Problem burning movie to CD

[Guest]

Hi all,

I have a problem burning my movie to a CDRW disc and then having it play
back. It seems that the burning part is done okay, but when I try to play it
back in a viewer only the music has recorded fully but the collection of
still pictures used in the movie are not all showing up. It usually freezes
at a point somewhere in the movie, while the music keeps playing. I know all
the pictures have been placed properly because when I go in to check in movie
maker, they are all still there.

The movie file is 20 minutes long. Is this too long? Too big for WMM to
handle? Are their settings which will allow WMM to compile and burn a large
movie easier?

I've tried burning about 6 times now and each time the movie plays pictures
for a different length of time, then freezes at different points throughout
the movie, leaving only the music playing.

I have a Gigabyte of memory, so I know that's not the problem. I have a 1.3
Gigahertz processor, ATI Radeon 6800 video card. I think my computer should
be able to handle this. I believe it's WMM where the problem lies. I suspect
it's something to do with the settings. The help file is currently no help,
it just seems to be either too vague or just confusing.

Please help.

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

I'm reading your post as maybe a few issues.

It might be too long... but there can be other reasons too.. check the
Problem Solving > Can't Save a Movie page of my site.

The discs that Movie Maker burns are WMV files wrapped in a HighMAT menu,
and not playable on standard DVDs...

Save your Movie Maker movie to your hard drive first to see if it's
complete.... and then use other software to burn standard discs.
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
Photo Story 3 - use the menu branch at www.papajohn.org

..

 

[John Kelly]

Hello,

It sounds as though you may have JPeg or MP3 audio files in your project.....To
eliminate all possibilites/combination problems convert all still imags to
bitmap (BMP) and all audio to Wave (WAV)

If you ever think of using MPef files...DONT convert them to AVI first

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Check out free video hosting at www.the-kellys.org
----
\|||/
(oo)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[Guest]

Hello,

It sounds as though you may have JPeg or MP3 audio files in your project.....To
eliminate all possibilites/combination problems convert all still imags to
bitmap (BMP) and all audio to Wave (WAV)

If you ever think of using MPef files...DONT convert them to AVI first

Hi John,
That sounds like it might be the ticket. Every picture in the movie (which
is like a musical slide-show) is definitely .JPG! Am working on BMPing all
the pix, will report back on my results,

Thank you! SD

 

[John Kelly]

Hello again,

You can't go wrong with a bit of BMP'ing, that's what I always say I have
some ideas on why some JPeg's screw things up and others don't. The problem is
that like MPeg their are many favour/styles...but that's another topic all
together. Its easier to convert and gets rid of the potential problem.

You "might" need to create a new project. I once could not get around simply
replacing the files with new ones.....at the end of the day I think all of
these issues come from a very flaky project file structure. Project files can
become disproportionately large at times even when the actual project is really
quite simple.....that sounds to me like another example of a Microsoft Database
becoming bloated.

Good Luck !!

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Check out free video hosting at www.the-kellys.org
----
\|||/
(oo)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[Guest]

This is my first time in a help forum and I am not a techie. I didn't know
how to post a question, so have replied to something related to my problem.

Like other posts, I am having a problem saving/creating a movie from a
project in MM2. I captured two tapes from my panasonic CCD digital video
camera, used them to start a new project and the videos went into my
storyboard with no trouble. I imported a number of digital pictures (jpg)
onto the storyboard, added some titles and narrated several stills. The first
time that I saved the project as a movie, everything went well except that it
was too big to save to disk, so I saved to "My Videos" folder on my hard
drive. I played the movie and it went well. I had a great feeling of
accomplishment, but wanted to reduce the size of the movie so I could save it
on a CD and share it with fellow travelers.

I returned to MM2, opened the project and proceed to delete clips, split
clips and delete one of the splits, etc., until it should have been small
enough to save to a CD. (I know nothing about different kinds of CDs. I am
currently using an R CD.)

I tried to save the project as a movie to CD and my computer kept telling me
that there was no CD in my CD burner. There was and I could open it by going
to My Computer and clicking on D drive.

I then decided to save the project as a movie to my hard drive. MM2 informed
me that there were things missing from the original or samething like that. I
am very frustrated. I have spend many hours over two weeks editing the
project. I can play it on the MM@ viewer and like the final result. I want to
make the project into a movie. Can anybody recommend a solution?

Thanks in advance! Chuck

 

[Rehan]

Hi CheerfulCharlie

Btw, you dont come out a very cheerful right now But things can change
to better if you spend some time on www.papajohn.org especially the Problem
Solving section.

Normal culprits for your problem (Cant save a movie..) are:

* Fragmented hard disk (need defragmenting)
* Use of MP3 audio or MPEG clips (need converting to WAV and AVI / WMV)
* Overly complicated project (need splitting into smaller sub-projects)

There are other possibilities as well so go check the site.

Goodluck.


--
Rehan
www.rehanfx.org - get more effects and transitions for Windows Movie Maker

 

[John Kelly]

Hello Mate,

Nice to see you in here

Check out the Disk Drive tutorial on my site...specifically written for this
problem. Also take note that WindowsXP cannot defragment the free space on a
hard drive, this makes it next to useless. A very good program that does all
you will ever need including defragmenting the so called system files as well
as intelligent placement of files according to the frequency of their use, is
called Perfect Disk by Raxco....I tried the Demo and immediately bought the
full product...The demo has NO restrictions other than you have 30 days to test
it out.

With regard to JPeg stills...that's a no no. There are unfortunately many
"styles" of JPeg and movie maker often throws a wobbly when you use them...best
possible solution is to convert them to Bitmap (BMP) There is a high chance
that the error message you report will then go away.

With regard to saving the movie to a CD problem. There are some "multi" drives
(they playDVD's and record to CD's, or they can burn all formats) that XP does
not get on well with...Movie Maker as a result gets the message that there is
no suitable media and you get the message mentioned. There is a possible fix
for this, a small program I wrote called MMFixIt and its available for download
from my site. Basically the program will display the info XP has on your drive
and then you have the option to change it, so that it reflects the real
situation....Make sure you take note of the existing configuration before you
change it The program will DELIBERATLY not give you options for DVD
burners, basically its because I have not bothered to track down the exact
meaning of the seemingly wide range of DVD codes available...and that takes us
nicely back to why if you have a DVD burner Movie Maker can sometimes fail.

I can't help much with the missing items...would need more info for that one.

When you say "project into a movie" I am guessing you mean create a DVD. To do
that obviously you need a DVD burner and DVD authoring software.....the
simplest method is as follows....

1) Use Movie Maker to create a DV-AVI video
2) Import the DV-AVI video into a program like Nero 6 Reloaded
3) Use the DVD software to create your chapters and opening screens if needed
4) Burn the DVD

Nero 6 Reloaded is very good and fairly simple / straight forward. Dazzle DVD
Complete, if you can track it down is excellent with a better "Front End" look
and feel to the DVD. others proclaim MyDVD very good, I have never seen it so
can't comment.

Hope this helps a little
--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Check out free video hosting at www.the-kellys.org
----
\|||/
(oo)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[Guest]

Rehan, Papajohn & the Kellys,

Thanks for your help! I am very new to both using help forums and creating a
movie from my videotapes. I recently purchased a DELL 8400 with 1.83 Gb. of
RAM and a dual 160 Gb hardive(s) in order to prepare movies from my Panasonic
CCD videocamera and some pictures that I digitized with my scanner. Thanks to
you, I now know to save as .bmps.

In addition, because I did not know that MM2 was part of my XP Professional
operating system or Office XP 2003 (I am not a techie.), I purchased Roxio
Easy Media Creator version 7 at the same time as I purchased my new computer.
I captured both tapes from my video camera successfully into the Roxio
program, but never discovered how to import them into the Roxio storyboard.
Then, completely by luck, I opened MM@ and proceeded to use it. Everything
went well and after I had impoted digital still pictures, narrated most of
them, added titles, etc., I saved the "project" as a movie to my hard drive
(My Documents/videos). I then played the movie and it was wonderful. As we
watched the movie, I felt that some parts were duplicates and others too
long. I then re-opened the project and proceeded to split some clips and
delete the unwanted part, add more titles, etc. My goal was to shorten the
project so that I could burn it to disk and share it with friends whom we had
met on our cruise. When I attempted to save the newly edited, much shorter
603 MB, project as a movie, I received an error message that some of the
original source files were missing, deleted, renamed, etc, and that I should
replace them. When I went to My Documents/Videos, the VideoCap1 file was
missing, so I recaptured it. I thought that I was on my way.

I then returned to the project and imported VideoCap1. It took six minutes
but ended up in the clip box above the final copy of my project below. I then
tried to save as a movie again and received the same missing source files
message. I looked at the clip box? above and noted that VideoCap1 had
displaced VideoCap2 and also that all the still pictures that I had imported
were gone from the box.

I have spent two weeks editing this project. The final version is still in
MM2 as a project, but I can not save it as a movie. Do I have to start from
scratch again? Can I import the MM2 project into Roxio Easy Media Creator 7
and save the project as a movie. Should I switch to the Roxio program or stay
with MM2. I would really appreciate your advice. I have logged papjohn and
the kelleys in my favourites folder. I look forward to your reply.

Not-so-Cheerful Charlie

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Hi Charlie,

A few comments:

Only Movie Maker can use it's project file so you need to work it out there.

When you capture or import a video file into Movie Maker, a new collection
is automatically created and the clip(s) put into it... but the other
collections are still there with their clips... you're OK if you move the
source file but not if you delete it... the clips in the collection are
linked to the source file.

If you deleted the source file(s), try your salvage bin and see if you can
recover them... capturing again from the camcorder won't give you an exact
matching file and wouldn't work in your first project.

If you saved the movie to your hard drive (as a WMV or DV-AVI file) and
watched it in the Windows Media Player... and you can't work with the
original project file, maybe importing the movie and editing it as a new
project would work easier and better, even if there's some loss of quality
because of the extra rendering.

--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
Photo Story 3 - use the menu branch at www.papajohn.org

..

 

[Guest]

PapaJohn, Thanks for you prompt and helpful response. I must admit that I'm
pretty depressed about the whole thing.

I can still view my edited project in MM2 and I like it. Where is it saved
in MM2 and how do I go about importing it as a new project into MM2? Also, it
seems as if saving captures as AVI files is preferable. Can I change the file
format to AVI when I import my current project as a new project. If this
doesn't make sense to you, it's because I have absolutely no idea what I'm
saying.

Any comments upon Roxio Easy Creator 7?

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

If you can still view your edited project in MM2, you need to save it as a
movie... take the path to File > Save Movie File > and save it as a DV-AVI
file.

No need to re-import it if you can still do your editing in MM2. It seems
you might not have lost anything...
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
Photo Story 3 - use the menu branch at www.papajohn.org

..

 

[Guest]

PapaJohn,

Your news was encouraging. I opened my project only to discover that the
video files that I was able to view yesterday are now large, red Xs. I have
no ide what happened to them.I guess that I have to start all over. I will
read the tutorials on your and Kelley's websites before starting again. Any
reason not to try to use Roxio Easy Media Creator 7?

Cheerful Charlie

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Double click on one of the red-x's and see if you can point MM2 to the
original file.... even if it's been moved, renamed, or taken out of the
salvage bin.... if it won't re-link, then yes on starting again....

I don't have Roxio so can't comment... if you have it, give it a try.
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
Photo Story 3 - use the menu branch at www.papajohn.org

..

 

[Guest]

Hi I am having a problem with importing my music to my pictures how can I
over come this.
Cheers
Dot

 

[Guest]

PapaJohn,

Thank you so much for your attention to my griefs. I suspect that I am
doomed when it comes to preparing a video movie of our recent Danube cruise.
I tried out Roxio's Easy Media Creator V 7 and screwed that up too. My
experience with computers is that, if one can &*%#@$ it up, I will do it.
Thank you for all your help. You offer a very valuable service for us
novitiates. I hope to correspond with you in the future.

Not so Cheerful Charlie

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Sorry about that Charlie.... hopefully you still have the tape from the
camcorder and can try again...

It's a learning experience for all of us.
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
Photo Story 3 - use the menu branch at www.papajohn.org

..

 

[John Kelly]

Hello,

In what way are you having problems importing music???

Are you trying to get music from a CD??? If so you can use a program like
Music Match (no problem with Digital Rights Management for downloaded music if
you turn the option off unlike apparently Windows Media Player) or for this
option you could use Windows Media Player....the process is often called
"ripping"...a stupid name because nothing is ripped. In Music Match is called
copying....you copy the piece of music to either an MP3 file (Not recommended
because Movie Maker falls on its nose with MP3's) or a WAV file...highly
recommended. once you have the file you use the options in Movie Maker to
import it

If the above is of no help do please ask again giving details of what you do
and what happens.

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Check out free video hosting at www.the-kellys.org
----
\|||/
(oo)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[Guest]

I am having a similar problem. Please bear with me I am computer illiterate.
I scanned about 200 photos into my computer and then imported them to the
Movie Maker program. I used music cds to add four different songs to the
clips. The whole movie is less than 20 minutes long. I want to burn them to a
CD-R. When I click on Save to cd I go through the wizard and then it gives me
a message that says;" WMM cannot save the movie to the specified location.
Verify that the org source files used in your movie are still available, that
the saving location is still available, and that there is enough free disk
space available." I get the same message when I try saving the movie to my
computer. So far all I have been able to do is save the whole project,
storyboard and all. Please help asap! I was making a family scrap book for a
Christmas gift. All I need it to pull it off my computer onto cds to
distribute. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
da1172