NEED VIDEO IN THREE DAYS FOR MY WEDDING!!!!! HELP!!

[onthegogirl]

Ok, I'm about to go nuts here.

I am getting married in three days. I have been working on putting
together a video presentation for the reception and have spent no less
than 60 hours working on this. Mainly because Movie Maker keeps
screwing everything up!

Ok, I have the 2.1 version. I have 4 songs, I have no idea how many
pictures and every picture has a transition with about 4 title
overlays total. I have a DELL 3100 that is relatively new.

Every time I try to save the file and burn it to a CD which will be
played on a laptop and projected onto a wall at the reception, I have
problems. It will say that is has saved but when I go to watch it, it
stops in the middle or it keeps going with the music but not the
pictures or just jams up altogether and won't save at all.
UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been reading posts but to be honest, I am so burned out at this
point, I'm ready to scream. I SO want this to work!

I read a post about saving the file as a DVI file to your hard drive
and then trying to burn it to a a CD. Does anyone know if this will
give me the same quality video for playback as the "local playback for
2.1" option you can use when burning to a CD? Because that quality is
great...however it won't save all the way.

I'm at 65% saved at this point saving it to my desktop as a DVI. But
I'm scared that it's again not going to save correctly or that if it
does, when I try to burn the desktop version to my CD, I'm again going
to have problems. Can anyone help me advance troubleshoot?!!! I don't
want to start from scratch....in fact, I wouldn't be able to. There's
no way I'd have time. I need help!!!!!!!!

 

[onthegogirl]

Ok, I'm about to go nuts here.

I am getting married in three days. I have been working on putting
together a video presentation for the reception and have spent no less
than 60 hours working on this. Mainly because Movie Maker keeps
screwing everything up!

Ok, I have the 2.1 version. I have 4 songs, I have no idea how many
pictures and every picture has a transition with about 4 title
overlays total. I have a DELL 3100 that is relatively new.

Every time I try to save the file and burn it to a CD which will be
played on a laptop and projected onto a wall at the reception, I have
problems. It will say that is has saved but when I go to watch it, it
stops in the middle or it keeps going with the music but not the
pictures or just jams up altogether and won't save at all.
UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been reading posts but to be honest, I am so burned out at this
point, I'm ready to scream. I SO want this to work!

I read a post about saving the file as a DVI file to your hard drive
and then trying to burn it to a a CD. Does anyone know if this will
give me the same quality video for playback as the "local playback for
2.1" option you can use when burning to a CD? Because that quality is
great...however it won't save all the way.

I'm at 65% saved at this point saving it to my desktop as a DVI. But
I'm scared that it's again not going to save correctly or that if it
does, when I try to burn the desktop version to my CD, I'm again going
to have problems. Can anyone help me advance troubleshoot?!!! I don't
want to start from scratch....in fact, I wouldn't be able to. There's
no way I'd have time. I need help!!!!!!!!

Ok.....update. I in fact got the video to save to my desktop as a DVI.
Now, when I click to play it, the music is choppy and the pictures are
too. It's like it's a half beat off all the time on the audio. Please
someone help me here before I yank all my hair out. I'm a bride to be
who's about to become a bridezilla over this! Please help spare those
around me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Wojo]

Don't pull your hair out so close to your wedding unless you have a really
nice wig!
If the project is that complex I am going to guess that the problem is the
complexity.
It could be a compatibility problem if the images are JPG and the audio is
MP3
but that is less likely than complexity is.
The fix is to work the project in pieces as follows:
Save your project.
Now save the project again using a different name something like 'Wedding
1.mswmm'
Now delete everything after the first song.
Save this to your hard drive as a DV-AVI.
If it works then we know we are on the right track, if it doesn't then we
will need to look at the source files.
Ok so we now have 1/4 of your wedding video.
Now open the original project file again.
Delete from the beginning to the last clip you kept in the first video
piece.
Now delete from the end of the 2nd song (now the 1st song since you deleted
the other).
Save this video as a DV-AVI and you now have 1/2 of your wedding video.
Do the same for the 3rd & 4th songs so that you have 4 separate DV-AVI files
on your computer.
Import each of these 4 AVI's into Movie Maker (make sure you have the split
clips option OFF)
Drag them in order to the timeline and add a transition between each.
Now the project is only 4 video clips & 3 transitions so it is no longer a
complex video.
Save this final work as a DV-AVI and you should have a perfectly working
wedding video.

 

[PapaJohn]

DV-AVI files are large and hard to play smoothly... so your saved movie
might be fine.

For a check, import the new DV-AVI file as a single clip in Movie Maker and
save it to one of the pocket PC choices.... and play it... if it's complete
and plays smoothly then your file is fine and you can use it to make yours
discs.

 

[Guest]

Ok. Once the DVI was saved, I went to my desktop where I saved it and played
it. Great. It's choppy again. I honestly don't know what to do here. I
deleted all the other versions out of My Video folder, thinking maybe I have
too much junk on there and it's gumming things up. I changed a few
transitions and I have just clicked "save project" in MM and it saved there.
Now, I am saving it again as a DVI to my desktop to see if it will somehow
miraculously work this time.

I am very nervous about breaking it up into sections as one of you advised.
I feel like I'm too much of a novice to make that work! I don't think it will
run smoothly! UGH!

So, at this point, IF it saves without being choppy to my desktop, I'm going
to try saving it to the pocket PC option that PapaJohn suggested. BTW, I have
been reading your site for HOURS trying to figure this out.

Question: IF it saves as a DVI and functions properly on my computer, won't
saving it as a pocket PC option produce poor quality when played on the
laptop?

Please guide me step by step here as if I know nothing about computers. I do
happen to know a little but my brain is so fried right now, I am feeling very
insecure about how to do ANYTHING else on this project.

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!! All those around me are indebted!!!!!!!!

 

[Graham Hughes]

See in line.

--

Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Media
www.myvideoproblems.com

Ok. Once the DVI was saved, I went to my desktop where I saved it and
played
it. Great. It's choppy again. I honestly don't know what to do here. I
deleted all the other versions out of My Video folder, thinking maybe I
have
too much junk on there and it's gumming things up. I changed a few
transitions and I have just clicked "save project" in MM and it saved
there.
Now, I am saving it again as a DVI to my desktop to see if it will somehow
miraculously work this time.

Check out the suggestions on this page, which may help to get the pc working
well
http://www.myvideoproblems.com/Tutorials/OptimiseMyPcForVideo.htm

I am very nervous about breaking it up into sections as one of you
advised.
I feel like I'm too much of a novice to make that work! I don't think it
will
run smoothly! UGH!

It is very easy to do, but the first suggestion adn most imortant is to save
the whole project a second time as it is under a different name. So if your
project is saved as wedding video, go to save as and choose wedding video 2
and save. You now have the same project saved on your pc twice. Any
changes you make to project - wedding video 2 - will not alter your original
project, so you can always go back to this if you have trouble. I also did
a tutorial on splitting a project, so I'll add a link as well.
http://www.myvideoproblems.com/Tutorials/MovieMaker/SplitComplexProject.htm

So, at this point, IF it saves without being choppy to my desktop, I'm
going
to try saving it to the pocket PC option that PapaJohn suggested. BTW, I
have
been reading your site for HOURS trying to figure this out.

Question: IF it saves as a DVI and functions properly on my computer,
won't
saving it as a pocket PC option produce poor quality when played on the
laptop?

Yes, if it saves as dv-avi and is not choppy, there is no reason to try the
pocket pc option, as you have a good file now.

Please guide me step by step here as if I know nothing about computers. I
do
happen to know a little but my brain is so fried right now, I am feeling
very
insecure about how to do ANYTHING else on this project.

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!! All those around me are indebted!!!!!!!!

Have you tried saving it as a high quality wmv file?

Instead of saving to cd, do you have an external hard drive? You could save
the dv-avi or wmv file to this and connect to the laptop and play from that?

If the dv-avi is still choppy and you try pocket pc and that is choppy, then
I'm afraid you are going to have to convert teh file types. If the music is
mp3 I'd start by converting that to wma/wav/wmv and replacing the mp3's by
deleting the files from your hard drive and then reopening Movie maker and
it will tell you it can't find the music, and will ask you to tell it where
it is, you jsut point to the saved wav file and it'll do the rest


Graham

 

[PapaJohn]

As long as the rendering finishes and you can see/hear it all the way
through including your last scene.... no matter how choppy it plays, the
file should be complete. The rendering takes as long as it needs to get the
file saved completely. DV-AVI is the highest quality file you can have and
is meant for further use, not for playback.

 

[Guest]

So, are you saying that even if it's REALLY choppy on the saved file on my
desktop, when I copy it to a disk, it's going to play ok? Because it is
REALLY REALLY choppy. I mean the songs skip and the pictures hang.....ugh!
I'm listening to it right now and it's still playing and hasn't stopped
completely but I feel like it's just a matter of time. How choppy is too
choppy in order for it to not copy correctly? Thanks in advance! So much!

Charity

 

[PapaJohn]

I'm kinda saying that.... but a DV-AVI file is a stepping stone to get to
something else, not an end in itself.

If you're heading to a DVD, it'll be the DVD making software that uses the
DV-AVI file to make the MPEG2 files needed for the disc.

The DV-AVI is the highest quality file and the most difficult to play
smoothly... whatever you make from it will be appropriate in size and
quality for the environment you play it in.

Your DV-AVI file might just be suffering from being highly fragmented on
your hard drive.... so a hard drive tuneup would help... but again, don't
worry about the playing.... if it's the file video you want to go with, keep
going. You have more important things to do than to stop for a drive
cleanup.

 

[Guest]

Ok. So here's the deal. And let me just tell you, I am about to cry. I am so
frustrated.

I saved it to my desktop as a DV-AVI file. I then opened MM and imported the
file off my desktop (well actually it ended up in my videos when I went
looking for it but whatever). It played perfectly when I played it in MM.

Ok, so then, I tried to burn it off MM after loading the AVI file in there.
I tried first to burn it as a local playback 2.1. It stopped 6% into it and
said there was an error and MM would have to close. Perfect.

I restarted the computer and started the same process again....loaded it
into MM and then tried to burn it from MM as a full page video to a pocket
PC. Same thing happened.

At this point, I don't know what in the hell to do. I even tried to play it
off Media Player and burn it that way. I got the error message that the files
were either ALL corrupt or I didn't have a media license to burn it.

I'm not trying to burn this onto a DVD. I'm trying to just burn it onto a
CD-R that will play in a laptop. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM HERE?????!!!!!

 

[PapaJohn]

Do you have any options other than Movie Maker to convert the DV-AVI file
into something playable on another computer? Maybe the SUPER converter that
many use for conversions. Maybe the Riva FLV Encoder to convert it to a
Flash file?

If you can't save a single clip DV-AVI file to a Pocket PC choice in Movie
Maker, it indicates you have a basic problem with the app.... using
something else for now might be quicker than trying to fix Movie Maker.

 

[Guest]

Hi,
I don't know if I have anything that would convert it.....where would I find
it? Maybe this computer has it on here and I just don't know it...???

If there was a way to just take the entire thing and copy it into another
program, I do have something else on here. It's called Cyberlink Power DVD.
Would there be a way to just take the DVI file and copy it into there?????

 

[PapaJohn]

How big is your DV-AVI file? or how long does it play?
How much free space do you have on your hard drive?

 

[Guest]

The video is 15 minutes long. When I have tried to save it to a CD before, it
said it was around 300 MB. But now, when I try to save the AVI file, it says
it's like 4.3 GB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How did THAT happen? I don't know how much
free space I have on my hard drive. I want to say I saw it pop up somewhere
and say I had 40 some GB?

 

[Guest]

Are there programs out there that #1, you can use for only 30 days without
paying and #2, that will take any file you put in it without having to
convert it---basically that are more forgiving....????

 

[Guest]

Hey, what do you think about Muvee Autoproducer??? It's a free program I
located on the web that requires DirectX. I'm wondering if I download it, if
I could plug this project into it. ??? Should I just junk MM off my computer
before I download anything else?? Help!

 

[PapaJohn]

No you can't and shouldn't junk Movie Maker....

the size is right for 15 minutes of DV-AVI file.... the big, big file is why
it's hard to play smoothly. Yes there are apps you can use for 30 days or
longer.... and

I suggest trying the Windows version 9 media encoder....
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

It should convert a DV-AVI to WMV...

 

[Guest]

Ok, so I'm downloading the encoder now.....now the question is....what do I
do with it?

 

[PapaJohn]

do the installation.... it'll go into c:\Program Files\Windows Media
Components\Encoder\wmenc.exe

open the encoder... it should be in your start menu as a new item...

it's a wizard type interface > Convert a file > browse to the DV-AVI file >
tell it where you want the output file > select CD for the kind of output
file > select a quality option... try DVD even though you're heading for a
CD. > try it.... this is just a test

if the test works, then you'll want to fine tune your selection on the next
run

 

[Guest]

Ok, I'm doing it now. All APPEARS to be going ok. I did is as a high quality
CD because I don't have a DVD burner on this computer---just figured that out
last night. Great.

Anyway, so I assume that once I get this part complete, then I try to take
it off my desktop and burn it? Using like Media Player? I THINK I have the
gist of what we're doing here. ???

And by the way, if this works and I actually am able to play this at my
reception, as planned, I'm sending you flowers!!!

Charity