Talk:Windows Movie Maker

Deleted "Criticism" section

This section really said nothing that wasn't covered in earlier sections. The "POV" flag was also inappropriate; I don't really think saying something to the effect that: "for a piece of freeware, it can give remarkably good results" is really POV. All that's really saying is "don't assume that because it's freeware it must be useless"

Sure Movie Maker is limited in some respects, but it's also free. Save the criticism for software people want you to pay for. Yes it's true, fancier packages use more compression and so use up less disk space but if you want quality images, you need a lot of disc space; there's no way around this. Second-hand 60GB hard drives can be had for next-to-nothing these days; why not just put another one in?

For the price, WMM is outstanding value; but neither it nor any other software package will do all the work for you, which seems to be its main failing for a lot of people:-) No matter what system you use, editing video is still HARD WORK.

For the record, WMM rarely crashes on my PC, certainly no more than any other windows program. Elekas 11:36, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

For the record, WMM isn't free. It's bundled with MS Windows, but that's not the same as free. A part of the cost of MS Windows is the cost of WMM. // Liftarn

You're splitting hairs; WMM was not included with earlier versions of XP, but you could (and can still) download it for free from Microsoft. You could presumably do the same with a MAC or running Linux, although it wouldn't actually run.

But it still wouldn't cost anything. Elekas 00:56, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

You could conceivably run it with Wine... I'm not too sure though, because I don't use Wine. - 68.228.56.158 19:37, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

i and a lot of people who tried using it couldn't because of the everpresent crashes, but aside from that, a referenced criticism section is always needed in an article of a widely used/distributed software. --AnYoNe! 21:13, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

critisism is needed - why would they remove the feature to capture video using a webcam? i can't find any other program in vista to allow you to do that. what were they thinking?! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.27.231.250 (talk) 05:19:49, August 19, 2007 (UTC)

The USB information is incorrect

I can import video from my Panasonic GS150 at full quality using the USB 2 interface. Perhaps this section of the article is out of date.

The vast majority of cameras still don't support USB 2, but I have altered that part of the article. The main advantage of IEEE1394 is that unlike USB it doesn't require special drivers, which are plagued by software conflicts when used for video transfer. Elekas 03:24, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

MPG. Files

How come every time i want to put a .mpg file into my timeline or select a clip it tells me the usual "Movie Maker has encountered an error and needs to close" please help me i have a big movie project i wanna do and this isnt helping Metlover21

WMM doesn't work very well or at all with MPEG files. You need to convert them to AVI or a similar format.Elekas 04:47, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, pretty specifically if you're crashing in MPEG, that means you have an incompatible third party codec installed. If you report the crash to Microsoft, that may lead you to further data - or you can check the fault event in Event Viewer, which may reveal the name of the afflicted codec. Preppy 09:08, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Corrupt collections file

How come when i open movie maker it tells me that my collections file is corrupted and tells me i have to close it Help me please Metlover21

How do you put music in your movie?

On the "Capture Video" section, click on "Import Audio or music" This will give you a file selection box where you can select a music file on your hard drive. (I don't think you can directly import off a CD, you have to import it as an MP3 file first). When you click "OK", the music file will appear in the "clips collection" in the middle of the WMM screen. Then just click and drag it down to the "Audio/music" timeline. You can move it around on the timeline, shorten it, or cut it into segments. Right-click on it to alter the volume etc.Elekas 04:45, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

im tryin 2 make a movie w/ some video footage i got with HyperCam. i am tryin 2 get some of my favourite songs in it, but i cant and i have been usin this thing for years User:Jesusfreek2 20:36, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Have you perhaps downloaded the songs from iTunes? WMM won't import the M4P format. You may have to burn the songs onto a PCM CD and then re-rip them to MP3. I know that MP3 importing works; I've made heaps of DVDs with my own soundtrack.Elekas 01:05, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

External link outdated

http://www.wmmarchive.tk/ is now located at http://wmmarchive.6.forumer.com/ thank the internet wayback machine for figuring that one out.

cheers, klotski

Add to comparison list

Someone familiar with this program should add it to Comparison of video editing software. AxelBoldt 21:51, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

"Loss of unsaved work"

"The program has also been known to crash frequently, resulting in the loss of any unsaved work."

I can comfirm that under certain circumstances, the above sentence isn't true, as I have had Movie Maker crash several times, but have been able to recover my work by switching the computer off-and-back-on at the mains socket. I don't know if this is of any help, but I thought it was worth a mention. 194.83.164.22 15:40, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

WMM has a similar autorecovery system to Word and other packages. After all, the actual project file is simply a very small "script" that tells WMM which bits of the original camera file to copy to produce the output file, so auto-saving it is pretty easy for the computer. To reduce the liklihood of crashes, shut down all other programs before starting WMM, and consider getting more RAM. Some crap photoediting software such as Kodak Easyshare will cause trouble even when it's not running, because it has an autoloading "stub" file that keeps trying to access the USB port. Incidentally, this can also play havoc with both iTunes and Sony's diabolical Connect-Player and SonicStage software:-)

To check this, click start - run - then type in "msconfig" (without the quotes) followed by the enter key and then select the "startup" tab. If you see anything that looks like easyshare or "no-name" MP3 player loading software that you may have forgotten about, unclick it and see if that helps. (Make a note of what you have done of course) Elekas 11:57, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

Crash

I was just wondering if many people experience crashes on it. iMovie doesn't crash and I use both wmm and iMovie? Samaster1991 10:37, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

My version of WMM with a brand new PC with loads of RAM and the minimal amount of software running in the background crashes all the time with every 30 second video I import. I save with every additional command that I give it but it takes a whole day to make a 2 minute movie. I send error reports with every crash but Microsoft offer no feedback or resolutions to the problem and I have found that my friends also suffer the same, except those with a Mac AsparagusTips 06:33, 2 June 2007 (UTC) AsparagusTips

I had problems with crashing--many problems--in XP, but the Vista version is much better. Amazing, really :). 206.248.133.136 17:31, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

My Saving Problem

If you actually acknowledge my existence then you know I make comics on my website. So far 5 of them are animated. I use the Windows Movie Maker program. I tried making my 6th animated comic(which was 0:00:34.53 long, and contains 140 .png frames made in paint and has 4 mpeg audio files) and I finished and tried saving it to my computer but it said it couldnt. The computer is an XP, theres sufficient memory, what is wrong with my program? -King SweaterHead 19:39, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Its a stopgap freeware program? I would suggest not asking for help on Wikipedia, but I do suggest snooping around video editors in Wikipedia for a better freeware program without a nag message, or a open source one such as Blender. - 68.228.56.158 19:40, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Crashing...

This program crashes almost every time I use it. My friends use it to, and they have experienced the same problem. My Windows XP is real and genuine.

Forums around at the internet has topics of the same problem.

There should be a section in the article about problems with this program.

There should also be a section in this article pointing to alternative software effecting the same result AsparagusTips 06:35, 2 June 2007 (UTC)AsparagusTips

This sometimes happens, and there seems to be no easy explanation. I've been using the program for nearly three years on a 2.4GHz PC with just 512M RAM, and I've had very little trouble. I also use it on my newer Compaq laptop and I've never had any trouble with that either. However the 3.1GHz machine with 1G of RAM I use at work doesn't want to know about it! Similar problems occur with the special software needed to load music onto Sony Network Walkmans - it simply will not run on some PCs.

Often the problem is some piece of event-driven software that you may have forgotten about that sits there waiting for you to plug something into the USB port. If your friends are having the same trouble and they are using different computers, it's possible you're all running the same piece of software.

But WMM is definitely capable of working, and working well.

Talk pages are for discussions of the article, really, per the talk page guidelines. If you're going to talk about crash analysis, you really need to provide adequate data - this points out that the Event Viewer data is the absolute minimum for any coherent or useful conversation. Lots of third party codecs that plug into Movie Maker aren't well-written (IMHO) and will bring Movie Maker down. Generally making sure you avoid codec packs (at all costs) and have the latest versions of the codecs you do use (direct from the appropriate vendor) is the best way to keep Movie Maker stable. Preppy 21:23, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Editing videos from YouTube and others

Is it possible to open and edit a video downloaded from YouTube in this application?

No, youtube uses a special format. I'm not sure what it is, but there is a way to change the format with a converter. There are guides for it on youtube itself, maybe you should try checking those out. 80.42.162.117 20:26, 24 July 2007 (UTC) 75.162.1.187 05:25, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Youtube uses .flv files, which MM can't handle. You can download a video converter (SUPER is a good one) to turn it into a compatible format like avi. 206.248.133.136 17:30, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Very common type of simple video editor

I can think of several video editors which are very similar to Movie Maker (almost the same, some even with more features). From the top of my head: AVS Video Editor, Honestech Video Editor, Colorful Video Editor which are exactly the same as Movie Maker. Websites below:

http://www.avs4you.com

http://www.honestech.com/main/video_editor_70.asp?path=Graphics%20%26%20Video

http://www.colorfulsoft.com

These work on Windows 2000 (unlike Movie Maker which only works on Me, XP and Vista). I thought it could be worth mentioning (does this type of video editor have a name, like Movie Maker clones or something?).

avs video editor is 2003/xp/vista, NOT 2k. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.68.66.250 (talk) 19:33, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Windows Movie Maker 2.1 for Windows 2000

I need someone to add version 2.1 for Windows 2000 into the table of Windows Movie Maker versions because I do not know how to. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.94.192.90 (talk) 04:20, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Other saving formats

How do you save the vids. to other formats other than MSWMM? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.81.106.84 (talk) 20:48, 18 February 2008 (UTC) Click finish video or something. It should be on the left-hand bar

Latest XP SP2 version

What is the latest version of Windows Movie Maker that works on Windows XP SP2? Also does that version handle *.vod, *.vro, and *.mp4 files. Please give link to update page for most recent XPSP2 supported version as well Thx!Spitfire (talk) 19:15, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Problems section

I think the problems section is POVed, OR and non-notable. One review doesn't count as "generally low". Others are user opinions which are bound to be more biased and anti-Microsoft. Things such as uninstallability are too trivial since it doesn't break any other app/component nor does it take up even 20 MB of space. Some particular issue or bug is present in any software. More citations are needed to claim it is unstable. - xpclient ^Talk 06:47, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

Agreed, on every point. Forum threads and download.com anonymous comments are definitely not reliable sources. I've just rewritten the section from scratch with some proper citations. -- simxp (talk) 13:05, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

Supported file formats

Microsoft's official stance is that Movie Maker does not support MPEG4 or .MOV formats. The WMM version 6 (officially version 2.6) help file states:

You can import files with the following file name extensions into Windows Movie Maker to use in your project:

Video files: .asf, .avi, .m1v, .mp2, .mp2v, .mpe, .mpeg, .mpg, .mpv2, .wm, and .wmv

Audio files: .aif, .aifc, .aiff .asf, .au, .mp2, .mp3, .mpa, .snd, .wav, and .wma

Picture files: .bmp, .dib, .emf, .gif, .jfif, .jpe, .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tiff, and .wmf

However, it also states:

You can also import files into Windows Movie Maker that have a different extension from the ones listed above, but not all file types will work when you try to use them to make a movie.

This has caused great confusion among WMM users as evidenced by the number of returns to the simple Google query "movie maker import mov".

Apparently, it is possible to import .MOV files (sometimes as simple as drag and drop) in WMM 6 on at least Vista Home Premium (and perhaps others) with no additional codec installations needed. [1]

However, .MOV files do not seem to be supported in at least the latest XP version of WMM (version 2.1).

Also, the Flip video camera which records in MPEG 4 format, [2]evidently contains software from 3IVX [3] which can make WMM recognize and import MPEG 4 files per this article by a Flip user: [4]

I have attempted to install the trial version of the 3IVX software on XP to endable MPEG 4 support in WMM but it did not work.

Is Microsoft's lack of acknowledgement of Movie Maker's (2.6) support for MPEG 4 and .MOV formats a competitive stance against Apple and has demand and the ubiquity of these formats driven Microsoft quietly to included support for them without advertising it? Bradnana (talk) 21:27, 30 June 2008 (UTC)