Need help reproducing Windows Movie Maker problem please

Hi,

I'm having a problem with Windows Movie Maker in Vista, could someone try
the following steps and see if they get an error message please?

1. Start Windows Movie Maker.
2. Click "Titles and credits".
3. Click "Title on the selected clip".
4. Type "Test" in the first box and then click "Add Title".
5. Click "Publish Movie".
6. Click "Next", "Next", "Publish".

WMM gives an error saying "Cannot complete Publish Movie", can someone
confirm whether they see this problem too?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:48:32 -0700, Pike
<Pike@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I'm having a problem with Windows Movie Maker in Vista, could someone try
>the following steps and see if they get an error message please?
>
>1. Start Windows Movie Maker.
>2. Click "Titles and credits".
>3. Click "Title on the selected clip".
>4. Type "Test" in the first box and then click "Add Title".
>5. Click "Publish Movie".
>6. Click "Next", "Next", "Publish".
>
>WMM gives an error saying "Cannot complete Publish Movie", can someone
>confirm whether they see this problem too?
>
>Thanks for any help you can give me.

Ok, I tired and got the same error. Good news is I know why. If all
you do is the steps you outlined you just created an empty overlay.
Movie Maker being dumb doesn't accept an "overlay" as a valid movie
and will crash when you try to publish it since there is nothing under
it to overlay over. I know... just dumb, and makes no sense.

Now to fix it just add something to the timeline for the overlay to
"float" over and Movie Maker will "get" it.

On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:48:32 -0700, Pike
<Pike@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I'm having a problem with Windows Movie Maker in Vista, could someone try
>the following steps and see if they get an error message please?
>
>1. Start Windows Movie Maker.
>2. Click "Titles and credits".
>3. Click "Title on the selected clip".
>4. Type "Test" in the first box and then click "Add Title".
>5. Click "Publish Movie".
>6. Click "Next", "Next", "Publish".
>
>WMM gives an error saying "Cannot complete Publish Movie", can someone
>confirm whether they see this problem too?
>
>Thanks for any help you can give me.

Ok, I tired and got the same error. Good news is I know why. If all
you do is the steps you outlined you just created an empty overlay.
Movie Maker being dumb doesn't accept an "overlay" as a valid movie
and will crash when you try to publish it since there is nothing under
it to overlay over. I know... just dumb, and makes no sense.

Now to fix it just add something to the timeline for the overlay to
"float" over and Movie Maker will "get" it.

On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:48:32 -0700, Pike
<Pike@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I'm having a problem with Windows Movie Maker in Vista, could someone try
>the following steps and see if they get an error message please?
>
>1. Start Windows Movie Maker.
>2. Click "Titles and credits".
>3. Click "Title on the selected clip".
>4. Type "Test" in the first box and then click "Add Title".
>5. Click "Publish Movie".
>6. Click "Next", "Next", "Publish".
>
>WMM gives an error saying "Cannot complete Publish Movie", can someone
>confirm whether they see this problem too?
>
>Thanks for any help you can give me.

Ok, I tired and got the same error. Good news is I know why. If all
you do is the steps you outlined you just created an empty overlay.
Movie Maker being dumb doesn't accept an "overlay" as a valid movie
and will crash when you try to publish it since there is nothing under
it to overlay over. I know... just dumb, and makes no sense.

Now to fix it just add something to the timeline for the overlay to
"float" over and Movie Maker will "get" it.

On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:48:32 -0700, Pike
<Pike@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I'm having a problem with Windows Movie Maker in Vista, could someone try
>the following steps and see if they get an error message please?
>
>1. Start Windows Movie Maker.
>2. Click "Titles and credits".
>3. Click "Title on the selected clip".
>4. Type "Test" in the first box and then click "Add Title".
>5. Click "Publish Movie".
>6. Click "Next", "Next", "Publish".
>
>WMM gives an error saying "Cannot complete Publish Movie", can someone
>confirm whether they see this problem too?
>
>Thanks for any help you can give me.

Ok, I tired and got the same error. Good news is I know why. If all
you do is the steps you outlined you just created an empty overlay.
Movie Maker being dumb doesn't accept an "overlay" as a valid movie
and will crash when you try to publish it since there is nothing under
it to overlay over. I know... just dumb, and makes no sense.

Now to fix it just add something to the timeline for the overlay to
"float" over and Movie Maker will "get" it.

Adam gave you the answer about why....

If you really want a movie with your text clip... drag it from the Title
Overlay track to the Video track and go through the same steps, and you'll
get a video with your text.
--
website references are to www.papajohn.org

PapaJohn


"Pike" <Pike@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
newsE864FA2-EB93-4A03-BD1E-F4D99E16A98E@microsoft.com...
> Hi,
>
> I'm having a problem with Windows Movie Maker in Vista, could someone try
> the following steps and see if they get an error message please?
>
> 1. Start Windows Movie Maker.
> 2. Click "Titles and credits".
> 3. Click "Title on the selected clip".
> 4. Type "Test" in the first box and then click "Add Title".
> 5. Click "Publish Movie".
> 6. Click "Next", "Next", "Publish".
>
> WMM gives an error saying "Cannot complete Publish Movie", can someone
> confirm whether they see this problem too?
>
> Thanks for any help you can give me.

Thanks Adam and PapaJohn, moving the titles to the video track fixed it.

What I was trying to do was add some text over an audio clip to explain what
was happening in the audio, that's why I picked "Title on selected clip".

Is there any way to suggest a feature to MS? While I acknowledge that it was
user error I think it should at least warn you that you can't use "Title on
selected clip" over an audio clip, or perhaps it could just automatically
convert the title to video when you Published.

Anyway, thanks to both of you for your help, it's much appreciated.

On Fri, 24 Aug 2007 03:02:38 -0400, "PapaJohn"
<papajohn@chartermi.net> wrote:

>Adam gave you the answer about why....
>
>If you really want a movie with your text clip... drag it from the Title
>Overlay track to the Video track and go through the same steps, and you'll
>get a video with your text.

That's actually defending Microsoft's poor design. Adding text, more
correctly called media generation automatically makes the project a
video. There is no such thing as an audio file with a title.

It is just like Microsoft placing the Title/Overlay track at the
bottom. That's also half-ass backwards, but typical of Microsoft to do
their own thing and ignore established industry procedure.

It is equally stupid that you the user have to drag a title which my
nature IS visual and not audio to the video track before Movie Maker
is smart enough to understand what it itself created.

Anything placed on the Title/Overlay track MEANS you're making a
video. Period. Again blame Microsoft for poor design, not the user,
since you can do as the OP wished, ie drag some audio file to the
audio/music track, then add a title AND it plays fine in the preview
window, only to crash when you try to publish it, because laughable
then Movie Makers says it doesn't understand what it just played
perfectly during preview.

Again, sloppy programming, poor design. Call a spade a spade!

I have had the same problem burning dvd's.
I tried all of microsoft programs to no avail, and wasted at least 8 dvd-r
disk's.
I used nero recode to burn movie and now it not only play's in my pc, it
will also play in my dvd player for tv.
--
Thanks in advance for your help.
Ronald D. Jones


"Adam Albright" wrote:

> On Fri, 24 Aug 2007 03:02:38 -0400, "PapaJohn"
> <papajohn@chartermi.net> wrote:
>
> >Adam gave you the answer about why....
> >
> >If you really want a movie with your text clip... drag it from the Title
> >Overlay track to the Video track and go through the same steps, and you'll
> >get a video with your text.
>
> That's actually defending Microsoft's poor design. Adding text, more
> correctly called media generation automatically makes the project a
> video. There is no such thing as an audio file with a title.
>
> It is just like Microsoft placing the Title/Overlay track at the
> bottom. That's also half-ass backwards, but typical of Microsoft to do
> their own thing and ignore established industry procedure.
>
> It is equally stupid that you the user have to drag a title which my
> nature IS visual and not audio to the video track before Movie Maker
> is smart enough to understand what it itself created.
>
> Anything placed on the Title/Overlay track MEANS you're making a
> video. Period. Again blame Microsoft for poor design, not the user,
> since you can do as the OP wished, ie drag some audio file to the
> audio/music track, then add a title AND it plays fine in the preview
> window, only to crash when you try to publish it, because laughable
> then Movie Makers says it doesn't understand what it just played
> perfectly during preview.
>
> Again, sloppy programming, poor design. Call a spade a spade!
>
>

Thanks a lot PapaJohn!

I just started using Moviemaker to make simple clips of audio + text,
with no images or videos. I could actually publish, only via email
attachment, resulting in small pixelated avi's.

Finally, I could publish (it was just a mere 4MB) by just moving my
texts to the video track.

Another newbie question.. how can I concurrently add texts and videos
next?


--
emily