AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why?

Tutorials Win: Microsoft Windows Forum

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  - 1
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39244
  - 2
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39242
  - 3
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39241
  - 4
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39238
  - 5
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39237
  - 6
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39231
  - 7
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39229
  - 8
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39227
  - 9
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39221
  - 10
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39219
  - 11
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39218
  - 12
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39215
  - 13
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39211
  - 14
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39205
  - 15
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39169
  - 16
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39168
  - 17
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39166
  - 18
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39147
  - 19
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39145
  - 20
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39141
  - 21
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39140
  - 22
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39116
  - 23
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39106
  - 24
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39104
  - 25
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39100
- Next
  - 1
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39091
  - 2
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39088
  - 3
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39085
  - 4
    - creating DVD Thanks wojo and others-finally got DVD to play on TV-now need to improve quality. mick Tag: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39084
  - 5
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39077
  - 6
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39073
  - 7
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39069
  - 8
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39062
  - 9
    - 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39017
  - 10
    - video cature card not working i finally got wmm to work on my mce2005 sp2 system and when i launch the video capture part of the program a get an error message "this device is not responding please close any other application that is using the device and try capturing again" i don't think any other program is using the device. i tried intervideo create win dvd and the device works with this software. please let me know if there is a fix for this thanks. Tag: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39015
  - 11
    - vido capture not not working i finnally got wmm to work on my mce2005 sp2 system when i try to lunch the vido captue card i get an error message device is not responding close any application that is using the device and try caturing again.i don't think any othe program is using this device. itried intervideo's software win dvd creator and the card works in that program please let me know if there is a fix for this thanks. Tag: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39014
  - 12
    - Thank you to Jonathan Gunner Hello, Would just like to say, that I have successfully burned my first Home Movie to DVD - all thanks to your advise. Thanks Again :) Tag: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39012
  - 13
    - MM doesn't accept *.mp4 Videos - although codec is installed! MM doesn't accept *.mp4 Videos- although codec is installed. WMP plays the videos, WME accepts them - only MM does't take it - it doesn't even try (you have to select "all files" in the import dialog, otherwise the mp4-files aren't even shown and then it just says "wrong file type") unbelievable! there are more and more flshcard camcorders, which use the mp4 file format! Q: when will MS fix that? Tag: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39010
  - 14
    - Same Dimensions as the Input? Using Tmpgenx Plus version 2.5 I have a bunch of wmv files I want to convert to MPG. But everytime I do so, the resolution is different. I want tgo keep everything the same number of pixels horizontally and vertically. How can I set that? For example, the source files are 400 x 300 and the output file is 352 x 288. How can I change that? Tag: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39007
  - 15
    - Same Dimensions as the Input? Using Tmpgenx Plus version 2.5 I have a bunch of wmv files I want to convert to MPG. But everytime I do so, the resolution is different. I want tgo keep everything the same number of pixels horizontally and vertically. How can I set that? For example, the source files are 400 x 300 and the output file is 352 x 288. How can I change that? Tag: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39006
  - 16
    - ??how to change duration for a clip The default is set at 5 seconds per clip. When I click on the clip I want to play longer and right click and get the properties info. It shows the duration, time start and time stop...but I can't figure out how to change it. I want one particular picture to stay on screen for 10 seconds instead of 5 seconds. Tag: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39005
  - 17
    - cannot capture using mm2 please help! hi, i always had the first movie maker and it worked great! now after the service pack 2 and new movie maker i go to capture with my rage fury pro 128 card (with the most current driver!) with composite analog in and movie maker says "the video device is currently in use please close any other app using it!" then after clicking of another dialog box says "the video device cannot be used at this time there has been an error starting it" i got a trial version of ulead and it worked great but i want my windows moveie maker back! please help ! can i get the old movie maker 1 back? thanks tons!! Tag: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 39004
  - 18
    - Attn: "PapaJohn" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_130E_01C586F8.2A2ADA30 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Please do not respond to any threads initiated by me. I do not want = your input. Thanks, but no thanks. Al Stu ------=_NextPart_000_130E_01C586F8.2A2ADA30 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=3DContent-Type content=3D"text/html; = charset=3Diso-8859-1"> <META content=3D"MSHTML 6.00.2900.2668" name=3DGENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff> <DIV>Please do not respond to any threads initiated by me.  I do = not want=20 your input.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks, but no thanks.</DIV> <DIV>Al Stu</DIV> <DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML> ------=_NextPart_000_130E_01C586F8.2A2ADA30-- Tag: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 38991
  - 19
    - Video Capture Freezes When I'm capturing video from a mini-dv cam using a USB cord that came with the mini-dv cam, the image in moviemaker will freeze after a few minutes or MB. When I play the clip in moviemaker, the sound continues, but the image freezes. Any ideas? Norm Tag: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 38987
  - 20
    - Attn: MSFT; Snap, Crackle & Pop This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_1267_01C586E9.B3AFC4F0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Will Microsoft ever fix the 27th frame drop from every clip and the = resulting associated audio and audio/music tracks skip/click/pop? =20 Top 10 Reasons to Use Windows Movie Maker 2 http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/top10.mspx =20 #1 -Make Movies Like a Pro "Windows Movie Maker 2 comes with built-in slides, background music, and = sound effects so you can make entertaining movies your friends will = actually want to see." Do Pros also put up with dropped frames and the resulting audio = skip/click/pop? I think not. #5 - Highest Quality Video and Audio "With support for the latest Windows Media=AE compression technology, = Windows Movie Maker 2 gives you the clearest video and crispest audio = ever." =20 Now that's an out right lie. Dropped frames and resulting audio = skip/click/pops are "highest quality video and audio", "clearest video = and crispest audio ever"? I think not. =20 Skippy is a peanut butter brand and should NOT be included in a "High = Quality" A/V editor. =20 Microsoft, would you please fix this problem already. It's been around = since version 2.0. One would think a quality issue such as this would = be high on the priority list of fixes. Yet even with the release of 2.1 = the issue remains and has existed for years. =20 ------=_NextPart_000_1267_01C586E9.B3AFC4F0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=3DContent-Type content=3D"text/html; = charset=3Diso-8859-1"> <META content=3D"MSHTML 6.00.2900.2668" name=3DGENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff> <DIV> <DIV> <P class=3DMsoNormal style=3D"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Will Microsoft ever = fix the=20 27<SUP>th</SUP> frame drop from every clip and the resulting associated = audio=20 and audio/music tracks skip/click/pop?<?xml:namespace prefix =3D o ns = =3D=20 "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></P> <P class=3DMsoNormal style=3D"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P> <P class=3DMsoNormal style=3D"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B=20 style=3D"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><FONT color=3D#0000ff>Top 10 = Reasons to Use=20 Windows Movie Maker 2<o:p></o:p></FONT></B></P> <P class=3DMsoNormal style=3D"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B=20 style=3D"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><A=20 href=3D"http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/top10.mspx"><= SPAN=20 style=3D"FONT-WEIGHT: = normal">http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/top10.mspx</S= PAN></A></B><o:p></o:p></P> <P class=3DMsoNormal style=3D"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P> <P class=3DMsoNormal style=3D"MARGIN: 9pt 0in 0pt"><STRONG><FONT = color=3D#0000ff><SPAN=20 class=3Dlabel1><SPAN=20 style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt; = mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">#1=20 -Make Movies Like a Pro</SPAN></SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></STRONG></P> <P class=3Dblurb style=3D"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN=20 style=3D"FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 140%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New = Roman'"><FONT=20 color=3D#0000ff>"Windows Movie Maker 2 comes with built-in slides, = background=20 music, and sound effects so you can make entertaining movies your = friends will=20 actually want to see."<BR></FONT><BR>Do Pros also put up with dropped = frames and=20 the resulting audio skip/click/pop?<SPAN style=3D"mso-spacerun: = yes"> =20 </SPAN>I think not.<BR><BR><STRONG><FONT color=3D#0000ff><SPAN = class=3Dlabel1><SPAN=20 style=3D"LINE-HEIGHT: 140%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; = mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">#5=20 - Highest Quality Video and=20 Audio</SPAN></SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></STRONG></SPAN></P> <P class=3Dblurb style=3D"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN=20 style=3D"FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 140%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New = Roman'"><FONT=20 color=3D#0000ff>"With support for the latest Windows Media=AE = compression=20 technology, Windows Movie Maker 2 gives you the clearest video and = crispest=20 audio ever."</FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=3DMsoNormal style=3D"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P> <P class=3DMsoNormal style=3D"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Now that=92s an out = right lie.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>Dropped frames and resulting = audio=20 skip/click/pops are =93highest quality video and audio=94, =93clearest = video and=20 crispest audio ever=94?<SPAN style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>I = think=20 not.<o:p></o:p></P> <P class=3DMsoNormal style=3D"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P> <P class=3DMsoNormal style=3D"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> Skippy is = a peanut=20 butter brand and should NOT be included in a "High Quality" A/V=20 editor.</o:p></P> <P class=3DMsoNormal style=3D"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p></o:p> </P> <P class=3DMsoNormal style=3D"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p>Microsoft, would = you please=20 fix this problem already.  It's been around since version = 2.0.  One=20 would think a quality issue such as this would be high on the priority = list of=20 fixes.  Yet even with the release of 2.1 the issue remains and has = existed=20 for years.</o:p></P> <P class=3DMsoNormal=20 style=3D"MARGIN: 0in 0in = 0pt"><o:p></o:p> </P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML> ------=_NextPart_000_1267_01C586E9.B3AFC4F0-- Tag: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 38986
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    - "unknown error" MM2.1 - Canon ZR50 I cannot import video in any format with any method in MM2. I have all SP's for XP Pro (SP2 + all options) I keep getting "unknown error" when attempting to use wizard to import from my Canon ZR50 MC. Firewire connection. The camera shows up in XP Pro - and is "avaialable". However - all attempts to capture video in MM2.1 - fail with an "unknown error" Please help. -- Steve Wingert s_wingert@hotmail.com IS Manager - Brandt Industries Tag: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 38983
  - 22
    - Trying to record back to a DV Tape Deck I have been teaching a group of nuns on how to use Windows Movie Maker for their orphange, and for the most part, the software was very easy for them to use when editing the videos for potential adoptive parents. However, when it came time for me to show them how to record back their edited videos to tape (in this case they are using a JVC DV/VHS deck). All I get after going through the steps of exporting the video to tape is nothing but a black screen on the tape. Unfortunately, my experience as an editor has been limited to Final Cut Pro, Avid and very little windows movie maker. Do i need to export the entire edited timeline as 1 AVI file before I try to export the video out to tape, or can I just take what is on the timeline and record it to tape. **NOTE: The JVC deck that the nuns are using is a firewire deck that was meant for both capturing (which works) and recording. Unfortunately, the guy who sold and "installed" the equipment skipped town, and was not much help for them. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated (either a website that I can refer to or a manual that I can read or something)...Many many thanks. miggy. Tag: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 38981
  - 23
    - FAQ: #20050712 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: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 38966
  - 24
    - Imported mp3 comes and goes Greetings. I've created a project in which I have an mp3 playing at the end. The music plays on cue... sometimes... It only plays in storyboard mode, and only when I click on a transition box while the project is playing. When I converted it to a movie file, the music from the mp3 did not show up. Can someone point me in the right direction? Thanks! Tag: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 38959
  - 25
    - Major bug with DXVA and Windows Media Player. Hey Microsoft, whats up with the fact that DXVA acceleration does not work in a limited account? You don't actually think that the majority of the population runs XP with administrator rights do you?! Ok, maybe they do but that does not make it right. Anyway this is a nuisance for me, I spent an hour trying to figure out why the DXVA acceleration was not working because of this bug. So yea, any suggestions d00ders? Tag: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? Tag: 38958

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.

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Re: AVI not a selectable option for video capture. Why? by PapaJohn

PapaJohn
Sun Jul 17 23:29:26 CDT 2005

the DV-AVI option is only active when you capture from a digital video
source like a digital camcorder via firewire... it's not an option when you
capture from analog sources.

--
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

"elmojr" <elmo@manymidi.com> wrote in message
news:1121641720.250909.137990@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> 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.
>

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