dragging collection locks me out

Heres a new question from the completely clueless. I managed to get Nero to
convert and import my DVD home movie (using DVD-r this time around) but when
I try to drag it into my storyboard, the whole thing just locks up. I can
still use my little start bar on the very bottom left corner(the one that
opens up control panel and shuts down and the like) but everything in WMM is
frozen and I am unable to click anything. THe duration of the collection I'm
importing in is 1:53:39. Is this the problem? Is it too big or do i need to
wait for WMM to get it all in? HAWLP!!

Wojo
Mon Mar 21 18:00:57 CST 2005

How long is it "locked-up"?
It is possible that you aren't giving the program time to import the entire
video.
One possible thing to try would be to remove the click next to "Create clips
for video files"
If it doesn't create clips it may Import faster.

--
--

I am not an MVP to any NG
But.....
I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express
last night.

www.remember-christopher.dostweb.com

"freak3" <freak3@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5EAD21EA-19EE-4D2A-B136-BED76440457B@microsoft.com...
> Heres a new question from the completely clueless. I managed to get Nero
> to
> convert and import my DVD home movie (using DVD-r this time around) but
> when
> I try to drag it into my storyboard, the whole thing just locks up. I can
> still use my little start bar on the very bottom left corner(the one that
> opens up control panel and shuts down and the like) but everything in WMM
> is
> frozen and I am unable to click anything. THe duration of the collection
> I'm
> importing in is 1:53:39. Is this the problem? Is it too big or do i need
> to
> wait for WMM to get it all in? HAWLP!!

freak3
Mon Mar 21 23:15:02 CST 2005


When I run WMM the video is in with the collection box. Its duration is
1:53:39, is 2,282,888KB. If I double click on it, it plays the audio, but I
get no video in the preview box, and when I drag it from the collection area
down to the timeline, everything just basically freezes (locks up), like its
working on something. I tried it again this evening, dragged the whole thing
(its not broken up into individual clips) down to the story board (the cursor
had a small box underneath it made up of hyphens(sp?)) and it just sat there
for twenty minutes doing nothing. I had to restart the computer to get out of
it. When I used Nero to import it originally (like i said it was a VRO file
that I used Nero to import and convert to MPG) I put it in My DVD folder
within the My Documents spot. I don't know if any of this information is
relevant or not, but hopfully you guys can figure out what the hecks I'm
doing wrong (I feel like a third grader trying to learn Calculus Honors)
THanks folks!

freak3
Tue Mar 22 18:43:02 CST 2005


I tried a quick test this evening by recording 10 minutes off the TV (again
using a DVD/VCR recorder) and using NeroVision Express export it to My DVDs
folder. It imported into WMM easily enough but when I dragged it down into
the storyboard, again, everthing locked up tight except the option to
restart/shut down. What exactly am I doing wrong here? This is all getting
very frusterating...

PapaJohn
Tue Mar 22 18:52:50 CST 2005

TV and DVDs are built around MPEG-2 standards... Movie Maker can't work with
MPEG-2 files, which seems like what you're working toward.

You need to convert the MPEG-2 files to AVI files and use those in Movie
Maker.... see the info on the Importing Source Files > Video > MPEG-2 page
of my website.
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
.


"freak3" <freak3@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4EDCCA71-38B2-4000-99D3-552FDA0F8C39@microsoft.com...
>
> I tried a quick test this evening by recording 10 minutes off the TV
> (again
> using a DVD/VCR recorder) and using NeroVision Express export it to My
> DVDs
> folder. It imported into WMM easily enough but when I dragged it down into
> the storyboard, again, everthing locked up tight except the option to
> restart/shut down. What exactly am I doing wrong here? This is all getting
> very frusterating...

freak3
Tue Mar 22 19:21:02 CST 2005

Hey there papa! Thanks for the quick reply.
I read your webpage and found it very interesting if not a bit
overwhelming/confusing (grin) I also read your newsletter #19 which talked
about DVD to movie Maker. My first question is this-would TMPGEnc solve my
problem? It sounded like it should, until I read from your webpage. My second
question is (and I hate to ask it) Is there a quality movie editing software
out there that I can just basically slap in my DVD that I created on the
recorder and run with? I love what I have seen out of WMM (with the fonts,
transitions, effects, ease of use-for the most part-) and I really want to
use it but I'm also looking for ease ( not to hip on changing this file to
that and that file to this and so on).
Thanks again!

dickmr
Tue Mar 22 20:39:07 CST 2005

Hi Freak....listen to Papa he's good! ha ha I like MM2 so much, I would
never
leave it to use other more complex programs....my Adobe Premier goes unused,
now that I found so many transitions/effects/overlays etc available for MM2.
As far as converting I tried a lot, but I ended up using one I paid $30 for;
called
AVS converter....if you google it, i'm sure you can find the place to buy
it. It is
great because in one interface you can convert to any type of file format
and also
even author a DVD.....and the best part, it is as good a 'movie factory' in
that you
can bring in multiple files to add to the DVD authoring....its $30 but well
worth it.
Oh, I also see you can find it on 'www.download.com'....just search for AVS
converter...wow, over 635,000 people have downloaded it, so I guess I'm not
the
only one who likes it! he he he

"freak3" wrote:

> Hey there papa! Thanks for the quick reply.
> I read your webpage and found it very interesting if not a bit
> overwhelming/confusing (grin) I also read your newsletter #19 which talked
> about DVD to movie Maker. My first question is this-would TMPGEnc solve my
> problem? It sounded like it should, until I read from your webpage. My second
> question is (and I hate to ask it) Is there a quality movie editing software
> out there that I can just basically slap in my DVD that I created on the
> recorder and run with? I love what I have seen out of WMM (with the fonts,
> transitions, effects, ease of use-for the most part-) and I really want to
> use it but I'm also looking for ease ( not to hip on changing this file to
> that and that file to this and so on).
> Thanks again!

Wojo
Tue Mar 22 21:14:13 CST 2005

TMPGenc will do the converting for you (although it is slow at re-encoding)
very well.
Otherwise there are many options available, see:
http://www.videohelp.com/convert
papajohn is correct that you need to convert the files before importing them
into WMM.
Converting from MPG to AVI will give you the best results as far as quality.

--

I am not an MVP to any NG
But.....
I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express
last night.

www.remember-christopher.dostweb.com

"freak3" <freak3@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:F538CF25-1B11-4142-9A1D-65591EF50328@microsoft.com...
> Hey there papa! Thanks for the quick reply.
> I read your webpage and found it very interesting if not a bit
> overwhelming/confusing (grin) I also read your newsletter #19 which talked
> about DVD to movie Maker. My first question is this-would TMPGEnc solve my
> problem? It sounded like it should, until I read from your webpage. My
> second
> question is (and I hate to ask it) Is there a quality movie editing
> software
> out there that I can just basically slap in my DVD that I created on the
> recorder and run with? I love what I have seen out of WMM (with the fonts,
> transitions, effects, ease of use-for the most part-) and I really want to
> use it but I'm also looking for ease ( not to hip on changing this file to
> that and that file to this and so on).
> Thanks again!

PapaJohn
Tue Mar 22 22:35:23 CST 2005

Yes, TMPGEnc would most likely do it.. you get a full-featured 30 day trial
of it, so give it a whirl... A good free open source app that might work for
you is VDubMod... there's a link on the Setup > Other Software page of my
site, in the Utilities section..

I'm a believer in using what you have already to do what you want, and if
you can't do it with it, then get another tool for your toolbox... so you
end up with a bunch of tools. I don't know of any one software app that is
so good that you don't want to use others. I'll use a dozen other apps for
specialized things, but keep going with Movie Maker to put it all together.

.... but the world keeps spinning. Pinnacle Studio 9 might have been a good
one to consider last week, but yesterday it was announced they are being
purchased by Avid, so things will go into a state of flux.... check in
another 6 months and it might be better than Movie Maker.... or not.

If you love what you get from Movie Maker, use it... and explore everything
else.... till you love something else more. Then change... wherever you go,
you'll run into codecs and the need to change from one file type to
another... whatever learning you do here will be put to good use.
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
.
"freak3" <freak3@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:F538CF25-1B11-4142-9A1D-65591EF50328@microsoft.com...
> Hey there papa! Thanks for the quick reply.
> I read your webpage and found it very interesting if not a bit
> overwhelming/confusing (grin) I also read your newsletter #19 which talked
> about DVD to movie Maker. My first question is this-would TMPGEnc solve my
> problem? It sounded like it should, until I read from your webpage. My
> second
> question is (and I hate to ask it) Is there a quality movie editing
> software
> out there that I can just basically slap in my DVD that I created on the
> recorder and run with? I love what I have seen out of WMM (with the fonts,
> transitions, effects, ease of use-for the most part-) and I really want to
> use it but I'm also looking for ease ( not to hip on changing this file to
> that and that file to this and so on).
> Thanks again!

freak3
Wed Mar 23 21:51:01 CST 2005


You folks are really great here! THanks for all the points in the right
direction! I'm hoping to find some time this weekend to dowload and play
around-work is keeping me busy the next couple o'days.
I'd get the trial version of TMPGEnc right off their site right?
And one other question, just out of curiosity, hos difficult is it to take
the existing audio out of a clip to add your own score? I'm thinking it'd be
cool to add a MTV style video on the end of each home movie.
Again, thanks for all the advice guys!

PapaJohn
Wed Mar 23 22:16:39 CST 2005

right on both counts... I have a link to the site for the TMPGEnc
download... on the Setup > Other Software page. And it's not difficult at
all to mute the audio of a clip and add an audio file to play over it....
just do it once as part of the learning process, and you'll never forget.

thanks for the positive note...
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
.
"freak3" <freak3@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6C2F0245-DD8D-48B8-A65B-3366762F9402@microsoft.com...
>
> You folks are really great here! THanks for all the points in the right
> direction! I'm hoping to find some time this weekend to dowload and play
> around-work is keeping me busy the next couple o'days.
> I'd get the trial version of TMPGEnc right off their site right?
> And one other question, just out of curiosity, hos difficult is it to take
> the existing audio out of a clip to add your own score? I'm thinking it'd
> be
> cool to add a MTV style video on the end of each home movie.
> Again, thanks for all the advice guys!

freak3
Thu Mar 24 18:21:02 CST 2005

Hoo-boy....it seems I will never run out of questions! ANyhoo-I visited your
site to check out the download, and there is a lot listed there! Which one
should I grab? (gads, I hate being a newbie)

PapaJohn
Thu Mar 24 18:29:34 CST 2005

the first one on the download page is fine... the TMPGEnc-Plus is a good
choice - it's a trial version with MPEG-2 features but fully functional for
a month.... MPEG-2 codecs are licensed and cost money, but this will get you
a month.

.... and by tomorrow you won't be a newbie... there's more to replace you
every day...
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
.
"freak3" <freak3@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AFFC9965-B969-4364-A6A6-5DB4B0D0B8F8@microsoft.com...
> Hoo-boy....it seems I will never run out of questions! ANyhoo-I visited
> your
> site to check out the download, and there is a lot listed there! Which one
> should I grab? (gads, I hate being a newbie)

PapaJohn
Thu Mar 24 18:57:19 CST 2005

OOPS... think that's the second one..

--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
.
"PapaJohn (MVP)" <PapaJohn@CharterMI.net> wrote in message
news:%23O$h6GNMFHA.3420@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> the first one on the download page is fine... the TMPGEnc-Plus is a good
> choice - it's a trial version with MPEG-2 features but fully functional
> for a month.... MPEG-2 codecs are licensed and cost money, but this will
> get you a month.
>
> .... and by tomorrow you won't be a newbie... there's more to replace you
> every day...
> --
> PapaJohn
>
> Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 - www.papajohn.org
> Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
> .
> "freak3" <freak3@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:AFFC9965-B969-4364-A6A6-5DB4B0D0B8F8@microsoft.com...
>> Hoo-boy....it seems I will never run out of questions! ANyhoo-I visited
>> your
>> site to check out the download, and there is a lot listed there! Which
>> one
>> should I grab? (gads, I hate being a newbie)
>
>

freak3
Sat Mar 26 12:33:02 CST 2005

Okay guys, heres the latest fun. I took a look at both TMPGEnc and AVS
converter and went with AVS to start as it seemed a little bit easier to
understand what I was doing (the help key was indeed helpful). I managed to
geta 1hr vid converted to avi (only took about 5 hrs!!) however when I
imported it to WMM (allowing it to make clips as I figured it 'd be eaier for
me to manage) the audio and video were WAY WAY out of sync, the video played
very poorly (distorted, breaking up, pixels showing through) and it did not
get everything that was on the disk. Any thoughts on what went wrong or how
to correct this problem?
Also, is there any kind of tutorial for TMPGEnc that deals specifically with
converting to avi (I was tad lost trying to figure out what I was doing with
that one)
THANKS!