cannot save movie maker file - minutes to save keep going up

[R]

Video is from A Kodak Zi6 HD and was converted to AVI. Video was just under
9 minutes long. Over 9 hours later the minutes just keep going up and up but
movie never saves. I was trying to save to my computer in DV-AVI. Then
tried High quality large and small again minutes just going up and up..same
thing happens.

All the clips were then reduced using the orginal files from the camera and
A second set of clips input AVI 480 x 320 @96kbps the input files total 26
megs of which a few were cut out. Again the minutes just keep going up and
up.

System has 2 gigs of ram and 256 gigs open on the hard drive so ram and hard
drive space aren't the issue running XP service pack 3.

I am a new at video, the only things I've made in movie maker were importing
jpeg images and turning into movies which I tried doing to and that worked
just fine and quickly.
Appreciate easy to understand response. Checked PapaJohn.org website and a
few others none of which either fully answered or solved the problem.
I'm doing this for work and have spent some 23 hours on less than 15 minutes
of combined videos. Thanks much

 

[John Inzer]

Video is from A Kodak Zi6 HD and was converted to AVI. Video was
just under 9 minutes long. Over 9 hours later the minutes just keep
going up and up but movie never saves. I was trying to save to my
computer in DV-AVI. Then tried High quality large and small again
minutes just going up and up..same thing happens.

All the clips were then reduced using the orginal files from the
camera and A second set of clips input AVI 480 x 320 @96kbps the
input files total 26 megs of which a few were cut out. Again the
minutes just keep going up and up.

System has 2 gigs of ram and 256 gigs open on the hard drive so ram
and hard drive space aren't the issue running XP service pack 3.

I am a new at video, the only things I've made in movie maker were
importing jpeg images and turning into movies which I tried doing to
and that worked just fine and quickly.
Appreciate easy to understand response. Checked PapaJohn.org website
and a few others none of which either fully answered or solved the
problem.
I'm doing this for work and have spent some 23 hours on less than 15
minutes of combined videos. Thanks much

=============================================
The problem is the .avi file format...if you convert
the .avi file to .wmv it should work successfully for you.

Might be worth a try to use Windows Media Encoder:

Windows Media Encoder
http://tinyurl.com/bbal
or...
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...02-e496-465a-bba9-b2f1182cdf24&displaylang=en

How do I convert other video file formats to WMV?
http://tinyurl.com/2o8uso
or...
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/knowledgecenter/mediaadvice/0065.mspx

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[R]

Hi John:
Thanks for the response. The one thing I forgot to mention in the first
post was the first 9 minute video after converting from MOV to AVI via
SuperC, the AVI clips were then run thru Windows Media encoder in an effort
to solve the issue and were WMV file format. I will recheck the 9 min file
clips - maybe I did place a rogue AVI in, hence what is causing the problem

The 2 minute video had only the AVI files. It is very strange this suddenly
won't save a file no matter how small the input or output when it did it just
fine the day I tested the camera with a 4 minute video that was converted to
AVI only dropped into Movie Maker without a single issue.

 

[John Inzer]

Hi John:
Thanks for the response. The one thing I forgot to mention in the
first post was the first 9 minute video after converting from MOV to
AVI via SuperC, the AVI clips were then run thru Windows Media
encoder in an effort to solve the issue and were WMV file format. I
will recheck the 9 min file clips - maybe I did place a rogue AVI
in, hence what is causing the problem

The 2 minute video had only the AVI files. It is very strange this
suddenly won't save a file no matter how small the input or output
when it did it just fine the day I tested the camera with a 4 minute
video that was converted to AVI only dropped into Movie Maker without
a single issue.

=====================================
If you continue to have issues it may be worth a try
to convert the original .mov file directly to .wmv
using a different app.

Maybe the following free online converter would
be worth a try:

Free online converter:
MediaConvert
http://media-convert.com/

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[R]

Thanks John
I will try media convert. It will save a step. I did find that I had 3
small clips totaling a minute that were still AVI's in windows movie maker
storyboard that I I thought I ran thru media encoder to make them wmv format
but didn't so that one minute of wrong format AVI was the issue. Ran them
thru media encoder double checked all the others started a completely new
project and it worked like a charm. Thanks for the help. It is pretty odd
though that went you save to my computer in the highest format DV-AVI WMV
spits back an AVI file.

 

[John Inzer]

Thanks John
I will try media convert. It will save a step. I did find that I
had 3 small clips totaling a minute that were still AVI's in windows
movie maker storyboard that I I thought I ran thru media encoder to
make them wmv format but didn't so that one minute of wrong format
AVI was the issue. Ran them thru media encoder double checked all
the others started a completely new project and it worked like a
charm. Thanks for the help. It is pretty odd though that went you
save to my computer in the highest format DV-AVI WMV spits back an
AVI file.

============================================
Glad to be of help and I'm happy that you found the cause.

No weird at all when you consider there are hundreds of
types of .avi files (it's only a wrapper)...but guess what...
the .avi produced by Movie Maker is...DV-AVI...not at all
the same file type that caused the compatibility issues.

Clear as mud now...huh?

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[WT]

I cannot help you but have a question of you: I'm first time user of Movie
Maker - you said it is easy. Did you have any "ah-ha" moments you can warn
me about in making your first movie? I plan to use it for jpeg slideshow
with music in background. Any head's ups you can share? Thank you in
advance.

 

[John Inzer]

I cannot help you but have a question of you: I'm first time user of
Movie Maker - you said it is easy. Did you have any "ah-ha" moments
you can warn me about in making your first movie? I plan to use it
for jpeg slideshow with music in background. Any head's ups you can
share? Thank you in advance.

=====================================
The best formats to use in Movie Maker are:

Photos : .bmp
Video : .wmv, DV-AVI
Music : wma, .wmv, .wav

You can create a project in Movie Maker with
photos and music but it was designed for video.

FWIW...the free program PhotoStory 3 is a better
app for creating a video with photos and music.

PhotoStory 3 For Windows
http://tinyurl.com/4f869
or...
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

Prepping Still Pix for Import
http://www.windowsmoviemakers.net/PapaJohn/78/

Burn Your Photo Stories to DVD for Free
using Microsoft Photo Story 3 for Windows
http://pctoby.com/DVDPhotoStory.aspx

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[WT]

John - thank you so much for the help. That's exactly what I was needing to
know. Now I feel much more confident - and when my mom sees her life story
this Saturday at her 80th Birthday party - I will be thinking of you and your
kindness in helping me do this for her. You're an angel. WT

 

[John Inzer]

John - thank you so much for the help. That's exactly what I was
needing to know. Now I feel much more confident - and when my mom
sees her life story this Saturday at her 80th Birthday party - I will
be thinking of you and your kindness in helping me do this for her.
You're an angel. WT

=============================
You're welcome.

Let us know how it goes.

Happy Birthday to WT's MOM!

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk