Re: MovieMaker2 has old WinME bug?

I've noticed this at times but just assumed that it was due to my sloppy
splitting, probably just leaving a frame of the last clip on the new one as
I chopped it up. I don't have an answer, but here's a couple comments.

MM2 has a working editing environment of 15 fps, whereas MM1 is 30 fps. So
looking at a single MM2 frame is really a representation of two MM1 frames -
but the first frame is used for the thumbnails.

The thumbnails are put into the collection database and project file when
first imported or added. But, updates to the thumbnail occur only with
certain events, so thumbnails and source files can appear sometimes to be
out of sync. While putting together a new Managing... Source Files page at
www.papajohn.org I've noticed that MM2 is tolerant of some changes to source
files, and have been noting them on the page. It's a work in progress.

I'll be looking at this issue a bit closer.

PapaJohn


"Ben" <nospam@bedsci.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:02b101c37842$20c630a0$a001280a@phx.gbl...
>
> When we view movie clips in the Movie Maker 2 monitor, the
> image displayed in the monitor is not the same as that of
> the thumbnail view of the clip in the storyboard.
>
> Noticed this problem on our newly downloaded MM2, running
> under WinXPHome, thought it was our configuration, but it
> seems to be an old bug according to this MS link:
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-
> us;267649
>
> Disappointing to find a 3 year-old problem in MM2, just
> when we were warming to XP & MM2.
>
>

Nice info Richard,

I agree with patience being helpful when editing. A couple thoughts about
your comments.

When you add a clip to the project, MM2 assesses the source file to add the
info to the project. It just doesn't copy the info from the collection
database. There really isn't any linkage between the collection database and
the project file. Just appears to be, because most of the thumbnails look
the same and the clip names start off aligning. So MM2 needs time to add the
data about the clip to the project.

The 'AutoRecover' process kicks in way too often for me by default - it
doesn't tell you what it's doing, but it is backing up your collection
database and current project to be able to recover in the event of something
like a power outage. Power outages and other events happen so rarely where I
live that the time for MM2 to do it's backup stuff isn't worth it, so I use
the maximum time between backups. I'm tempted to use the option to disable
it, as one of my habits is to routinely save the project file as I edit.
Some people think that MM2 hangs up at times, but it's just doing it's
AutoRecover backup process.

PapaJohn

"Millicer R" <recillim@optusnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:O%23a4Rc5eDHA.2576@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> I am pretty certain that I've solved this problem -- at least for me. I
say
> 'pretty certain' because having spotted a likely association of my own
> behaviour with problems with MM2, I am now always careful as I shall
> describe.
>
> The thumbnail problem seemed randomly intermittent. In time, however, an
> association began to emerge between making several edits/cuts/transitions
> in quick succession and various out-of sync problems, one of which was the
> 'bad thumbnail' one that you mention. I noticed too that a problem was far
> more likely to occur if drive activity on my main MM2 target drive was
high
> while asking MM2 to do something potentially complicated. (I have separate
> SCSI and IDE drive activity LEDs.) I also found that the only reliable
> fix, once an out-of-sync problem has occurred, was to discard all the
edits
> and restart a session from scratch.
>
> So what I do now is to first of all, always wait after moving a clip to
the
> timeline. MM2 appears to analyse the clip and presumably writes
> pointers/markers to a temp file somewhere. This can take quite a while
> depending on the length of the clip. I wait until high drive activity
> stops. I don't even try to play the timeline. My evidently worthwhile
> caution extends to also watching for heavy drive activity to stop before
> stacking edits, saves, etc.
>
> In other words, don't expect WinXP/MM2 to manage its command buffers,
> interrupts and various queues perfectly -- Windows is simply not a true
> multitasking, realtime OS. It just isn't, period. So I don't expect 'bug
> fixes', because the problems are probably expressions of OS architecture
> limitations.
>
> Since becoming more patient, I have found the whole video editing
> experience a much more enjoyable and troublefree one.
>
> Richard.
>