Windows Movie MAker is crashing

Tyrannosaur · **on:** July 14, 2009, 12:37:54 AM

yeah. so basically, im trying to put videos into movie maker so i can edit them and stuff to put on youtube.

problem is, when i import videos to it, and place them in the timeline, movie maker freezes and becomes unresponsive. i then have to force the program to close.

i haven't used movie maker recently as i reformatted to XP. ive also searched far and wide on google for the issue but still cant find any solution

.

anyone have a theory on what is causing movie maker to crash? its not any high def video or anything, just game footage that i captured in WMV format.

these are my system specs if it helps:

Windows XP Home Edition with SP3. fully updated through windows update.
Intel E7400 2.8GHZ Dual Core CPU
Gigabyte 945GCM motherboard
nVidia GeForce 8800GT GPU
3GB of DDR2 PC-5300 RAM.

anyone who has a solution or can recommend an alternative, free video editing program, i will be greatly appreciative. thanks

Alex · **Reply #1 on:** July 14, 2009, 12:43:16 AM

I seriously doubt that you are, but it crashes when you are using over 100 transitions. Still searching for a solution though.

Edit : A good idea is to make sure you have the most recent copy of Windows Moive Maker. You can download it using the Windows Update service.

Edit again : Could also make sure you have all your source videos in your "My video" folder, then import again. (I'm just reading off some similar problems people had)

Once again : I guess this guy knows what he's doin', people in the comments says it works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfVS7bn9zNM...8358&feature=iv

Last time : Annnnd if all else fails, here's The Top Five free video editing programs.
http://www.desktop-video-guide.com/top-5-f...are-review.html

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #2 on:** July 14, 2009, 12:53:13 AM

It is most likely a codec issue. Download the DIVX player and install the included codec that comes with the package. If that doesn't work, reinstall movie maker to the latest version even if you already have the newest one.

I haven't used Windows Movie Maker in quite some time so I don't know if I can be of any further assistance. I work with considerably more......advanced video editing programs nowadays.

Tyrannosaur · **Reply #3 on:** July 14, 2009, 01:22:40 AM

tried both solutions; that youtube vid and getting the latest version of DivX. nothing :S.

i checked windows update for the latest version of movie maker and it wasnt listed. is there a way to check what version of movie maker i have?

thanks guys. appreciate the effort

Alex · **Reply #4 on:** July 14, 2009, 01:26:10 AM

Yeah, click 'help' on the toolbar at the top, and click 'about', it should have your current version there.

Edit : If you haven't already, you can try uninstalling/reinstalling your current version, probably should've suggested that sooner.

Petrie. · **Reply #5 on:** July 14, 2009, 07:37:17 AM

You're going to have to get lucky. I recently made a video for youtube and used many clips and pieces and it was a nightmare using WMM even with wmv clips so that I didn't have to worry about the divx issue. WMM isn't meant to handle huge projects.

What I did to get it to go--save the project often; you never know when its going to choke. Clear out the clips at the top as you use them (so if 1.avi has been inserted into the project and you aren't using it, remove it from the top). I don't know if this frees usable ram or what, but its what allowed me to continue on and finally finish. I would also try and make your video files Windows media video (wmv) files...I think they may work better on larger projects than a format that requires a plugin to work properly, causing more trouble with WMM.

Hope those help.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #6 on:** July 14, 2009, 08:16:30 AM

Windows Movie Maker has issues; you aren't the first to have a problem like this, I'm sure. WMM would constantly freeze up on me. All I did was wait and it eventually would respond again. Have you tried waiting to see if the program will unfreeze? It might take a few minutes.

My only other suggestion is trying another video editting program if WMM keeps giving you grief. Pinnacle Videospin is similar to WMM and is free, so it may make a good replacement if you decided to get antoher video editting program.

Alex · **Reply #7 on:** July 14, 2009, 02:26:05 PM

Two more possible solutions. Try upgrading your Internet Explorer to version 8 if you don't have it already.

And, this, which I pulled off a tech forum :

"I've also seen a report that disabling the
ffdshow codec could be the fix. To accomplish
this...open Movie Maker and go to...Tools /
Options / Compatibility tab...Uncheck...
ffdshow / OK."

Edit : Download link to ffdshow decoder, this has fixed WMM sometimes also.
http://www.free-codecs.com/download_soft.php?d=4787&s=50

And I think if you download that, you're going to need to make sure you have the ffdshow codec enabled.

Tyrannosaur · **Reply #8 on:** July 14, 2009, 04:17:58 PM

UPDATE: so i decided that i had had enough of what the software was doing and decided to reformat my PC to Windows 7 RC in the hopes that it will fix the issues.

all really good suggestions guys, big thanks

. if i have issues with it on 7, ill be sure to give them all a try.

my philosophy: if software doesnt work, reformat

DarkHououmon · **Reply #9 on:** July 14, 2009, 04:43:25 PM

Reformatting seems too extreme of a solution. If WMM is the only program not working, then I see no point in reformatting. In my opinion, reformatting should only ever been done as a last result due to malware infection or the PC is breaking down to the point where it's barely useable. It would be much easier in this case to just install another program.

Alex · **Reply #10 on:** July 14, 2009, 04:44:52 PM

Ah cool, it'll probably work then, the majority of problems were coming from XP. Good luck with your video.