Saving Movie Maker Movies

[Guest]

This is the first post I have ever done, let's see if it helps me with my
question!

I have repeatedly tried to save a movie that has about 300 JPG files and 6
or 7 Audio Songs.

All together, the Movie Maker File is about 35 minutes in lenght. Each JPG
presents for 8 seconds and there is a transition for each JPG.

I have tried many times to simply SAVE the Movie to my computer. The
process seems like it is completing, but when I view the file that is created
(which is about 120MB saved using the default "best when played back on my
computer" setting), using Media Player, the file plays ALL of the AUDIO, but
stops changing slides about 20 minutes into the 35 minute movie. When it
stops, the last picture seen simply goes away and I view a black screen while
listening to the music!

I thought this may have been caused by a bad JPG. Nope....but I can't
figure it out yet....!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

(e-mail address removed)

 

[PapaJohn]

seems like you may have just hit your memory ceiling..... see my site's
Problem Solving > Can't Save a Movie page.

 

[Guest]

I appreciate your fast response - I am impressed with this Discussion Group,
as I mentioned, this is the first I have posted!

Anyway, I had looked at several things, including your web site regarding
the virtual memory. My system has just over 1GB of RAM and I had the virtual
memory size set to 1.7G up to 3GB. I have now changed those settings to 3G
and up to 4GB. I will try to save it now and let you know how it goes...

 

[Guest]

No Luck. Same results. It created a file about 115MB and the Audio worked
completely, but the Video stopped working about 20 minutes into the 35 minute
Movie.

Thoughts?

 

[John Inzer]

No Luck. Same results. It created a file about 115MB and the Audio
worked completely, but the Video stopped working about 20 minutes
into the 35 minute Movie.

Thoughts?

=============================================
Disconnecting from the net, and closing all programs...
especially virus scanners before opening Movie Maker
may help and also don't multi-task while you are saving...
not even Solitaire.

Also...doing some maintenance can help:

Running Disk Cleanup, Error Checking and
Defrag on a regular schedule is a good idea.

(310312) Description of the Disk Cleanup
Tool in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310312

(315265) How to Perform Disk Error Checking
in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315265
(check the two boxes..."Automatically fix file
system errors" and "Scan for and attempt
recovery of bad sectors") the utility will run
the next time you restart your computer.
(run error checking repeatedly until it finds
no errors)

(314848) How to Defragment Your Disk
Drive Volumes in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314848

--

******John Inzer********
**MS Picture It! MVP**

*****Digital Image******
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

*********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.

 

[PapaJohn]

I've not seen Movie Maker go over the 2GB level of memory.... it seems hard
coded into the program. You didn't mention watching the memory usage as you
do the rendering to see if it's getting up close to that level.

 

[Wojo]

How did you determine that the problem wasn't one or more of the JPG's?

 

[Guest]

I deleted the JPG in question and the same issue re-occurred. I also
rearranged the JPGS a time or two and noticed the issue did not always
re-occur on the same pictures.

It is wierd. The audio continues to work, but following a succesful video
transition, the screen goes blank and it never recovers. BUT, as I
mentioned, the Audio completes just fine...just no pictures after a point in
time.

 

[Guest]

John,

When you mention monitoring memory usage, are you referring to the PROCESS
Tab in the Windows Task Manager? If so, NO, I have not done that. I can try
it. Let me know if that is the utilization number you are referring to -
thanks.

Mike.

 

[PapaJohn]

no, the performance tab, looking at the 'Total' commit charge at the lower
left.... and the peak figure after MM2 stops... the 2 GB level seems more
like the total of all running processes.

failing to add more images into the rendered movie is one of the symptoms of
a memory-related issue.

 

[Guest]

OK....Reset!

Here is what I have done to date (and still no luck!)

I have reloaded WinXP w/SP2.

I have reinstalled my Office 2003.

I have re-created a NEW movie using most of the JPG files from the original
(I am certain there are no isssues with the JPG files being used. There are
310 JPG Files in the movie. They range in size from 400k to 1MB (most in the
600kb - 700kb range). The are simple JPG files from a 3 megapixel digital
camera. The new movie I created does NOT contain Audio (yet!) and it is
about 35 minutes when viewing it in Movie Maker - By the way, viewing in
Movie Maker there are NO issues. When I save it as a Movie, it completes the
processes, but when viewing it in Media Player or any other player, it stops
playing after about 28 minutes. It continues to seem like it is playing, but
does not show any new JPG files. This is very similar to what happened
before all my testing. I have ALSO changed the Hardware Accelleration level
to ZERO and UNCHECKED all the Codec Filters in Movie Maker.

Any new suggestions?!

 

[Wojo]

No new suggestions except to ask if you tried saving in different formats.
High Quality NTSC vs DV-AVI or even one of the local playback options.
The local playback is lower quality but this will help determine if the
problem is resource related or not.

Also, and especially if a lower quality setting worked, try splitting the
projewct into segments and saving it.

I personally still think it is probably the JPG's but since you don't we
will try other options.

-Wojo

 

[Wojo]

That is an unfortunate side effect of saving images with transitions as
DV-AVI.
I have a couple different suggestions that combat this problem.

1) I am surprised none of us had mentioned this already to be honest. When
working with only still images and audio I recommend using Microsoft Photo
Story 3 instead of Movie Maker. PS3 was designed for working with stills
while Movie Maker was designed for working with video. With PS3 the result
will be a high quality WMV video that can be imported into Movie Maker for
additional work if you wanted, such as adding title & credit overlays, and
then that could be saved as DV-AVI without audio problems.

2) Since the project is already completed in Movie Maker a workaround for
the audio problem is the following:
Save the project as a High Quality NTSC/PAL video. This video "shouldn't"
have the audio glitches.
Then open the project again and mute all the audio. Save this without audio
as a DV-AVI.
Import both the DV-AVI and the WMV into Movie Maker.
Drag the AVI to the video portion of the timeline.
Drag the WMV to the audio portion of the timeline.
Save the final works as a DV-AVI that shouldn't have any audio glitches.
This is a lot of extra steps but the final result is worth it and I have
done this exact thing many times.

 

[Guest]

Mike
I am experiencing the SAME issues you are. I have spent HOURS on creating a
movie with pictures from a family trip which are Christmas gifts for the
family members and I can't get this saved file to work. It starts playing
and then stops on picture and won't change to the next one but my music keeps
playing. And it isn't always the same picture it get's hung up on. I have
gone thru quite a few CD/DVD all different types thinking I'm using the wrong
type of media to save it to.

So any help or suggestions anyone has would be helpful or my family
christmas gift is a flop. I will check into the suggestion below on Photo
Story 3 software. Sure would have been nice to know this Movie Maker is not
good for photo making movies. Would love to hear what you were able to
figure out with the current Movie Maker or other products. Thanks!

 

[Guest]

I've found out that Windows Movie Maker starts freezing up when more than 50
pictures are added. Once I made the movie played it back and the music
skipped. I ran "Disk Defragmenter" and it did fine. But, I use WinDVD Creator
as a back-up. But once to get it going right...hoping you will...Click "save
as" movie file-high quality NTSC. Then you'll have to import it and burn it
to a dvd. I use Windvd to burn it. MICROSOFT- should greatly update Movie
Maker and make it possible to burn it to a DVD. Good Luck!

 

[Wojo]

Actually you can if you have a Media Center Edition PC but all it really
does is imports it to MyDVD and burns for you.
I would hazard a guess that anybody serious at all about DVD creation would
much rather use an outside program to author a DVD.
I know I do.

-Wojo