Cannot save movies and misc problem with wmm2

[Dalgibbard]

Since my previous message;

"After spending about 2 hours and a half on editing a
movie, i cannot save it. When selecting the file> save
movie option it goes through all the options, and then
presents me with an error message saying that the file
cannot be created due to one of the following; Not enough
disk space, Source file moved, renamed or deleted, or
output directory does not exist.Please help as i require
this movie published fairly soon."
None of these items can be true, as i have tried several
source files from many different locations, tried the
output directory as C:\ which definately exists, and i
have 15GB of room and have tried to save the movie with
the smallest output file available (resulting in an
approximately 10MB file), and yet i still get this error.

Since this WMM2 have developed another problem, when
clicking on the <file> drop down menu, the <save movie..>
section is always highlighted in grey, and then when
closing the drop down menu this grey section of the menu
complete with text stays on top of everything, even if i
close WMM.

Is there any patches to solve this, or even anyway of
uninstalling WMM2 and reverting back to WMM1?

Any help would be grately appreciated.
Yours,
Darren.

 

[Michel]

I experienced that problem. With a small but complex project, MM2 was
refusing to save to dv-avi (but saving to wmv was ok). A rebood did not
help.

After that, I simply changed a a little someting in the same project (I
slightly changed the place of a long transition) and everything was then OK
again!!!

That seems to be another bug in the save to dv-avi function of MM2.

PapaJohn, what would you think about making a page on your MM2 web site,
with the list and decription of all observed bugs in the save to dv-avi
funtion of MM2? That would be helpfull for those discovering these bugs,
just to know these are well bugs and not a problem of configuration, etc.

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Hi Michel,

I'd be glad to think about it a bit, but offhand I'm not sure where it would
go or what to do with the DV-AVI related info that I already have on some
pages.

One basic self-imposed rule I have is not to be redundant. Info should
reside in one place and other places should at most just point to or refer
to it. The Saving Movies... General page has sections on WMV and DV-AVI
files - maybe move the two sections into separate pages under Saving
Movies.... in the menu???

But then there are items in the Problem Solving.. Audio Issues, Video
Issues, and Can't Save a Movie pages. Should they all be moved into this new
page?

I don't mind doing the rearranging and adding more, but I'm not sure that
making that change would be a step in the right direction.

Where would you prefer seeing the page?


PapaJohn

 

[Michel]

Hi PapaJohn,

maybe move the two sections into separate pages under Saving
Movies.... in the menu???
Maybe.

But then there are items in the Problem Solving.. Audio Issues, Video
Issues, and Can't Save a Movie pages. Should they all be moved into this new
page?

No, I mean the new page would only be about unexpected problems for wich
there is no solution (no direct "problem solving" possibility). Of course,
if you expect Microsoft to solve them in a near future, that is not worth
the time making that page.

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

I can roll out a new page in 10 minutes. That has to be quicker than a
Microsoft 'near future'.

But, help me some more - categorizing something as an 'unexpected problem
for which there is no solution' - by that, do you include things that have
'work-arounds'? Don't we want to help people by figuring out the best
work-around' even if the issue is so great that the normal desired route
doesn't work? Without knowing the problem, I'd hate to slot things into a
dead end corner without a work-around. But, even they would have a
work-around 'buy a Mac and use iMovie'

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Darren,

I'm not aware of any patches that directly effect Movie Maker. All I can
offer is the Problem Solving... Checklist at www.papajohn.org - I haven't
pointed you to it before.


PapaJohn

 

[Michel]

PapaJohn,

1) It was a long time ago since a went to your site. Yesterday I made an
"experiment". With a chronometer in my hand, I connected to your site a
tried to search (and find) all issues I know about the dv-avi funcion. I
could find all of them (and read them completely) in about 4 to 5 minutes.
That is a good performance so, probably, a status quo with the structure of
your site is enough.

2) To my opinion, there should be a clear distinction between a work-around
within MM2 and a work-around that requires the use of other softwares (of
course, "buy a Mac and use IMovie" is certainly not a work around). For
instance, I would not qualify your procedure for doing reverse movie as a
work-around. By the way, I can understand that you never user the word
"bug", but in some circumstances it would be more clear (in dv-avi outputs,
in memory related issues, etc).

3) You often answer people asking for information in that way: "go to the
.... section in the ... chapter of www.papajohn.org". It would be better to
give directly the complete link to the right page (and, on your site, a
search engine maybe helpfull).

Your site is great and I hope you will continue for a long time helping us
in the use of MM2 (and future versions).

Michel

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Thanks Michel,

Yup, I agree with your slant on "work-arounds", but it might just be a
matter of one's preference for the words they want to use. For some, buying
a Mac would be a fix, not a work-around. How you classify something might
have something to do with how strongly you want to stay with MM2.

The word "bug" means an unexpected defect, fault, flaw or imperfection - so
a bug in MM2 would mean that it's a software problem that Microsoft needs to
fix. Those exist, but it's up to Microsoft to acknowledge them, maintain a
list, work on them, and let us know what the current list is. Maybe the KB
articles do that. I just want to have links to the Microsoft bug list, not
keep one for them.

I have no problem with people calling something a bug, but I see no value in
classifying an issue as a bug when further info might show it not to be. It
might even slow down efforts to study it further.

All of my responses to posts are to a specific page, if I think it's the
most appropriate answer. Sometimes a pointer to a section of the website is
more appropriate. If I give them a post with a link directly to the page,
the menu wouldn't come up and they would miss the overall website, thinking
the page I gave them is all there is. This might still be better for the
person doing the post, but maybe not for the many others who are reading the
post.

I've thought about a search engine, but I maintain the website with Notepad
and don't even know how I'd go about adding a search engine. I'd rather take
suggestions for a search engine as a jog to simplify and enhance the menu
structure and the info on the site. I'll defer to Google - I just put "Movie
Maker 2 bugs" into the Groups tab of Google and got 3,420 hits.

One thing for sure, the website keeps evolving and I appreciate anyone
interested enough to provide the kind of feedback that you do on a regular
basis.

Maybe you want to post a list of your DV-AVI bugs - I'd be interested in
that and would add it to the site.
..

PapaJohn