make those changes. All efforts are made to ensure that the information is accurate. As no one is perfect I would be happy to hear of any errors found in this document (send an e-mail to webmaster@the-kellys.org). If you have any doubts at all over following the advice given here you should NOT attempt it. The contents of this FAQ are liable to change with out prior notification. The Webmaster Check out the Free Video and Stills Hosting at The Kellys Coming soon Get your Personal News Distributor (PND from www.the-kellys.org www.the-kellys.org www.the-kellys.co.uk Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39264
  - 12
    - PC freeze during video capture When I use Windows Movie Maker to capture from my DV camcorder, the CPU is at 100 % and the fan is always working. Then, after approximately 5 minutes of capture, my PC freeze and I have to reboot it. Then I see that a 39 MB video file (.wmv) and a 468 MB .tmp file have been created. I have a notebook 2.4 GHz with 512 MB of RAM. I have ordered a notebook cooler but it will come in about 2 weeks. I tried to capture my video with the Samsung software coming with my camcorder, it worked, the CPU was low during the capture but the video captured was of poor quality. Can you help ? Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39263
  - 13
    - capturing issue from a DV camera Hi all, I have a panasonic DV camcoder. Its USB2.0 compatible. WHen I try to capture the video on the DV tape to my computer using WMM, there are numerous issues.. 1. the captured video plays much faster than the actual video, I mean it loks as if its being played in the fast forward mode. 2. certain parts of the video are missing. 3. the capturing is much slower than the pace of the DV tape in the camera.. My system configuration is as follows.. PIII 600Mhz 256 MB ram hard disk 20GB(14GB free space) I have defragmented my hard disk using perfectdisk.. I understand that my system configuration is quite low.. I would really appreciate if anyone cud help me resolve this issue with the same configuration. Thanks in advance.. Any small advice wud be of great help.. rgrds tryin2Bwizkid Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39262
  - 14
    - Limit of video clips Is there a limit to the number of files you add in MM2? I've got a project of 105 clips totaling around 35 min. and when I try to add another one, Moviemaker crashes. I have all updates installed. Newtechie Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39255
  - 15
    - doesnt want to import When I try to import a file, i don't get an error, but it just does not load. its kind of hard to explain, the top bar fills, and then the bottom one doesnt and it wont import my clip. If anyone knows what im talking about can they help me? Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39248
  - 16
    - AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? In MM 2.1, in the Video Capture Wizard under Video Setting, it has these options: 1) Best quality for playback on my computer 2) Digital device format (DV-AVI) 3) Other settings However, for some reason option #2 is grayed out, and not selectable. Why can it not be selected? And, isn't the AVI format more lossless than WMV, so wouldn't that be the best choice when capturing video that will be edited and written back to a DVD-r? BTW, I'm using a 3-month-old Dell WinXP Media Center 2005, 3.4 GHz, 2 GB RAM system, with an NVIDIA GeForce 6800 video card, an Angel TV tuner card, and an SB Audigy 2ZS Audio (D8CO) sound card. Thanks. Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39246
  - 17
    - viewing applications/movies on TV screen Have a connection from my computer to my TV and although I can see the desktop on the TV, I can't see applications running on the PC. For example if I bring up pictures or view an MPG or AVi etc. file I want to see it on the TV - does anyone know how I can change my setting to have this work??? Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39244
  - 18
    - Saving as MPEG's Is theyâ??re away to save WMM 2 movies as a different file type then what MS offers out of the box? Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39242
  - 19
    - vob format conversion to movie maker I used a Sony DVD video camera and would like to download to my computer and capture some still shots using Movie Maker. The camera records in vob format which is evidently not recognized by Movie Maker. Can I somehow convert to this format? If so, how? Thanks, -- bp827 Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39241
  - 20
    - Tmpgenc and Pixels? I'm trying to convery a video in WMV format to MPG. the mpg file is 352x288 but I want to change it to 300 by 400 - like the original file. I can't find out there to do this. Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39238
  - 21
    - Importing a .wav? I recorded my baby laughs with Audacity and exported the file as a .wav. It plays no problem on Media Player or Creative Sound Player. When I try to import it into MM, I get an error saying the codec is missing. I then exported it as a mp3 and it worked fine. All programs, codec's, XP, and drivers up to date...any ideas? Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39237
  - 22
    - FAQ: #20050717 Crashes & Hangs Movie Maker FAQ 1 Last updated 6th January 2005 Crashing and Hanging ================ 1) What is a Codec? ============== A Codec is software that was first created to deal with the transposition of data from one form into another. One of the first important Codecs was a procedure still used today called Soundex. I believe the first proper use of Soundex was by the Mormons. Most of us use Soundex or its equivalent every time we use a spell checker. The Mormons use it in their vast database of all persons baptised by them. It enables very fast data searches on similar sounding words that are not necessarily spelled the same way. Soundex though is a one way procedure. Its a CODER The other part of the word Codec is derived from the word DECODER. Joining the two parts together we get the word CODEC...Codec. With regard to Codecs and any Video or Audio playing software. MP3 or WMA audio files have been compressed using CODER routines. When you play those files on your computer you are using the DECODER routines to produce a sound or video signal that can be seen/heard on your machine. With regard to Audio/Video editing software. A Codec is used to compress the data so that it occupies as small a space as possible usually on a hard drive. But in the case of editing a file the Codec must first expand the compressed data before the edit can occur and afterwards compress it again when the data is saved to a new file. The problems with Codecs arise from "Calls" A call is the expression used to define the way one software module talks to another so that information can be passed between the two. The problem occurs when the Call is not properly formatted, or the reply is not understood. This becomes a problem that the calling software must handle. When the calling software fails to handle the error it can do one of a number of things....the correct way is to contain the error and respond with an alternative approach and possibly inform the user that the error occurred, the other approach we are all to familiar with, either the software or the machine crashes and probably taking all of your hard work with it. 2) Movie Maker crashes, what can I do? ============================ From item one above there is a good chance that your problem arises from a problem with a Codec. Movie Maker version 2.1 was supposed to address this issue by giving you the user the ability to disable one or more of the Codecs on your machine. The problem however is not fully addressed and results in some Codecs not being exposed to the disable option. If its that particular Codec that is causing the problem you are stuck. You need to know which Codec it is, where it is, possibly what other software installed it and what other dependencies exist. In other words you need to know a LOT of things. The proper way of dealing with the issue would be to remove the offending Codec but that's not very practical as you may really need the other software that depends on it. There is a temporary solution available in the form of a program called "Rename Codecs" It has been in use for perhaps a year now by many hundreds of people and with great success. There have been a total of 6 times that the program did not solve the users problem (At the time of writing this) You can obtain your FREE copy of the program from www.the-kellys.org The basics of the program are that it will offer you the option of temporarily renaming Codecs that are known to be a problem for Movie Maker. You would do that before using Movie Maker. Once you are finished using the program you again run Movie Maker and use the RESTORE option to put those Codecs back into operation...its very easy to use. There is an additional option. You can use the options within XP to turn off the various levels of video acceleration that your graphics card has. Doing this is not a good idea but if you do you must understand that every program that relies on those abilities will either run badly or not at all. To turn the acceleration down right click your desktop and select PROPERTIES, then SETTINGS then ADVANCED and then TROUBLERSHOOT. You will then see a slider bar which should normally be positioned on the far right. You can move it one step at a time and then close the dialog down and re-try Movie Maker. You can repeat those steps until (and if) Movie Maker works properly. A lot of video programs give you the opportunity of taking a snap shot of the video displayed, Intervideo WinDVD 5 does a good job of this. Movie Maker also has this option. BUT, if you turn the acceleration down as above, you will no longer be able to take those snapshots. This is not a great problem of course as you can change the acceleration back. But it is rather tedious. 3) How do I make my system perform better and stop Movie Maker crashing ======================================================= This is by far the best way of doing things. Whilst the Rename Codec program is a MUST when you really do need to keep "other" software on your system, the following approach will ensure that your system runs at its best speed and will be less likely to crash at all from Video or Audio problems. You need to download the latest versions of DirectX and the Windows Codecs pack together with the latest version of Windows Media Player. You should NOT try to install these packages via the Internet, you should get the standalone versions. The reason is obvious once you know it. Suppose those updates you did some time back are not working properly...it may be that they were not installed properly or it may be that a file is either corrupt or simply missing. How would you know??? The more experienced may spot the problem but the average user will not. So why download the full package??? That's easy. When you unzip a package several checks are made to ensure the integrity of the files inside the zip. If there is a problem you will be told there and then...the file is corrupt or damaged in some other way....you do not need to trust an install over the Internet and the possibility of data being missed.... You can get the packages via these links... Codec Pack ----------------- http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/format/codecdownload.aspx DirectX ---------- http://go.microsoft.com/?LinkID=1081813 Windows Media Player --------------------------------- http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b446ae53-3759-40cf-80d5-cde4bbe07999&displaylang=en Movie Maker for XP --------------------------- http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.aspx The link for Movie Maker is actually a link to SP2 (Service Pack 2). This a large download. Its not to bad if you have a reasonably fast broadband connection, but if the download fails its a long way back to the start!!! Personally I would recommend you obtain A CD version of SP2...its available on the Windows Magazine and from Microsoft directly Drivers for your graphics card ---------------------------------- I have discovered that most people are confused on the issue of drivers for their graphics card in that when advised to acquire the latest driver they go straight to the Microsoft website and get one from them. Their is a problem with that in that the drivers supplied by Microsoft are Generic. I made the mistake of going direct to Microsoft some time back and the result was that I could only run the machine in the basic "Safe Mode" the driver was the most up to date and was definitely more recent than the existing driver. It took some time to understand what was going on I must admit...... The graphics card was an NVidia GForce 4 etc and was manufactured by Gainward. After several attempts at getting the Microsoft driver to install I decided that the download MUST BE corrupted in some way, So I went to the NVidia website and downloaded their driver (Same version number as the one from Microsoft) I had the exact same problems!!! In the end I went to the Gainward website and downloaded the most up to date driver they had.....once installed the graphics card performed better than ever and with more configuration options than I would ever need. So why did an older driver work better than the most recent from NVidia ??? Its simple when you know why .... Gainward produce high capability cards and in order to achieve some of their aims they change the way the NVidia chipset works. This requires a modified driver....and they produce their own. The card is still based on the NVidia and conforms to the basic design....but it runs very much faster because of code optimisation, and that optimisation is missing from the Microsoft or NVidia drivers. The result of all this is that you should ALWAYS go to the website of the MANUFACTURER of the card and not the manufacturer of the chipset (in my case NVidia) The Method ----------------- Reboot your computer and install SP2. After the install has completed you should reboot your computer twice...yes boring but desirable After the reboot you should now install the DirectX pack and reboot again. After that reboot install the Codec Pack and reboot yet again. After that install Windows Media Player and reboot again Finally install the latest driver for your graphics card. Rebooting the machine does perform an important task. It completes installation process's and ensures that previously existing file locks are removed. Under certain conditions XP will not overwrite a file if it has been locked. Note that this is not the same as marking a file as Read Only. Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility --------------------------------------------------------------- This utility can be obtained here... http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/portablemediacenter/decoder.mspx A very useful program but with a problem. It reports that I have the MGI MPEG-2 Video Decoder on one of my machines...I have NO MGI software on my system!! I would not let that put you off using it as it does have a useful purpose even though the same objective can be achieved via other already existing routes within XP. I am in favour of this program as it does give good advice on which Codec you should select as the preferred Codec 4) What files does Movie Maker NOT like? ============================== Any MPEG based file will cause Movie Maker problems even though they seldom cause problems for Media Player. There are a number of reasons...Media Player does not need the CODER part of the Codec and there are many methods/procedures/algothims used to Code an MPeg file and its that wide range of methods that Movie Maker can not address. Its not really a bug but the method of dealing with the issue, well there is no method...Movie Maker gives an error and crashes or it just crashes. The particular file extensions are Mpeg, MPG and MP3. JPeg still images can also be a problem and for similar reasons to MPeg files. There are a number of formats for a JPeg and it seems that the older formats are not properly dealt with. To work around the issue you can reduce the compression used in creating the JPeg and NOT use the progressive format method The best solution for these problems is to convert the file into a more acceptable format, and as it happens a format that is more easily worked on by Movie Maker...the conversion you should employ are MPeg, MPG convert to AVI, MP3 convert to WAV and JPeg, JPG convert to a standard bitmap BMP NOTES ====== There are several other approaches you can take to solving a Codec issue. I have seen several other methods of solving the problem, and basically they don't. Instead they treat the symptom and not the problem itself. Several other methods involve damaging the picture of your computers layout (that's a bad pun by the way) and simply doing that involves the risk of permanent damage to that picture. The program Rename Codecs also damages that picture of your system but it does at least provide a user friendly way of restoring your system and that method requires no prior knowledge on your part about where, which and how to make those changes. All efforts are made to ensure that the information is accurate. As no one is perfect I would be happy to hear of any errors found in this document (send an e-mail to webmaster@the-kellys.org). If you have any doubts at all over following the advice given here you should NOT attempt it. The contents of this FAQ are liable to change with out prior notification. The Webmaster Check out the Free Video and Stills Hosting at The Kellys Coming soon Get your Personal News Distributor (PND from www.the-kellys.org www.the-kellys.org www.the-kellys.co.uk Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39231
  - 23
    - No image or playback in preview monitor I have put together about 5 minutes of jpeg photos. Initially after importing them, preview monitor works as it is supposed to. After I add some video effects, some titles, and transitions, the monitor screen goes black. On playback I hear the audio track I have added, and I can see any titles I have added, but the jpegs do not show up. On other threads people spoke about codecs. With jpegs, can there still be codecs issues? The reason I am using movie maker and not photo story is because of the better title-making ability and multiple audio tracks. Any help on this issue is greatly appreciated. (WINXP Pro, SP2, MM 2.1, Athlon-based processor) Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39229
  - 24
    - Cool Split Screen Aloha, Does anyone know a video creation program that can create the kind of output I have captured: http://www.mattdarnell.com/images/cool_split.jpg It is similar to what you see in Apple's iChat. Aloha, Matt Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39227
  - 25
    - Files are Not Supported?? When I try to transfer in a file I always get a response like this: "The file C:\Documents and Settings\brenda\Desktop\My Videos\Home.mcs is not a supported file type, and it cannot be imported into Windows Movie Maker". I get a similar response when I try to import audio. When I try to save the file to a different format the computer will not give me any other options. Can you help me please? Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39221
- Next
  - 1
    - Best format for transferring old 8mm video to DVD??? I have some 9 year old 8mm video tapes and VHS tapes that I would like to have a video lab transfer to DVD so I can load the video on to my PC and do my own editing/DVD burning. In what format should I tell them to save the video when they transfer the old 8 mm and VHS to DVD? The format has to be compatible with Windows Movie Maker and I want to be able to burn DVDs that play on both my PC and TV DVD player. Both the TV and the DVD player are NOT HD (if that even matters???). I would also like to get at least an hour of video on each DVD and I want the quality to be as good as the original. I heard that .AVI is so data intensive that you can only fit about 20 minutes on a DVD. That would not be acceptable. Here are the specs on my PC Dell Dimension 8400 Pentium 4 - 3.2 Ghz 1 GB RAM 250 GB hard drive Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks. TJ Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39219
  - 2
    - Audio Sorry if this has been answered before, but I'm new to this. I have my music in real player- when I try to import a song through WMM it doesn't even show me the song unless I change to the All file option(*) then I get the message its not a supported file type. I have WMM 2.1 What can I do? -- DAC Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39218
  - 3
    - FAQ: #20050716 Crashes & Hangs Movie Maker FAQ 1 Last updated 6th January 2005 Crashing and Hanging ================ 1) What is a Codec? ============== A Codec is software that was first created to deal with the transposition of data from one form into another. One of the first important Codecs was a procedure still used today called Soundex. I believe the first proper use of Soundex was by the Mormons. Most of us use Soundex or its equivalent every time we use a spell checker. The Mormons use it in their vast database of all persons baptised by them. It enables very fast data searches on similar sounding words that are not necessarily spelled the same way. Soundex though is a one way procedure. Its a CODER The other part of the word Codec is derived from the word DECODER. Joining the two parts together we get the word CODEC...Codec. With regard to Codecs and any Video or Audio playing software. MP3 or WMA audio files have been compressed using CODER routines. When you play those files on your computer you are using the DECODER routines to produce a sound or video signal that can be seen/heard on your machine. With regard to Audio/Video editing software. A Codec is used to compress the data so that it occupies as small a space as possible usually on a hard drive. But in the case of editing a file the Codec must first expand the compressed data before the edit can occur and afterwards compress it again when the data is saved to a new file. The problems with Codecs arise from "Calls" A call is the expression used to define the way one software module talks to another so that information can be passed between the two. The problem occurs when the Call is not properly formatted, or the reply is not understood. This becomes a problem that the calling software must handle. When the calling software fails to handle the error it can do one of a number of things....the correct way is to contain the error and respond with an alternative approach and possibly inform the user that the error occurred, the other approach we are all to familiar with, either the software or the machine crashes and probably taking all of your hard work with it. 2) Movie Maker crashes, what can I do? ============================ From item one above there is a good chance that your problem arises from a problem with a Codec. Movie Maker version 2.1 was supposed to address this issue by giving you the user the ability to disable one or more of the Codecs on your machine. The problem however is not fully addressed and results in some Codecs not being exposed to the disable option. If its that particular Codec that is causing the problem you are stuck. You need to know which Codec it is, where it is, possibly what other software installed it and what other dependencies exist. In other words you need to know a LOT of things. The proper way of dealing with the issue would be to remove the offending Codec but that's not very practical as you may really need the other software that depends on it. There is a temporary solution available in the form of a program called "Rename Codecs" It has been in use for perhaps a year now by many hundreds of people and with great success. There have been a total of 6 times that the program did not solve the users problem (At the time of writing this) You can obtain your FREE copy of the program from www.the-kellys.org The basics of the program are that it will offer you the option of temporarily renaming Codecs that are known to be a problem for Movie Maker. You would do that before using Movie Maker. Once you are finished using the program you again run Movie Maker and use the RESTORE option to put those Codecs back into operation...its very easy to use. There is an additional option. You can use the options within XP to turn off the various levels of video acceleration that your graphics card has. Doing this is not a good idea but if you do you must understand that every program that relies on those abilities will either run badly or not at all. To turn the acceleration down right click your desktop and select PROPERTIES, then SETTINGS then ADVANCED and then TROUBLERSHOOT. You will then see a slider bar which should normally be positioned on the far right. You can move it one step at a time and then close the dialog down and re-try Movie Maker. You can repeat those steps until (and if) Movie Maker works properly. A lot of video programs give you the opportunity of taking a snap shot of the video displayed, Intervideo WinDVD 5 does a good job of this. Movie Maker also has this option. BUT, if you turn the acceleration down as above, you will no longer be able to take those snapshots. This is not a great problem of course as you can change the acceleration back. But it is rather tedious. 3) How do I make my system perform better and stop Movie Maker crashing ======================================================= This is by far the best way of doing things. Whilst the Rename Codec program is a MUST when you really do need to keep "other" software on your system, the following approach will ensure that your system runs at its best speed and will be less likely to crash at all from Video or Audio problems. You need to download the latest versions of DirectX and the Windows Codecs pack together with the latest version of Windows Media Player. You should NOT try to install these packages via the Internet, you should get the standalone versions. The reason is obvious once you know it. Suppose those updates you did some time back are not working properly...it may be that they were not installed properly or it may be that a file is either corrupt or simply missing. How would you know??? The more experienced may spot the problem but the average user will not. So why download the full package??? That's easy. When you unzip a package several checks are made to ensure the integrity of the files inside the zip. If there is a problem you will be told there and then...the file is corrupt or damaged in some other way....you do not need to trust an install over the Internet and the possibility of data being missed.... You can get the packages via these links... Codec Pack ----------------- http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/format/codecdownload.aspx DirectX ---------- http://go.microsoft.com/?LinkID=1081813 Windows Media Player --------------------------------- http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b446ae53-3759-40cf-80d5-cde4bbe07999&displaylang=en Movie Maker for XP --------------------------- http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.aspx The link for Movie Maker is actually a link to SP2 (Service Pack 2). This a large download. Its not to bad if you have a reasonably fast broadband connection, but if the download fails its a long way back to the start!!! Personally I would recommend you obtain A CD version of SP2...its available on the Windows Magazine and from Microsoft directly Drivers for your graphics card ---------------------------------- I have discovered that most people are confused on the issue of drivers for their graphics card in that when advised to acquire the latest driver they go straight to the Microsoft website and get one from them. Their is a problem with that in that the drivers supplied by Microsoft are Generic. I made the mistake of going direct to Microsoft some time back and the result was that I could only run the machine in the basic "Safe Mode" the driver was the most up to date and was definitely more recent than the existing driver. It took some time to understand what was going on I must admit...... The graphics card was an NVidia GForce 4 etc and was manufactured by Gainward. After several attempts at getting the Microsoft driver to install I decided that the download MUST BE corrupted in some way, So I went to the NVidia website and downloaded their driver (Same version number as the one from Microsoft) I had the exact same problems!!! In the end I went to the Gainward website and downloaded the most up to date driver they had.....once installed the graphics card performed better than ever and with more configuration options than I would ever need. So why did an older driver work better than the most recent from NVidia ??? Its simple when you know why .... Gainward produce high capability cards and in order to achieve some of their aims they change the way the NVidia chipset works. This requires a modified driver....and they produce their own. The card is still based on the NVidia and conforms to the basic design....but it runs very much faster because of code optimisation, and that optimisation is missing from the Microsoft or NVidia drivers. The result of all this is that you should ALWAYS go to the website of the MANUFACTURER of the card and not the manufacturer of the chipset (in my case NVidia) The Method ----------------- Reboot your computer and install SP2. After the install has completed you should reboot your computer twice...yes boring but desirable After the reboot you should now install the DirectX pack and reboot again. After that reboot install the Codec Pack and reboot yet again. After that install Windows Media Player and reboot again Finally install the latest driver for your graphics card. Rebooting the machine does perform an important task. It completes installation process's and ensures that previously existing file locks are removed. Under certain conditions XP will not overwrite a file if it has been locked. Note that this is not the same as marking a file as Read Only. Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility --------------------------------------------------------------- This utility can be obtained here... http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/portablemediacenter/decoder.mspx A very useful program but with a problem. It reports that I have the MGI MPEG-2 Video Decoder on one of my machines...I have NO MGI software on my system!! I would not let that put you off using it as it does have a useful purpose even though the same objective can be achieved via other already existing routes within XP. I am in favour of this program as it does give good advice on which Codec you should select as the preferred Codec 4) What files does Movie Maker NOT like? ============================== Any MPEG based file will cause Movie Maker problems even though they seldom cause problems for Media Player. There are a number of reasons...Media Player does not need the CODER part of the Codec and there are many methods/procedures/algothims used to Code an MPeg file and its that wide range of methods that Movie Maker can not address. Its not really a bug but the method of dealing with the issue, well there is no method...Movie Maker gives an error and crashes or it just crashes. The particular file extensions are Mpeg, MPG and MP3. JPeg still images can also be a problem and for similar reasons to MPeg files. There are a number of formats for a JPeg and it seems that the older formats are not properly dealt with. To work around the issue you can reduce the compression used in creating the JPeg and NOT use the progressive format method The best solution for these problems is to convert the file into a more acceptable format, and as it happens a format that is more easily worked on by Movie Maker...the conversion you should employ are MPeg, MPG convert to AVI, MP3 convert to WAV and JPeg, JPG convert to a standard bitmap BMP NOTES ====== There are several other approaches you can take to solving a Codec issue. I have seen several other methods of solving the problem, and basically they don't. Instead they treat the symptom and not the problem itself. Several other methods involve damaging the picture of your computers layout (that's a bad pun by the way) and simply doing that involves the risk of permanent damage to that picture. The program Rename Codecs also damages that picture of your system but it does at least provide a user friendly way of restoring your system and that method requires no prior knowledge on your part about where, which and how to make those changes. All efforts are made to ensure that the information is accurate. As no one is perfect I would be happy to hear of any errors found in this document (send an e-mail to webmaster@the-kellys.org). If you have any doubts at all over following the advice given here you should NOT attempt it. The contents of this FAQ are liable to change with out prior notification. The Webmaster Check out the Free Video and Stills Hosting at The Kellys Coming soon Get your Personal News Distributor (PND from www.the-kellys.org www.the-kellys.org www.the-kellys.co.uk Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39215
  - 4
    - Unable to see video in the preview pane when capturing I cannot see video (only electronic noise) in the preview pane when I want to capture video from my DV camera device. I am able to control my camera device from the Moviemaker application but I just cannot see (preview) the video to set my capture in and out points. I can actually capture the video but I cannot preview it to see what I am capturing. My Specs are 3.6 GHz HT Intel P4, 1G RAM, n-VIDIA 6600 250MB Graphics, DVI-D connection to LCD monitor, IEEE1394b/i-Link/Firewire connection to DV camera. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39211
  - 5
    - Rotation and Size Issues When I rotate a movie and save it the height and width setting isn't what it should be. My digital camera takes avi files that are 320 wide and 240 high. Some of them I need to rotate because I held the camera 90 degrees. When rotated and saved the video it is square, no longer rectangular It stretches one dimension to make it square and doesn't look right. I can't find a way to change the height and width so that it looks right. Can anyone help me? Thanks LaneG Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39205
  - 6
    - Software exception 0xc0000008 Q1: What the heck is this? Q2: what can I do about it? Q3: Why does microsoft software always have to crash?? grtz Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39169
  - 7
    - FAQ: #20050715 Crashes & Hangs Movie Maker FAQ 1 Last updated 6th January 2005 Crashing and Hanging ================ 1) What is a Codec? ============== A Codec is software that was first created to deal with the transposition of data from one form into another. One of the first important Codecs was a procedure still used today called Soundex. I believe the first proper use of Soundex was by the Mormons. Most of us use Soundex or its equivalent every time we use a spell checker. The Mormons use it in their vast database of all persons baptised by them. It enables very fast data searches on similar sounding words that are not necessarily spelled the same way. Soundex though is a one way procedure. Its a CODER The other part of the word Codec is derived from the word DECODER. Joining the two parts together we get the word CODEC...Codec. With regard to Codecs and any Video or Audio playing software. MP3 or WMA audio files have been compressed using CODER routines. When you play those files on your computer you are using the DECODER routines to produce a sound or video signal that can be seen/heard on your machine. With regard to Audio/Video editing software. A Codec is used to compress the data so that it occupies as small a space as possible usually on a hard drive. But in the case of editing a file the Codec must first expand the compressed data before the edit can occur and afterwards compress it again when the data is saved to a new file. The problems with Codecs arise from "Calls" A call is the expression used to define the way one software module talks to another so that information can be passed between the two. The problem occurs when the Call is not properly formatted, or the reply is not understood. This becomes a problem that the calling software must handle. When the calling software fails to handle the error it can do one of a number of things....the correct way is to contain the error and respond with an alternative approach and possibly inform the user that the error occurred, the other approach we are all to familiar with, either the software or the machine crashes and probably taking all of your hard work with it. 2) Movie Maker crashes, what can I do? ============================ From item one above there is a good chance that your problem arises from a problem with a Codec. Movie Maker version 2.1 was supposed to address this issue by giving you the user the ability to disable one or more of the Codecs on your machine. The problem however is not fully addressed and results in some Codecs not being exposed to the disable option. If its that particular Codec that is causing the problem you are stuck. You need to know which Codec it is, where it is, possibly what other software installed it and what other dependencies exist. In other words you need to know a LOT of things. The proper way of dealing with the issue would be to remove the offending Codec but that's not very practical as you may really need the other software that depends on it. There is a temporary solution available in the form of a program called "Rename Codecs" It has been in use for perhaps a year now by many hundreds of people and with great success. There have been a total of 6 times that the program did not solve the users problem (At the time of writing this) You can obtain your FREE copy of the program from www.the-kellys.org The basics of the program are that it will offer you the option of temporarily renaming Codecs that are known to be a problem for Movie Maker. You would do that before using Movie Maker. Once you are finished using the program you again run Movie Maker and use the RESTORE option to put those Codecs back into operation...its very easy to use. There is an additional option. You can use the options within XP to turn off the various levels of video acceleration that your graphics card has. Doing this is not a good idea but if you do you must understand that every program that relies on those abilities will either run badly or not at all. To turn the acceleration down right click your desktop and select PROPERTIES, then SETTINGS then ADVANCED and then TROUBLERSHOOT. You will then see a slider bar which should normally be positioned on the far right. You can move it one step at a time and then close the dialog down and re-try Movie Maker. You can repeat those steps until (and if) Movie Maker works properly. A lot of video programs give you the opportunity of taking a snap shot of the video displayed, Intervideo WinDVD 5 does a good job of this. Movie Maker also has this option. BUT, if you turn the acceleration down as above, you will no longer be able to take those snapshots. This is not a great problem of course as you can change the acceleration back. But it is rather tedious. 3) How do I make my system perform better and stop Movie Maker crashing ======================================================= This is by far the best way of doing things. Whilst the Rename Codec program is a MUST when you really do need to keep "other" software on your system, the following approach will ensure that your system runs at its best speed and will be less likely to crash at all from Video or Audio problems. You need to download the latest versions of DirectX and the Windows Codecs pack together with the latest version of Windows Media Player. You should NOT try to install these packages via the Internet, you should get the standalone versions. The reason is obvious once you know it. Suppose those updates you did some time back are not working properly...it may be that they were not installed properly or it may be that a file is either corrupt or simply missing. How would you know??? The more experienced may spot the problem but the average user will not. So why download the full package??? That's easy. When you unzip a package several checks are made to ensure the integrity of the files inside the zip. If there is a problem you will be told there and then...the file is corrupt or damaged in some other way....you do not need to trust an install over the Internet and the possibility of data being missed.... You can get the packages via these links... Codec Pack ----------------- http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/format/codecdownload.aspx DirectX ---------- http://go.microsoft.com/?LinkID=1081813 Windows Media Player --------------------------------- http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b446ae53-3759-40cf-80d5-cde4bbe07999&displaylang=en Movie Maker for XP --------------------------- http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.aspx The link for Movie Maker is actually a link to SP2 (Service Pack 2). This a large download. Its not to bad if you have a reasonably fast broadband connection, but if the download fails its a long way back to the start!!! Personally I would recommend you obtain A CD version of SP2...its available on the Windows Magazine and from Microsoft directly Drivers for your graphics card ---------------------------------- I have discovered that most people are confused on the issue of drivers for their graphics card in that when advised to acquire the latest driver they go straight to the Microsoft website and get one from them. Their is a problem with that in that the drivers supplied by Microsoft are Generic. I made the mistake of going direct to Microsoft some time back and the result was that I could only run the machine in the basic "Safe Mode" the driver was the most up to date and was definitely more recent than the existing driver. It took some time to understand what was going on I must admit...... The graphics card was an NVidia GForce 4 etc and was manufactured by Gainward. After several attempts at getting the Microsoft driver to install I decided that the download MUST BE corrupted in some way, So I went to the NVidia website and downloaded their driver (Same version number as the one from Microsoft) I had the exact same problems!!! In the end I went to the Gainward website and downloaded the most up to date driver they had.....once installed the graphics card performed better than ever and with more configuration options than I would ever need. So why did an older driver work better than the most recent from NVidia ??? Its simple when you know why .... Gainward produce high capability cards and in order to achieve some of their aims they change the way the NVidia chipset works. This requires a modified driver....and they produce their own. The card is still based on the NVidia and conforms to the basic design....but it runs very much faster because of code optimisation, and that optimisation is missing from the Microsoft or NVidia drivers. The result of all this is that you should ALWAYS go to the website of the MANUFACTURER of the card and not the manufacturer of the chipset (in my case NVidia) The Method ----------------- Reboot your computer and install SP2. After the install has completed you should reboot your computer twice...yes boring but desirable After the reboot you should now install the DirectX pack and reboot again. After that reboot install the Codec Pack and reboot yet again. After that install Windows Media Player and reboot again Finally install the latest driver for your graphics card. Rebooting the machine does perform an important task. It completes installation process's and ensures that previously existing file locks are removed. Under certain conditions XP will not overwrite a file if it has been locked. Note that this is not the same as marking a file as Read Only. Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility --------------------------------------------------------------- This utility can be obtained here... http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/portablemediacenter/decoder.mspx A very useful program but with a problem. It reports that I have the MGI MPEG-2 Video Decoder on one of my machines...I have NO MGI software on my system!! I would not let that put you off using it as it does have a useful purpose even though the same objective can be achieved via other already existing routes within XP. I am in favour of this program as it does give good advice on which Codec you should select as the preferred Codec 4) What files does Movie Maker NOT like? ============================== Any MPEG based file will cause Movie Maker problems even though they seldom cause problems for Media Player. There are a number of reasons...Media Player does not need the CODER part of the Codec and there are many methods/procedures/algothims used to Code an MPeg file and its that wide range of methods that Movie Maker can not address. Its not really a bug but the method of dealing with the issue, well there is no method...Movie Maker gives an error and crashes or it just crashes. The particular file extensions are Mpeg, MPG and MP3. JPeg still images can also be a problem and for similar reasons to MPeg files. There are a number of formats for a JPeg and it seems that the older formats are not properly dealt with. To work around the issue you can reduce the compression used in creating the JPeg and NOT use the progressive format method The best solution for these problems is to convert the file into a more acceptable format, and as it happens a format that is more easily worked on by Movie Maker...the conversion you should employ are MPeg, MPG convert to AVI, MP3 convert to WAV and JPeg, JPG convert to a standard bitmap BMP NOTES ====== There are several other approaches you can take to solving a Codec issue. I have seen several other methods of solving the problem, and basically they don't. Instead they treat the symptom and not the problem itself. Several other methods involve damaging the picture of your computers layout (that's a bad pun by the way) and simply doing that involves the risk of permanent damage to that picture. The program Rename Codecs also damages that picture of your system but it does at least provide a user friendly way of restoring your system and that method requires no prior knowledge on your part about where, which and how to make those changes. All efforts are made to ensure that the information is accurate. As no one is perfect I would be happy to hear of any errors found in this document (send an e-mail to webmaster@the-kellys.org). If you have any doubts at all over following the advice given here you should NOT attempt it. The contents of this FAQ are liable to change with out prior notification. The Webmaster Check out the Free Video and Stills Hosting at The Kellys Coming soon Get your Personal News Distributor (PND from www.the-kellys.org www.the-kellys.org www.the-kellys.co.uk Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39168
  - 8
    - remove and re-install hello everybody, i have windows xp sp2 pro. windows movie maker 2.1 always crashes. i would like to know how do i completely remove it and re-install it? yaniv, Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39166
  - 9
    - Easy DVD movie question? HI! what format to DVD players use? I mean like to one's you buy for your TV. I want to burn some media on dvd format but I am not sure what file formats DVD players can use. Example: avi, mpeg, xdiv, mov, ect... ? ps. I was not sure where to ask this question so please forgive me if this is the wrong place. :) Paul. Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39147
  - 10
    - How to burn 2 projects to one DVD? How to burn to DVD-r two (or more) MM projects? I have a couple of short, complete (with titles and end credits) MM projects that I'd like to appear on one DVD, back-to-back, perhaps with a brief fade to black between them. What is the best way to achieve this? I'm using MM 2.1 which does have DVD-burning capability, of course. Thanks in advance for all suggestions. Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39145
  - 11
    - A Couple Added Links.... I usually follow my name with a link to my website... today I added 2 more links... here's a bit of info about each: - my personal list of tips and tricks is a post at the SimplyDV.com forum... it's had over 4,700 views to date... the link takes you directly to the post. - each of my newsletters goes online about 6 weeks after issue.... the online collection is now up to 51 issues, the first year of publication.... this link takes you directly to them. These are open to all... no fee... no need to signup as a member of the forum if you just want to read them. -- PapaJohn Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 website - http://www.papajohn.org tips and tricks: http://www.simplydv.co.uk/simplyBB/viewtopic.php?t=4693 Online Newsletters: http://www.windowsmoviemakers.net/PapaJohn/Index.aspx Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39141
  - 12
    - No Audio when importing from DV camcorder I am new to this. Trying to make my first "movie". The video comes through fine from my DV camcorder but no Audio. I am connected via USB. I do not have a IEEE cable. AM I missing something here? I would appreciate your help. Thanks! Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39140
  - 13
    - FAQ: #20050714 Crashes & Hangs Movie Maker FAQ 1 Last updated 6th January 2005 Crashing and Hanging ================ 1) What is a Codec? ============== A Codec is software that was first created to deal with the transposition of data from one form into another. One of the first important Codecs was a procedure still used today called Soundex. I believe the first proper use of Soundex was by the Mormons. Most of us use Soundex or its equivalent every time we use a spell checker. The Mormons use it in their vast database of all persons baptised by them. It enables very fast data searches on similar sounding words that are not necessarily spelled the same way. Soundex though is a one way procedure. Its a CODER The other part of the word Codec is derived from the word DECODER. Joining the two parts together we get the word CODEC...Codec. With regard to Codecs and any Video or Audio playing software. MP3 or WMA audio files have been compressed using CODER routines. When you play those files on your computer you are using the DECODER routines to produce a sound or video signal that can be seen/heard on your machine. With regard to Audio/Video editing software. A Codec is used to compress the data so that it occupies as small a space as possible usually on a hard drive. But in the case of editing a file the Codec must first expand the compressed data before the edit can occur and afterwards compress it again when the data is saved to a new file. The problems with Codecs arise from "Calls" A call is the expression used to define the way one software module talks to another so that information can be passed between the two. The problem occurs when the Call is not properly formatted, or the reply is not understood. This becomes a problem that the calling software must handle. When the calling software fails to handle the error it can do one of a number of things....the correct way is to contain the error and respond with an alternative approach and possibly inform the user that the error occurred, the other approach we are all to familiar with, either the software or the machine crashes and probably taking all of your hard work with it. 2) Movie Maker crashes, what can I do? ============================ From item one above there is a good chance that your problem arises from a problem with a Codec. Movie Maker version 2.1 was supposed to address this issue by giving you the user the ability to disable one or more of the Codecs on your machine. The problem however is not fully addressed and results in some Codecs not being exposed to the disable option. If its that particular Codec that is causing the problem you are stuck. You need to know which Codec it is, where it is, possibly what other software installed it and what other dependencies exist. In other words you need to know a LOT of things. The proper way of dealing with the issue would be to remove the offending Codec but that's not very practical as you may really need the other software that depends on it. There is a temporary solution available in the form of a program called "Rename Codecs" It has been in use for perhaps a year now by many hundreds of people and with great success. There have been a total of 6 times that the program did not solve the users problem (At the time of writing this) You can obtain your FREE copy of the program from www.the-kellys.org The basics of the program are that it will offer you the option of temporarily renaming Codecs that are known to be a problem for Movie Maker. You would do that before using Movie Maker. Once you are finished using the program you again run Movie Maker and use the RESTORE option to put those Codecs back into operation...its very easy to use. There is an additional option. You can use the options within XP to turn off the various levels of video acceleration that your graphics card has. Doing this is not a good idea but if you do you must understand that every program that relies on those abilities will either run badly or not at all. To turn the acceleration down right click your desktop and select PROPERTIES, then SETTINGS then ADVANCED and then TROUBLERSHOOT. You will then see a slider bar which should normally be positioned on the far right. You can move it one step at a time and then close the dialog down and re-try Movie Maker. You can repeat those steps until (and if) Movie Maker works properly. A lot of video programs give you the opportunity of taking a snap shot of the video displayed, Intervideo WinDVD 5 does a good job of this. Movie Maker also has this option. BUT, if you turn the acceleration down as above, you will no longer be able to take those snapshots. This is not a great problem of course as you can change the acceleration back. But it is rather tedious. 3) How do I make my system perform better and stop Movie Maker crashing ======================================================= This is by far the best way of doing things. Whilst the Rename Codec program is a MUST when you really do need to keep "other" software on your system, the following approach will ensure that your system runs at its best speed and will be less likely to crash at all from Video or Audio problems. You need to download the latest versions of DirectX and the Windows Codecs pack together with the latest version of Windows Media Player. You should NOT try to install these packages via the Internet, you should get the standalone versions. The reason is obvious once you know it. Suppose those updates you did some time back are not working properly...it may be that they were not installed properly or it may be that a file is either corrupt or simply missing. How would you know??? The more experienced may spot the problem but the average user will not. So why download the full package??? That's easy. When you unzip a package several checks are made to ensure the integrity of the files inside the zip. If there is a problem you will be told there and then...the file is corrupt or damaged in some other way....you do not need to trust an install over the Internet and the possibility of data being missed.... You can get the packages via these links... Codec Pack ----------------- http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/format/codecdownload.aspx DirectX ---------- http://go.microsoft.com/?LinkID=1081813 Windows Media Player --------------------------------- http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b446ae53-3759-40cf-80d5-cde4bbe07999&displaylang=en Movie Maker for XP --------------------------- http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.aspx The link for Movie Maker is actually a link to SP2 (Service Pack 2). This a large download. Its not to bad if you have a reasonably fast broadband connection, but if the download fails its a long way back to the start!!! Personally I would recommend you obtain A CD version of SP2...its available on the Windows Magazine and from Microsoft directly Drivers for your graphics card ---------------------------------- I have discovered that most people are confused on the issue of drivers for their graphics card in that when advised to acquire the latest driver they go straight to the Microsoft website and get one from them. Their is a problem with that in that the drivers supplied by Microsoft are Generic. I made the mistake of going direct to Microsoft some time back and the result was that I could only run the machine in the basic "Safe Mode" the driver was the most up to date and was definitely more recent than the existing driver. It took some time to understand what was going on I must admit...... The graphics card was an NVidia GForce 4 etc and was manufactured by Gainward. After several attempts at getting the Microsoft driver to install I decided that the download MUST BE corrupted in some way, So I went to the NVidia website and downloaded their driver (Same version number as the one from Microsoft) I had the exact same problems!!! In the end I went to the Gainward website and downloaded the most up to date driver they had.....once installed the graphics card performed better than ever and with more configuration options than I would ever need. So why did an older driver work better than the most recent from NVidia ??? Its simple when you know why .... Gainward produce high capability cards and in order to achieve some of their aims they change the way the NVidia chipset works. This requires a modified driver....and they produce their own. The card is still based on the NVidia and conforms to the basic design....but it runs very much faster because of code optimisation, and that optimisation is missing from the Microsoft or NVidia drivers. The result of all this is that you should ALWAYS go to the website of the MANUFACTURER of the card and not the manufacturer of the chipset (in my case NVidia) The Method ----------------- Reboot your computer and install SP2. After the install has completed you should reboot your computer twice...yes boring but desirable After the reboot you should now install the DirectX pack and reboot again. After that reboot install the Codec Pack and reboot yet again. After that install Windows Media Player and reboot again Finally install the latest driver for your graphics card. Rebooting the machine does perform an important task. It completes installation process's and ensures that previously existing file locks are removed. Under certain conditions XP will not overwrite a file if it has been locked. Note that this is not the same as marking a file as Read Only. Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility --------------------------------------------------------------- This utility can be obtained here... http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/portablemediacenter/decoder.mspx A very useful program but with a problem. It reports that I have the MGI MPEG-2 Video Decoder on one of my machines...I have NO MGI software on my system!! I would not let that put you off using it as it does have a useful purpose even though the same objective can be achieved via other already existing routes within XP. I am in favour of this program as it does give good advice on which Codec you should select as the preferred Codec 4) What files does Movie Maker NOT like? ============================== Any MPEG based file will cause Movie Maker problems even though they seldom cause problems for Media Player. There are a number of reasons...Media Player does not need the CODER part of the Codec and there are many methods/procedures/algothims used to Code an MPeg file and its that wide range of methods that Movie Maker can not address. Its not really a bug but the method of dealing with the issue, well there is no method...Movie Maker gives an error and crashes or it just crashes. The particular file extensions are Mpeg, MPG and MP3. JPeg still images can also be a problem and for similar reasons to MPeg files. There are a number of formats for a JPeg and it seems that the older formats are not properly dealt with. To work around the issue you can reduce the compression used in creating the JPeg and NOT use the progressive format method The best solution for these problems is to convert the file into a more acceptable format, and as it happens a format that is more easily worked on by Movie Maker...the conversion you should employ are MPeg, MPG convert to AVI, MP3 convert to WAV and JPeg, JPG convert to a standard bitmap BMP NOTES ====== There are several other approaches you can take to solving a Codec issue. I have seen several other methods of solving the problem, and basically they don't. Instead they treat the symptom and not the problem itself. Several other methods involve damaging the picture of your computers layout (that's a bad pun by the way) and simply doing that involves the risk of permanent damage to that picture. The program Rename Codecs also damages that picture of your system but it does at least provide a user friendly way of restoring your system and that method requires no prior knowledge on your part about where, which and how to make those changes. All efforts are made to ensure that the information is accurate. As no one is perfect I would be happy to hear of any errors found in this document (send an e-mail to webmaster@the-kellys.org). If you have any doubts at all over following the advice given here you should NOT attempt it. The contents of this FAQ are liable to change with out prior notification. The Webmaster Check out the Free Video and Stills Hosting at The Kellys Coming soon Get your Personal News Distributor (PND from www.the-kellys.org www.the-kellys.org www.the-kellys.co.uk Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39116
  - 14
    - Collections file is not valid or is corrupted??? Every time I start up MM, it says "Collection file is not valid or is corrupted. A new empty collections file has been created." So I just figured that everytimg will be ok, i would have just lost sum files, but after i close that box it says, "A new collections file cannot be created." Then I click ok, then another window pops up saying how MM has encountered a problem and needs to close, this has been happening for a while, but I never knew that MM had a little forum where you could ask questions and stuff, so please help me, cuz i wanna start making movies again...Thanx! Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39106
  - 15
    - How can I convert a PPT Presenentation into a WMV video? Is there a really, really simple way to do this in either Powerpoint or Movie Maker? If not, does Roxio, Ulead, or Pinnacle software do this? I need to convert PPT presentations into WMV videos and upload to Neptune.com for sharing online. Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39104
  - 16
    - Save movie to view on web I want to upload a movie to my personal webspace and have guests access it via a link on an html page. When I test this the result is that Windows Movie Maker opens and displays all of my photos, clips, etc. How can I save or convert a Moviemaker movie and have it play on the Internet through Windows Media Player or some other viewing program? Thanks, Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39100
  - 17
    - Clips freezes I have been working on creating a movie / video with movie maker and have had so many problems. The first one was I learned that I had to change my photo type from JPEG to BMP (all 300 photos) and also change my music file from wma to wav (all 13 of them). This took 2 days. Now I saved the movie file and it STOPS AFTER THE 2nd clip! HELPPPPPPPPPPP! I have to complete this by Thursday!!! Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39091
  - 18
    - MPG not visible in Movie Maker I captured video from VCR using InterVideo WinDVD and the D-Link DUB-AV300 video grabber. The files are saved in MPEG-2 format, and I can play them in Windows Media Player without any problem. But when I import the files into Movie Maker and play it there, only the sound comes out but no picture is visible. Can anyone tell me what the problem and how to fix it? Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39088
  - 19
    - Red Dot on Logo Windows Movie Maker came loaded on my new pc a year ago. I am just now getting around to using it. The logo has a red dot on it. What does that mean? Is it telling me it's out of date? That I need to download Movie Maker 2? Thanks...jennifer Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39085
  - 20
    - creating DVD Thanks wojo and others-finally got DVD to play on TV-now need to improve quality. mick Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39084
  - 21
    - Converting analog VHS tapes to DVD This is my goal. I'm looking at Windows Movie maker to capture all of my old family movies. I'm not really sure if this is the way to go. Once I import them and I write them out onto a DVD disc. WILL they play on my DVD player? Since I'm just starting I want to know if I'm headed in the right direction. Thank you, Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39077
  - 22
    - HOW DO I PREPARE MOVIE FOR EMAIL? WITH LIMITS ON HOW MUCH DATA CAN BE SENT AT ONE TIME. HOW DO YOU SPLIT UP PROJECT AND NOT LOSE QUALITY AND SEND ALL AT ONE TIME? SHOULD I LIMIT PLAYING TIME OF PROJECTS? -- MEMPHISMOVIEMOGUL Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39073
  - 23
    - juddering on captured files When files which are perfect on the Panasonic camcorder are transferred to movie maker, they judder and the sound is distorted. This isn't consistent - when played over sometimes they will be OK and others parts will distort. What could be causing this? When transferred back to the camcorder (DV) the distortion is varied - ie not in the same place as it was on the movie maker screen. -- dd Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39069
  - 24
    - Saving as a DVD I'm very new to this. I transferred a video from my camcorder using the movie maker (1 I think). I want to transfer the final movie to a dvd so I can play it on my dvd player. How do I do this? Do I need another program? I have a DVD burner on the computer. Can you help? Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39062
  - 25
    - FAQ: #20050713 Crashes & Hangs Movie Maker FAQ 1 Last updated 6th January 2005 Crashing and Hanging ================ 1) What is a Codec? ============== A Codec is software that was first created to deal with the transposition of data from one form into another. One of the first important Codecs was a procedure still used today called Soundex. I believe the first proper use of Soundex was by the Mormons. Most of us use Soundex or its equivalent every time we use a spell checker. The Mormons use it in their vast database of all persons baptised by them. It enables very fast data searches on similar sounding words that are not necessarily spelled the same way. Soundex though is a one way procedure. Its a CODER The other part of the word Codec is derived from the word DECODER. Joining the two parts together we get the word CODEC...Codec. With regard to Codecs and any Video or Audio playing software. MP3 or WMA audio files have been compressed using CODER routines. When you play those files on your computer you are using the DECODER routines to produce a sound or video signal that can be seen/heard on your machine. With regard to Audio/Video editing software. A Codec is used to compress the data so that it occupies as small a space as possible usually on a hard drive. But in the case of editing a file the Codec must first expand the compressed data before the edit can occur and afterwards compress it again when the data is saved to a new file. The problems with Codecs arise from "Calls" A call is the expression used to define the way one software module talks to another so that information can be passed between the two. The problem occurs when the Call is not properly formatted, or the reply is not understood. This becomes a problem that the calling software must handle. When the calling software fails to handle the error it can do one of a number of things....the correct way is to contain the error and respond with an alternative approach and possibly inform the user that the error occurred, the other approach we are all to familiar with, either the software or the machine crashes and probably taking all of your hard work with it. 2) Movie Maker crashes, what can I do? ============================ From item one above there is a good chance that your problem arises from a problem with a Codec. Movie Maker version 2.1 was supposed to address this issue by giving you the user the ability to disable one or more of the Codecs on your machine. The problem however is not fully addressed and results in some Codecs not being exposed to the disable option. If its that particular Codec that is causing the problem you are stuck. You need to know which Codec it is, where it is, possibly what other software installed it and what other dependencies exist. In other words you need to know a LOT of things. The proper way of dealing with the issue would be to remove the offending Codec but that's not very practical as you may really need the other software that depends on it. There is a temporary solution available in the form of a program called "Rename Codecs" It has been in use for perhaps a year now by many hundreds of people and with great success. There have been a total of 6 times that the program did not solve the users problem (At the time of writing this) You can obtain your FREE copy of the program from www.the-kellys.org The basics of the program are that it will offer you the option of temporarily renaming Codecs that are known to be a problem for Movie Maker. You would do that before using Movie Maker. Once you are finished using the program you again run Movie Maker and use the RESTORE option to put those Codecs back into operation...its very easy to use. There is an additional option. You can use the options within XP to turn off the various levels of video acceleration that your graphics card has. Doing this is not a good idea but if you do you must understand that every program that relies on those abilities will either run badly or not at all. To turn the acceleration down right click your desktop and select PROPERTIES, then SETTINGS then ADVANCED and then TROUBLERSHOOT. You will then see a slider bar which should normally be positioned on the far right. You can move it one step at a time and then close the dialog down and re-try Movie Maker. You can repeat those steps until (and if) Movie Maker works properly. A lot of video programs give you the opportunity of taking a snap shot of the video displayed, Intervideo WinDVD 5 does a good job of this. Movie Maker also has this option. BUT, if you turn the acceleration down as above, you will no longer be able to take those snapshots. This is not a great problem of course as you can change the acceleration back. But it is rather tedious. 3) How do I make my system perform better and stop Movie Maker crashing ======================================================= This is by far the best way of doing things. Whilst the Rename Codec program is a MUST when you really do need to keep "other" software on your system, the following approach will ensure that your system runs at its best speed and will be less likely to crash at all from Video or Audio problems. You need to download the latest versions of DirectX and the Windows Codecs pack together with the latest version of Windows Media Player. You should NOT try to install these packages via the Internet, you should get the standalone versions. The reason is obvious once you know it. Suppose those updates you did some time back are not working properly...it may be that they were not installed properly or it may be that a file is either corrupt or simply missing. How would you know??? The more experienced may spot the problem but the average user will not. So why download the full package??? That's easy. When you unzip a package several checks are made to ensure the integrity of the files inside the zip. If there is a problem you will be told there and then...the file is corrupt or damaged in some other way....you do not need to trust an install over the Internet and the possibility of data being missed.... You can get the packages via these links... Codec Pack ----------------- http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/format/codecdownload.aspx DirectX ---------- http://go.microsoft.com/?LinkID=1081813 Windows Media Player --------------------------------- http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b446ae53-3759-40cf-80d5-cde4bbe07999&displaylang=en Movie Maker for XP --------------------------- http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.aspx The link for Movie Maker is actually a link to SP2 (Service Pack 2). This a large download. Its not to bad if you have a reasonably fast broadband connection, but if the download fails its a long way back to the start!!! Personally I would recommend you obtain A CD version of SP2...its available on the Windows Magazine and from Microsoft directly Drivers for your graphics card ---------------------------------- I have discovered that most people are confused on the issue of drivers for their graphics card in that when advised to acquire the latest driver they go straight to the Microsoft website and get one from them. Their is a problem with that in that the drivers supplied by Microsoft are Generic. I made the mistake of going direct to Microsoft some time back and the result was that I could only run the machine in the basic "Safe Mode" the driver was the most up to date and was definitely more recent than the existing driver. It took some time to understand what was going on I must admit...... The graphics card was an NVidia GForce 4 etc and was manufactured by Gainward. After several attempts at getting the Microsoft driver to install I decided that the download MUST BE corrupted in some way, So I went to the NVidia website and downloaded their driver (Same version number as the one from Microsoft) I had the exact same problems!!! In the end I went to the Gainward website and downloaded the most up to date driver they had.....once installed the graphics card performed better than ever and with more configuration options than I would ever need. So why did an older driver work better than the most recent from NVidia ??? Its simple when you know why .... Gainward produce high capability cards and in order to achieve some of their aims they change the way the NVidia chipset works. This requires a modified driver....and they produce their own. The card is still based on the NVidia and conforms to the basic design....but it runs very much faster because of code optimisation, and that optimisation is missing from the Microsoft or NVidia drivers. The result of all this is that you should ALWAYS go to the website of the MANUFACTURER of the card and not the manufacturer of the chipset (in my case NVidia) The Method ----------------- Reboot your computer and install SP2. After the install has completed you should reboot your computer twice...yes boring but desirable After the reboot you should now install the DirectX pack and reboot again. After that reboot install the Codec Pack and reboot yet again. After that install Windows Media Player and reboot again Finally install the latest driver for your graphics card. Rebooting the machine does perform an important task. It completes installation process's and ensures that previously existing file locks are removed. Under certain conditions XP will not overwrite a file if it has been locked. Note that this is not the same as marking a file as Read Only. Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility --------------------------------------------------------------- This utility can be obtained here... http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/portablemediacenter/decoder.mspx A very useful program but with a problem. It reports that I have the MGI MPEG-2 Video Decoder on one of my machines...I have NO MGI software on my system!! I would not let that put you off using it as it does have a useful purpose even though the same objective can be achieved via other already existing routes within XP. I am in favour of this program as it does give good advice on which Codec you should select as the preferred Codec 4) What files does Movie Maker NOT like? ============================== Any MPEG based file will cause Movie Maker problems even though they seldom cause problems for Media Player. There are a number of reasons...Media Player does not need the CODER part of the Codec and there are many methods/procedures/algothims used to Code an MPeg file and its that wide range of methods that Movie Maker can not address. Its not really a bug but the method of dealing with the issue, well there is no method...Movie Maker gives an error and crashes or it just crashes. The particular file extensions are Mpeg, MPG and MP3. JPeg still images can also be a problem and for similar reasons to MPeg files. There are a number of formats for a JPeg and it seems that the older formats are not properly dealt with. To work around the issue you can reduce the compression used in creating the JPeg and NOT use the progressive format method The best solution for these problems is to convert the file into a more acceptable format, and as it happens a format that is more easily worked on by Movie Maker...the conversion you should employ are MPeg, MPG convert to AVI, MP3 convert to WAV and JPeg, JPG convert to a standard bitmap BMP NOTES ====== There are several other approaches you can take to solving a Codec issue. I have seen several other methods of solving the problem, and basically they don't. Instead they treat the symptom and not the problem itself. Several other methods involve damaging the picture of your computers layout (that's a bad pun by the way) and simply doing that involves the risk of permanent damage to that picture. The program Rename Codecs also damages that picture of your system but it does at least provide a user friendly way of restoring your system and that method requires no prior knowledge on your part about where, which and how to make those changes. All efforts are made to ensure that the information is accurate. As no one is perfect I would be happy to hear of any errors found in this document (send an e-mail to webmaster@the-kellys.org). If you have any doubts at all over following the advice given here you should NOT attempt it. The contents of this FAQ are liable to change with out prior notification. The Webmaster Check out the Free Video and Stills Hosting at The Kellys Coming soon Get your Personal News Distributor (PND from www.the-kellys.org www.the-kellys.org www.the-kellys.co.uk Tag: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. Tag: 39017

I am playing some clips using moviemaker but not all of them can have the
brightness and contrast adjusted with the slider bars.
Why do some movies not allow this?
Please help, Frank

Top

Re: Some movies cannot be adjusted for brightness and conrast. by PapaJohn

PapaJohn
Wed Jul 20 14:22:42 CDT 2005

Frank, I don't understand what slider bar controls you have for brightness
and contrast... Movie Maker only has special effects that you apply to a
clip... no adjustments offered via sliders.

Would you explain it some more?
--
PapaJohn
Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 website - http://www.papajohn.org

tips and tricks: http://www.simplydv.co.uk/simplyBB/viewtopic.php?t=4693

Online Newsletters: http://www.windowsmoviemakers.net/PapaJohn/Index.aspx

"Frank Martin" <paul@colonel.com.au> wrote in message
news:%23Rgteo$iFHA.2156@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
>I am playing some clips using moviemaker but not all of them can have the
>brightness and contrast adjusted with the slider bars.
> Why do some movies not allow this?
> Please help, Frank
>

Top