Movie Maker Transition causes crash

Hello, I am trying to make very simple movies with Movie Maker that came with
Windows Vista. I can create a movie in the time line just fine. However, if
I go to Storyboard and try to add Transitions, my computer completely shuts
down. I am extremely computer illeterate, and I can't get Microsoft to help
without paying a bunch of money. Is there anything I can do on my own.
(Please write like I am totally ignorant because I am in this area) From
some of the things I have read, I am assuming it might have something to do
with codecs, which I really don't know anything about. Please help!
--
Susan

On Sun, 16 Sep 2007 09:10:02 -0700, Susan
<Susan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Hello, I am trying to make very simple movies with Movie Maker that came with
>Windows Vista. I can create a movie in the time line just fine. However, if
>I go to Storyboard and try to add Transitions, my computer completely shuts
>down. I am extremely computer illeterate, and I can't get Microsoft to help
>without paying a bunch of money. Is there anything I can do on my own.
>(Please write like I am totally ignorant because I am in this area) From
>some of the things I have read, I am assuming it might have something to do
>with codecs, which I really don't know anything about. Please help!

A CODEC is just an acronym for Coder-Decoder. In order for Media
Player, Movie Maker or any application to play or work on a video it
first must bring the file into memory then decompress it. When you
make a movie the opposite happens, the file gets compressed. Something
called bitrate determines how much the file is compressed. The higher
the bitrate the better the quality of the output but the file size
will also grow proportionally. The terms coding and decoding are
interchangeable with coder/decoder and compressing and decompressing
where you're discussing video.

You can add transitions while in timeline mode too, just drag and drop
between two videos or two images.

A LOT of people have reported Movie Maker hanging when dropping or
adding effects or transition. While I don't use Movie Maker, just for
kicks I dropped every single last transition Movie Maker has on a
series of photos just as an experiment and they all took with the
movie playing flawlessly. That suggested the problem lies with a
missing/damaged codec or there is something on your system that is
preventing Movie Maker from working correctly.

One quick thing to try is in Movie Maker click on Tools/Options then
press the restore default button which should de associate any foreign
codecs that Movie Maker is too dumb to know what to do with that may
be on your system.

I figured out how to add transitions in Timeline mode, and it works just fine
so far. Thanks for pointing that out. I also clicked on restore defaults in
Tools, Options, Compatibility. Nothing changed. Any other suggestions as to
why things I do in Storyboard shut my computer down. (Your explantation of
Codecs was helpful. Thanks.)
--
Susan


"Adam Albright" wrote:

> On Sun, 16 Sep 2007 09:10:02 -0700, Susan
> <Susan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >Hello, I am trying to make very simple movies with Movie Maker that came with
> >Windows Vista. I can create a movie in the time line just fine. However, if
> >I go to Storyboard and try to add Transitions, my computer completely shuts
> >down. I am extremely computer illeterate, and I can't get Microsoft to help
> >without paying a bunch of money. Is there anything I can do on my own.
> >(Please write like I am totally ignorant because I am in this area) From
> >some of the things I have read, I am assuming it might have something to do
> >with codecs, which I really don't know anything about. Please help!
>
> A CODEC is just an acronym for Coder-Decoder. In order for Media
> Player, Movie Maker or any application to play or work on a video it
> first must bring the file into memory then decompress it. When you
> make a movie the opposite happens, the file gets compressed. Something
> called bitrate determines how much the file is compressed. The higher
> the bitrate the better the quality of the output but the file size
> will also grow proportionally. The terms coding and decoding are
> interchangeable with coder/decoder and compressing and decompressing
> where you're discussing video.
>
> You can add transitions while in timeline mode too, just drag and drop
> between two videos or two images.
>
> A LOT of people have reported Movie Maker hanging when dropping or
> adding effects or transition. While I don't use Movie Maker, just for
> kicks I dropped every single last transition Movie Maker has on a
> series of photos just as an experiment and they all took with the
> movie playing flawlessly. That suggested the problem lies with a
> missing/damaged codec or there is something on your system that is
> preventing Movie Maker from working correctly.
>
> One quick thing to try is in Movie Maker click on Tools/Options then
> press the restore default button which should de associate any foreign
> codecs that Movie Maker is too dumb to know what to do with that may
> be on your system.
>
>

On Sun, 16 Sep 2007 12:30:00 -0700, Susan
<Susan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> Any other suggestions as to
>why things I do in Storyboard shut my computer down.

Sorry no, but it seems those having trouble seem to mostly have it in
storyboard mode. For what it's worth over the years I've seen other
video editors stumble in a similar way. Using the timeline is more
natural once you do it a few times. If it is too narrow a scale you
can always zoom in by clicking the little '+' inside what's suppose to
be a magnifying glass icon. If you click on the other little '+' just
right of the word video you'll also get more tracks

check the Problem Solving > Crashes and Hangs page of my website... the
issues with Vista's Movie Maker are the same as or similar to those on XP..
--
website references are to www.papajohn.org

PapaJohn


"Susan" <Susan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:92416D54-0D62-41CB-9246-113114FC1946@microsoft.com...
>I figured out how to add transitions in Timeline mode, and it works just
>fine
> so far. Thanks for pointing that out. I also clicked on restore defaults
> in
> Tools, Options, Compatibility. Nothing changed. Any other suggestions as
> to
> why things I do in Storyboard shut my computer down. (Your explantation
> of
> Codecs was helpful. Thanks.)
> --
> Susan
>
>
> "Adam Albright" wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 16 Sep 2007 09:10:02 -0700, Susan
>> <Susan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>
>> >Hello, I am trying to make very simple movies with Movie Maker that came
>> >with
>> >Windows Vista. I can create a movie in the time line just fine.
>> >However, if
>> >I go to Storyboard and try to add Transitions, my computer completely
>> >shuts
>> >down. I am extremely computer illeterate, and I can't get Microsoft to
>> >help
>> >without paying a bunch of money. Is there anything I can do on my own.
>> >(Please write like I am totally ignorant because I am in this area)
>> >From
>> >some of the things I have read, I am assuming it might have something to
>> >do
>> >with codecs, which I really don't know anything about. Please help!
>>
>> A CODEC is just an acronym for Coder-Decoder. In order for Media
>> Player, Movie Maker or any application to play or work on a video it
>> first must bring the file into memory then decompress it. When you
>> make a movie the opposite happens, the file gets compressed. Something
>> called bitrate determines how much the file is compressed. The higher
>> the bitrate the better the quality of the output but the file size
>> will also grow proportionally. The terms coding and decoding are
>> interchangeable with coder/decoder and compressing and decompressing
>> where you're discussing video.
>>
>> You can add transitions while in timeline mode too, just drag and drop
>> between two videos or two images.
>>
>> A LOT of people have reported Movie Maker hanging when dropping or
>> adding effects or transition. While I don't use Movie Maker, just for
>> kicks I dropped every single last transition Movie Maker has on a
>> series of photos just as an experiment and they all took with the
>> movie playing flawlessly. That suggested the problem lies with a
>> missing/damaged codec or there is something on your system that is
>> preventing Movie Maker from working correctly.
>>
>> One quick thing to try is in Movie Maker click on Tools/Options then
>> press the restore default button which should de associate any foreign
>> codecs that Movie Maker is too dumb to know what to do with that may
>> be on your system.
>>
>>