Blank Preview Screen

G

Guest

I'm having a problem with WMM that I've never had before. Whenever I try to
play what I have in the timeline the preview screen won't show anything, it
just stays black. I get audio, but not the images. I've used these clips
before too, so I don't think that the clips are the problem. Right now I'm
working with an image and it won't show up either (I've used other images
before and they've worked fine). Now the preview works when the clip isn't in
the timeline, but once I put it in the timeline it won't work anymore. This
has never happened before and I don't really know how to fix it. Can anyone
help me? Thanks!
 
J

John Kelly

hello,

Are you using any form of Mpeg video file??? or ASF for that matter??? If
yes then go to www.videohelp.com (best source of info on the WWW) and look
for a converter to the AVI format....use the AVI file in Movie Maker

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly

Check out the free hosting for your pictures and video at...
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
 
G

Guest

hi there, thanks for responding! hmmm honestly i'm not sure what type of file
it is. This is probably a stupid question, but what is an Mpeg video file? I
just assumed that if wmm opened a file for me to use that it would be
supported (since there have been files that i've tried to use that wouldn't
work). I just don't understand why it would work one time and not another, i
haven't uninstalled anything.

Would it work if I completely uninstalled the program and then reinstalled
it again?
 
G

Guest

haaahhhaaa....Been there.....!!!!OK...try his...There are two ways to make a
Video..You can use your JPG-digtial Stills or your PalmCorder Digital
Video..you can even MIX the two together..JPG(jpeg)is a Large File..Digital
Video is a Large File..the JPG's can be Dragged to your project..the
PalmCorder will use a Capture Card to create a Video File(Large File)..WMM2
will accept the Files of jpeg/DV-avi/MP3/.wma/.mov/.wmv/and some others...You
will want to maintain a Large File unitl you are READY to BURN to
DISK....that FILE is a mpeg-2 File for compression to a 4.7 GB
Blank(DVD)..you do not want to compress an already created mpeg-2 file..it
will be OK..but stick to your Large Files..with that simply stated all should
work well..so to say that a DV-avi File is very good to SAVE..it can be
re-edited..and the Defragmentor can also be used(helps smooth it out a
bit)..then its..two types of Blank Media and a compatible BURNER
Drive..so..PLUS or DASH Blank Media is needed..PLUS for PC-playback..DASH for
Home Player playback.."works for me".....other than that...Blank Preview
Screen....??
 
G

Guest

oh gosh...i'm sorry but i didn't understand any of that. I'm so illiterate
when it comes to the names of all this stuff. I don't rip my own DVDs though,
the files are already on my computer (probably shouldn't say how!) I'm still
just baffled by this, how my files worked fine one time and now they won't
play, and only when they're in the timeline. And not even videos, images too.
I tried to uninstall it but there is no uninstall feature. I appreciate you
taking the time to write all that out though, I'm just sorry that I'm so
illiterate when it comes to this!
 
W

Wojo

This is not likely to be an installation problem.
It is more likely that your problem is, as John alluded to, a problem with
the filetype your using.
The symptoms you are describing are consistent to what would happen if you
tried using an MPEG video in your project.
To find out what type of file the clip your having problems with is simply
place your mouse pointer over the thumbnail of your clip in your
collections.A yellow tooltip box should come up giving the duration of the
file and the filename with a 3 or 4 digit extension (filename.????) the
extension is what we need to know to assist you further.
-Wojo
 
G

Guest

Thanks for your post! Ok, the majority of the files I have (that also worked
a few months ago) say that they're .avi Then the other files that I have are
..wmv. It's interesting too b/c I imported the amv that I made a few months
ago just to test it (which is also in wmv form) and it doesn't work either.
Also, I don't know if this is important or not, but when I do just make a
short video or whatever just to experiment, even though the preview doesn't
display the images, when I finalize it and play it back in windows media
player, both sound and the images work perfectly
 
W

Wojo

Well that is interesting.
So then maybe it is that Movie Maker is broken after all but before doing a
reinstall I would try a system restore back to when Movie Maker was still
working properly.

To do that find the System Restore program (it should be Accessories ->
Administrative Tools -> System Restore) and open it.
Next make sure "Restore my computer to an earlier time" is selected and
click "NEXT".
The next screen will show a calendar. The days that are in BOLD type are
days that have restore points available.
Select a day back to when you believe Movie Maker was still working
properly.
The 2nd box (to the right of the calendar) will list all the restore points
from that day. Sometimes there is more than one if programs were installed
or your system was altered in some way. This is a good way to also see what
programs or system changes were made in case you forgot about something,
somebody else did something, or something changed without your knowledge.
Select a restore point from the list and click "NEXT"
Click "NEXT" one more time and the process will begin.
Be warned though that any changes you made to your system after the restore
point you chose will be lost. This means any programs you installed will
need to be reinstalled, any Windows Updates will also need to be done again,
etc...
The computer will let you know when the restoration is complete and will
then reboot.
Sometimes, depending on some of the file permissions etc..., it will need to
reboot twice to complete the process.
With any luck this will fix the problem and if it still doesn't work then
maybe reinstalling SP2 will be the way to go.
 
G

Guest

It didn't work :( I found a date where it says that WMM2 was installed back
in May (though that seemed weird to me b/c I don't remember doing that) and I
went to the day before that and restored it to then, but the program still
says that it's WMM2 and still won't play the images in the preview screen.
I'm at such a loss, I don't get why this didn't work either. When was WMM2
released anyway? See, it's hard b/c I haven't really used this program in a
long time, so I don't really know when this problem started. System Restore
only goes back to April too, and then there are no restore points in April.

Is it unsafe and a bad idea to reinstall SP2? Could something bad happen by
doing that? Would that remove wmm all together so I could reinstall it?
 
W

Wojo

System restore only goes back as far as harddrive space allows (you can tell
Windows how much space to use) but April is plenty far enough back anything
further would almost certainly cause other problems.
No reinstalling SP2 isn't a problem it is just a step that is usually not
necessary. If you uninstall it first (Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs)
then run Windows update it will reinstall automatically along with WMM. I
also recommend ordering a free SP2 disk from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default.mspx
This way when a need to reinstall arises you do not need to download SP2 all
over again.
 
G

Guest

I think I'm about to give up :( I uninstalled and reinstalled sp2 and it
didn't work, unless I did something wrong. Though even when it was
uninstalled, WMM2 was still on my computer. I just don't know what to do and
I'm so frustrated. Thank you so much for your help so far, Wojo, I really
appreciate it. Is there anything left that I can try or am I just going to
have to find another free program to use?
 
E

eeyore

Hi Dawnfire84;
I have had this problem before and it turned out to be a codec
problem....reference to the John Kelly's very regular post on codec
issues may help explain codecs if you need it.

Now the specific issue I had is that a codec called Panasonic DV
incorrectly advised windows that it could play a certain movie format
from my camera (motion Jpeg AVI) when it actually couldnt. Because its
related to codecs you can reinstal moviemaker all you like and it will
not fix it. Similarly to you it would render the movie ok and play the
clip ok....but not play on the timeline. So sometimes the correct codec
(quartz.dll) was used and at other times it was not.
Adjusting moviemaker codec support did not solve the problem either.

I eventually solved the problem by deleting the panasonicdv codec
reregistering the quartz.dll (I dont think I actually needed to delete
the panasonic codec but did it anyway). I think its low risk cause its
just reregistering the standard ms codec anyway but I hesitate to
recommend this and suggest we have some other opinions on the risks
involved first.

if you want to try or the others think it is ok the process is:

Open the run command [menu start -> run is normally the bottom command
on the right hand side]

type in: regsvr32 quartz.dll

click ok

Try Moviemaker

Rob



Uninstalling and rei
 
E

eeyore

I note you have a Samsung....is that a tape camcorder or a memory
camcorder camera? If it is a digital memory camcorder you may need to
convert your footage before it will work properly with mm.

In simple terms Quartz.dll is a standard MS codec that supports a wide
range of avi formats.

If you are producing DV-AVI.
The indications are that one of the codecs being used by MM is giving
problems.
In Moviemaker go to
Tools->options [compatibility tab]
You should see a list of filters (codecs) and check boxes
You can either turn them off (uncheck the box) one at a time and test -
this can take a long time as you will need to restart MM between each
unchecking
or.....

Turn them all off and see 1. if your ci=urrent problem is solved and 2.
if you have new problems.
If you have any problems you need to turn the filters on one by one
until the problem is solved.

If that doesnt work ...it may be your footage is created...
 
G

Guest

It's a Tape camcorder.
I'm not producing DV-AVI, I'm capturing from my camcorder in Windows Movie
Maker and it gives .wmv video clips.
So what should I do ?

eeyore <"rob.pugh"@" < said:
I note you have a Samsung....is that a tape camcorder or a memory
camcorder camera? If it is a digital memory camcorder you may need to
convert your footage before it will work properly with mm.

In simple terms Quartz.dll is a standard MS codec that supports a wide
range of avi formats.

If you are producing DV-AVI.
The indications are that one of the codecs being used by MM is giving
problems.
In Moviemaker go to
Tools->options [compatibility tab]
You should see a list of filters (codecs) and check boxes
You can either turn them off (uncheck the box) one at a time and test -
this can take a long time as you will need to restart MM between each
unchecking
or.....

Turn them all off and see 1. if your ci=urrent problem is solved and 2.
if you have new problems.
If you have any problems you need to turn the filters on one by one
until the problem is solved.

If that doesnt work ...it may be your footage is created...

I have the same problem as you.
Did you solve this problem now ?
Jacques

:
 
E

eeyore

I would normally capture as DV-AVI files - they have the best quality
and are quick to capture (they are also very large at about 1gb per 5 min)

I am very surprised you have issues with wmv files in MM2. I would try
turning off all codecs in MM2 and see if it works.

If you are technically minded try Gspot to identify the alternative
codecs that may be being used - I know that Graham Hughes has a reference:

http://www.myvideoproblems.co.uk/WebPages/UsefulProgrammes.htm

Open a file in it and it will tell you the codecs that claim to be able
to render the file. Actually render the file and it will tell you what
was actually used.

It is an excellent product. I used it to track down my motionjpeg problem.



Rob

It's a Tape camcorder.
I'm not producing DV-AVI, I'm capturing from my camcorder in Windows Movie
Maker and it gives .wmv video clips.
So what should I do ?

:

I note you have a Samsung....is that a tape camcorder or a memory
camcorder camera? If it is a digital memory camcorder you may need to
convert your footage before it will work properly with mm.

In simple terms Quartz.dll is a standard MS codec that supports a wide
range of avi formats.

If you are producing DV-AVI.
The indications are that one of the codecs being used by MM is giving
problems.
In Moviemaker go to
Tools->options [compatibility tab]
You should see a list of filters (codecs) and check boxes
You can either turn them off (uncheck the box) one at a time and test -
this can take a long time as you will need to restart MM between each
unchecking
or.....

Turn them all off and see 1. if your ci=urrent problem is solved and 2.
if you have new problems.
If you have any problems you need to turn the filters on one by one
until the problem is solved.

If that doesnt work ...it may be your footage is created...

I have the same problem as you.
Did you solve this problem now ?
Jacques

:



I think I'm about to give up :( I uninstalled and reinstalled sp2 and it
didn't work, unless I did something wrong. Though even when it was
uninstalled, WMM2 was still on my computer. I just don't know what to do and
I'm so frustrated. Thank you so much for your help so far, Wojo, I really
appreciate it. Is there anything left that I can try or am I just going to
have to find another free program to use?

:



System restore only goes back as far as harddrive space allows (you can tell
Windows how much space to use) but April is plenty far enough back anything
further would almost certainly cause other problems.
No reinstalling SP2 isn't a problem it is just a step that is usually not
necessary. If you uninstall it first (Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs)
then run Windows update it will reinstall automatically along with WMM. I
also recommend ordering a free SP2 disk from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default.mspx
This way when a need to reinstall arises you do not need to download SP2 all
over again.
--
Wojo
http://www.remember-christopher.dostweb.com/Wojo's_Place/



It didn't work :( I found a date where it says that WMM2 was installed
back
in May (though that seemed weird to me b/c I don't remember doing that)
and I
went to the day before that and restored it to then, but the program still
says that it's WMM2 and still won't play the images in the preview screen.
I'm at such a loss, I don't get why this didn't work either. When was WMM2
released anyway? See, it's hard b/c I haven't really used this program in
a
long time, so I don't really know when this problem started. System
Restore
only goes back to April too, and then there are no restore points in
April.

Is it unsafe and a bad idea to reinstall SP2? Could something bad happen
by
doing that? Would that remove wmm all together so I could reinstall it?

:



Well that is interesting.
So then maybe it is that Movie Maker is broken after all but before doing
a
reinstall I would try a system restore back to when Movie Maker was still
working properly.

To do that find the System Restore program (it should be Accessories ->
Administrative Tools -> System Restore) and open it.
Next make sure "Restore my computer to an earlier time" is selected and
click "NEXT".
The next screen will show a calendar. The days that are in BOLD type are
days that have restore points available.
Select a day back to when you believe Movie Maker was still working
properly.
The 2nd box (to the right of the calendar) will list all the restore
points

from that day. Sometimes there is more than one if programs were

installed
or your system was altered in some way. This is a good way to also see
what
programs or system changes were made in case you forgot about something,
somebody else did something, or something changed without your knowledge.
Select a restore point from the list and click "NEXT"
Click "NEXT" one more time and the process will begin.
Be warned though that any changes you made to your system after the
restore
point you chose will be lost. This means any programs you installed will
need to be reinstalled, any Windows Updates will also need to be done
again,
etc...
The computer will let you know when the restoration is complete and will
then reboot.
Sometimes, depending on some of the file permissions etc..., it will need
to
reboot twice to complete the process.
With any luck this will fix the problem and if it still doesn't work then
maybe reinstalling SP2 will be the way to go.
--
Wojo
http://www.remember-christopher.dostweb.com/Wojo's_Place/




Thanks for your post! Ok, the majority of the files I have (that also
worked
a few months ago) say that they're .avi Then the other files that I
have
are
.wmv. It's interesting too b/c I imported the amv that I made a few
months
ago just to test it (which is also in wmv form) and it doesn't work
either.
Also, I don't know if this is important or not, but when I do just make
a
short video or whatever just to experiment, even though the preview
doesn't
display the images, when I finalize it and play it back in windows
media
player, both sound and the images work perfectly

:



This is not likely to be an installation problem.
It is more likely that your problem is, as John alluded to, a problem
with
the filetype your using.
The symptoms you are describing are consistent to what would happen if
you
tried using an MPEG video in your project.
To find out what type of file the clip your having problems with is
simply
place your mouse pointer over the thumbnail of your clip in your
collections.A yellow tooltip box should come up giving the duration of
the
file and the filename with a 3 or 4 digit extension (filename.????)
the
extension is what we need to know to assist you further.
-Wojo



hi there, thanks for responding! hmmm honestly i'm not sure what
type
of
file
it is. This is probably a stupid question, but what is an Mpeg video
file?
I
just assumed that if wmm opened a file for me to use that it would
be
supported (since there have been files that i've tried to use that
wouldn't
work). I just don't understand why it would work one time and not
another,
i
haven't uninstalled anything.

Would it work if I completely uninstalled the program and then
reinstalled
it again?
 
G

Guest

oh my gosh it's working!!!! I'm so excited! I did what you said with the one
codec, but then I opened wmm2 and it still wouldn't work, so I did go ahead
and go to the options menu and then the compaitbility tab and I disabled all
of the codecs. I thought I had tried the last one, but maybe it was a
combination of the steps? But thank you so much for your help! Thanks to all
of you who have taken the time to try to help me, you have no idea how much I
appreciate it. Thanks! Now hopefully it'll stay working or I may be back ;)

eeyore <"rob.pugh"@" < said:
Hi Dawnfire84;
I have had this problem before and it turned out to be a codec
problem....reference to the John Kelly's very regular post on codec
issues may help explain codecs if you need it.

Now the specific issue I had is that a codec called Panasonic DV
incorrectly advised windows that it could play a certain movie format
from my camera (motion Jpeg AVI) when it actually couldnt. Because its
related to codecs you can reinstal moviemaker all you like and it will
not fix it. Similarly to you it would render the movie ok and play the
clip ok....but not play on the timeline. So sometimes the correct codec
(quartz.dll) was used and at other times it was not.
Adjusting moviemaker codec support did not solve the problem either.

I eventually solved the problem by deleting the panasonicdv codec
reregistering the quartz.dll (I dont think I actually needed to delete
the panasonic codec but did it anyway). I think its low risk cause its
just reregistering the standard ms codec anyway but I hesitate to
recommend this and suggest we have some other opinions on the risks
involved first.

if you want to try or the others think it is ok the process is:

Open the run command [menu start -> run is normally the bottom command
on the right hand side]

type in: regsvr32 quartz.dll

click ok

Try Moviemaker

Rob



Uninstalling and rei
DawnFire84 said:
I think I'm about to give up :( I uninstalled and reinstalled sp2 and it
didn't work, unless I did something wrong. Though even when it was
uninstalled, WMM2 was still on my computer. I just don't know what to do and
I'm so frustrated. Thank you so much for your help so far, Wojo, I really
appreciate it. Is there anything left that I can try or am I just going to
have to find another free program to use?

:
 

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