WMM 2 Locks up when dragging bar on timeline

[Guest]

I have a project containing video, overlays, and music. I have worked on
this project in the past, and have done so successfully. I have upgraded my
PC to a Dell 4600, 1 GB RAM, Pent 2.8, etc... WinXP SP1. I have not been
able to run WMM without problems.

I have read many of the posts, visited Papa John's website (read and tried
almost all of it), and still no success.

1. My current problem is this: When I open my project, everything opens
O.K. If I move my mouse down to the timeline and click on the play button,
the video and music works fine. If I then press pause, then play again, it
works O.K. However, if I drag the position bar (the thin blue verical bar
which shows where you are on the timeline) to a different starting point on
the timeline - then press play to continue from that point, the video preview
window says its playing, but the frame either shows the last image from my
last position on the timeline, or the video just disappears to a black
screen. I also get no sound. Why would everything disengage when dragging
the timeline position bar to another part of the movie?

2. Whenever I try to lengthen my still images by dragging the right side of
the still image from say 3 seconds to 5 seconds, I can do this successfully
about 2 or 3 times. But when it is more than that, the project locks up and
I have to kill it with Task Manager?

I have spent the past 3 days reinstalling WMM 2, Media Player 9, Direct X,
etc... I have renamed codecs, adjusted accelerator options, etc...

Nothing is working - Is using a software program supposed to be this hard????

 

[Dean Rowe [MS]]

Sorry to hear you're having so many problems. Here are a couple of things to
try.

If you want to upgrade to SP2. Windows MovieMaker 2.1 has a new
compatibility tab which will allow you to turn off DirectShow filters that
could be causing a problem. (see my blog entry
http://blogs.msdn.com/deanro/archive/2004/08/22/218501.aspx for further
details).

There is a registry setting which can potentially help with the hangs. See
the FAQ at
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/21/faq.mspx#EAAAA. I've
copied the question and answer below for convenience. Note that this will
decrease the performance when editing large timelines but it's certainly
worth a try.

Q.What can I do if Windows Movie Maker stops responding when I drag the
playback indicator on the timeline for a project that has a lot of audio,
video, images, or titles on the storyboard/timeline?A.
You can prevent this from happening by adding a new value in Registry
Editor.

Note Before making any changes in Registry Editor, you should back up
valuable files on your computer and the Windows Registry itself. For more
information about Windows Registry, see the Windows Help and Support Center.

To add a new registry key for Windows Movie Maker to prevent the timeline
from not responding

1.
Click Start, and then click Run.

2.
In the Run dialog box, type regedit.exe, and then click OK.

3.
In Registry Editor, navigate to the following location:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MM20]

4.
Click anywhere in the pane on the right that contains the different
registry keys and corresponding values.

5.
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD value.

6.
For the new registry key name, type DynamicSourcesforPreview, and enter
the value 0.

7.
Close Registry Editor and restart Windows Movie Maker.


Windows Movie Maker should no longer stop responding when you drag the
playback indicator on the timeline.

Important This change can decrease the performance of Windows Movie Maker.

Regards
Dean Rowe
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Guest]

I had a similar problem where dragging a clip in the timeline would cause
Movie Maker to close instantly. I don't know if your problem is related. But
here's the cure for the problem I was having.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;830087

 

[John Kelly]

Hello there,

You sound as though you are suffering from a codec problem. There are two root
causes and below you will find the solution for each together with some notes
on other issues.

Option 1)

The one stop solution for that is a program called Rename Codecs and it is
available from my web site (Free). Make sure you check out the FAQ, on the
site, on what it does and how to run it (That will take about one minute of
your time!!) All the info you need is on the web site. The latest version is
1.51.

This reassuringly safe to use program requires no knowledge on your part about
what it is doing or how it is doing it or what it is doing it too!!! neither do
you need to know where any of these files are or whether it is safe to rename
them or not.....and best of all, ITS FREE !!!

Option 2)

If this does not solve your problem then try the following out...it has proved
to be a successful procedure for a variety of problems.

1) Download the full version of DirectX Ver 9.0c, Media Player 9 (10 if you
prefer), and Service Pack 2(SP2).

2) Reboot you computer and Install DirectX

3) Reboot again and install Windows Media Player

4) Reboot yet again and install Service Pack 2

5) Reboot one more time

Yes it sounds very tedious, but if you want to be certain all file locks are
removed so that the correct files can be installed this is the way you have to
go.

It is very important that you only download the full versions of these programs
and that you DO NOT attempt an install over the internet.

Other Notes
===========
Graphic Card Acceleration
-------------------------

There is advice floating around that you should disable the graphics
acceleration abilities of your graphics card if Movie Maker locks up or crashes
out. Doing this is roughly equivalent to taking out your current graphics card
and replacing it with an Etch-o-Sketch toy.

The Graphics card on the machine I edit on is a cut above the average, it has
DV In & Out as well as Video In & Out. It does all sorts of clever things and
it is extremely fast. Then the day came when I tried Movie Maker 2 for the
first time. It was a disaster. Knowing what the problem was I immediately
logged on to Microsoft and got the latest driver. There was no change with the
performance of the Graphics card with respect to Movie Maker. After a lot of
messing about I went to the cards manufacturer and downloaded there most recent
driver. I was convinced that the one from Microsoft was in some way defective.
It turned out that I was right but for the wrong reason.

The version of the driver from Microsoft was more recent than the one on my
system AND more recent than the one from the OEM.BUT, the OEM had made minor
changes to how the card worked and these were not taken into consideration by
the Microsoft update!!!

So, do not get the generic update from Microsoft until you have tried the
latest driver from the manufacturer of your card.

Registration
------------

There is in my view some very bad advice floating around that tells you to
unregister the offending codec. If you take this advise be warned that
unregistering any file and doing it wrong will more than likely stop the
program that file belongs to from working all together and may in an extreme
situation cause your entire XP system to fail. This is true whether you make a
mistake using the Registry editor or the registration program itself, one
mistake and you are potentially in deep trouble. Whatever you unregister in
this manner has to be restored and you should take note that the registration
of a codec can often involve more than one registry entry. If you are expert in
these matters you will have no problem.

I have also found that MP3, Mpeg and Jpeg files can cause problems, So...

Convert all MP3 to WAV or WMA

Convert all MPeg to AVI

Convert all Jpeg to BMP

Video Conversion
------------------------

For Video Conversion you should also check out the Knowledge Base Section of my
"Great Links > Knowledge Base" One of the website's in there called "Video
Help" has the best collection of useful information I have yet come across on
converting between the various formats together with links to the software
needed.

Image Size
----------------
There is a lot of very bad advice being given out on Aspect Ratios in relation
to still images. The short version of the advice you actually need is this.

16:9
-----
If you want a 16:9 ratio final product (video) you should crop your image to
the ratio of 16:9. In addition (talking in terms of PAL) you should use your
favorite image editor to resize the image so that is 576 pixels tall...the
width takes care of itself if you cropped it to 16:9.

4:3
---
If you want a 4:3 picture (older style TV screen) then crop it to that ratio,
then resize the image so that its height is......576 (Pal measurement), again
the width takes care of itself.

Weird Sizes
-----------------
Under no circumstances should you EVER create or resize an image so that's its
dimensions are something like 800 x 600....if you do you will get a slightly
blurred image...and no amount of tinkering around the edges will ever put it
right. See the FAQ on Movie Maker and Ratio on my website for a more detailed
example of why that image will blur.


Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Check out free video hosting at The Kellys

Just glad I don't live in Croydon, UK
\|||/
(oo)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------

 

[Guest]

Dean - I tried the registry fix. No success. My project has about five 1
minute .AVI video clips, 50 jpeg still shots, 20 effects, 20 transitions, 2
..mp3 audio files, beginning title, ending credits, and 1 newspaper overlay in
the beginning. Is this too much for WMM to handle?

Read my original post again for issue #1 that describes the symptom. It is
not hanging or crashing. It just disengages from the video and audio.

As for issue #2 - still a problem.

Sorry to hear you're having so many problems. Here are a couple of things to
try.

If you want to upgrade to SP2. Windows MovieMaker 2.1 has a new
compatibility tab which will allow you to turn off DirectShow filters that
could be causing a problem. (see my blog entry
http://blogs.msdn.com/deanro/archive/2004/08/22/218501.aspx for further
details).

There is a registry setting which can potentially help with the hangs. See
the FAQ at
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/21/faq.mspx#EAAAA. I've
copied the question and answer below for convenience. Note that this will
decrease the performance when editing large timelines but it's certainly
worth a try.

Q.What can I do if Windows Movie Maker stops responding when I drag the
playback indicator on the timeline for a project that has a lot of audio,
video, images, or titles on the storyboard/timeline?A.
You can prevent this from happening by adding a new value in Registry
Editor.

Note Before making any changes in Registry Editor, you should back up
valuable files on your computer and the Windows Registry itself. For more
information about Windows Registry, see the Windows Help and Support Center.

To add a new registry key for Windows Movie Maker to prevent the timeline
from not responding

1.
Click Start, and then click Run.

2.
In the Run dialog box, type regedit.exe, and then click OK.

3.
In Registry Editor, navigate to the following location:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MM20]

4.
Click anywhere in the pane on the right that contains the different
registry keys and corresponding values.

5.
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD value.

6.
For the new registry key name, type DynamicSourcesforPreview, and enter
the value 0.

7.
Close Registry Editor and restart Windows Movie Maker.


Windows Movie Maker should no longer stop responding when you drag the
playback indicator on the timeline.

Important This change can decrease the performance of Windows Movie Maker.

Regards
Dean Rowe
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

I have a project containing video, overlays, and music. I have worked on
this project in the past, and have done so successfully. I have upgraded
my
PC to a Dell 4600, 1 GB RAM, Pent 2.8, etc... WinXP SP1. I have not been
able to run WMM without problems.

I have read many of the posts, visited Papa John's website (read and tried
almost all of it), and still no success.

1. My current problem is this: When I open my project, everything opens
O.K. If I move my mouse down to the timeline and click on the play
button,
the video and music works fine. If I then press pause, then play again,
it
works O.K. However, if I drag the position bar (the thin blue verical bar
which shows where you are on the timeline) to a different starting point
on
the timeline - then press play to continue from that point, the video
preview
window says its playing, but the frame either shows the last image from my
last position on the timeline, or the video just disappears to a black
screen. I also get no sound. Why would everything disengage when
dragging
the timeline position bar to another part of the movie?

2. Whenever I try to lengthen my still images by dragging the right side
of
the still image from say 3 seconds to 5 seconds, I can do this
successfully
about 2 or 3 times. But when it is more than that, the project locks up
and
I have to kill it with Task Manager?

I have spent the past 3 days reinstalling WMM 2, Media Player 9, Direct X,
etc... I have renamed codecs, adjusted accelerator options, etc...

Nothing is working - Is using a software program supposed to be this
hard????

 

[Guest]

John - I visited your website 2 days ago and downloaded your utility. I have
to say, interesting concept for a utility, and I understand what is was
supposed to do (I downloaded rc.exe build 35), but when I asked it to "FIND"
codecs, it only listed around 5. I have installed the ACE Mega Pack and I am
sure that I have more than "5" codecs installed. When I try to use the
restore feature, the button to RESTORE remained grayed out, so I could not
restore (or rename) the selected codecs. I appreciate that your utility was
free, and the intention was good, however, you may want to retest that
utility.

 

[John Kelly]

Hello there,

The utility will only seek out codecs that are known to cause a problem...it
does not matter whether in total you have one or a thousand codecs...you will
only see the report of those known to cause a problem for MM....there would be
no benefit to MM in renaming codecs that do not cause it a problem.

When you get to that point that you want to restore those codecs that were
previously renamed...you must first tell it to find the codecs that were
renamed.....when it gives you that list...you must select the codecs you want
to rename...which may not be all of them...and then restore them by pressing
that button.

An interactive demo for the program is available in the FAQ section of my
website....this too is free.

 

[John Kelly]

HEllo again,

So as to clarify the steps needed I have added two new pages to the website
containing fairly short videos of how to Rename and Restore problem codecs.