Recently in Movie Maker Category

"I have a Sony Handycam with a hard disk drive / Memory Stick Pro Duo. I can upload videos from either onto my computer and they will play. The problem I am having is that when I try to import them to Windows Movie Maker, I get this warning: 20090731112533.mpg could not be imported. An interface has too many methods to fire events from. How can i remedy this?"

Windows Movie Maker is notorious for only working well with DV-AVI camcorder files and WMV files. Any other file format that works was a stroke of good luck. Your best bet for editing the file would be to use some other software, but if that's not an option here are a few suggestions for getting past the error message and on to editing your movie.

"I seem to be only able to have audio or video for the entire movie, no trouble editing just can't seem to have both. I would like to hear my daughter talking, but not all the time. Music as well."

You can segment your video so that audio only plays some of the time, but that requires splitting the video on the editing timeline each time you want to mute the audio to create clips from your larger video segment. Follow the steps here to customize your audio track.

"Can you send a Windows Movie Maker video using send a file on MSN Messenger?"

If you want to send the Windows Movie Maker project file (the ones with file extension MSWMM) using the Send a file feature of MSN Messenger, it can be done, but the person at the other end will have a hard time knowing what to do with it. The Movie Maker project files are meant for creating movies, not for playing back on another computer. If you want to send your finished movie to someone using the Send a file feature of MSN, you should have no problem. Before you send the movie, make sure you publish your edited movie from the timeline first, following some basic steps.

"Is it possible to digitally record just the sound track from a movie captured in Windows Movie Maker?"

The Windows Movie Maker team anticipated this type of request and included a feature to export only the audio portion of your video as a WMA file. Instead of placing the movie clip on the Video portion of the timeline, drag it to the Audio/Music section of the timeline. When you go to publish your movie, Windows Movie Maker will ask you about audio quality settings and create a WMA, instead of allowing you to choose a video format.

Several questions came through this week (for both Mac and PC users) on how to rotate video clips shot with digital cameras. Apparently there's a whole crowd of people titling their digital cameras sideways this week. :)

For anyone with a Windows computer, rotating movies is easily done using Windows Movie Maker. This is one case where the defacto video editor for Windows outshines Apple's iMovie. Mac users will need to install an additional effect before rotating video clips in iMovie. For Movie Maker users, simply add your video to the Movie Maker timeline and apply a Rotate effect to turn the video right side up. Watch the video to see this in action.

"Is there a way to add two audio clips to a Windows Movie Maker video which overlap each other?"

Windows Movie Maker only supports two audio tracks: the audio track recorded with the video is one of the tracks; the other movie maker audio track is the Audio/Music track. In your case you need an additional audio track, so that you can layer your two audio files on top of each other. If you plan to do this regularly , the easiest thing to do is graduate to a more complete video editing suite, like Pinnacle Studio, Roxio Creator, or Sony Vegas. If you're on a tight budget or you'll only do this one time, you can combine the two tracks in another application, save out a single audio file, and import the combined audio file into Windows Movie Maker.

"How do I get Flip camcorder videos in Microsoft Movie Maker? I tried adding a video to Movie Maker by dragging and dropping the file, but it shows up as an MP3."

Flip makes it insanely simple to record and edit movies on your computer, as long as you use the Flip Video application. Things get a little more complicated if you want to use other applications, like Windows Movie Maker, Roxio Easy Media Creator, Nero Vision Express, etc. The best way to insure success, is to first launch the Flip Video software from your Flip camcorder, which makes sure their video codec installs on your computer before you save the videos to your hard drive. After you step through the Flip Video software for the first time, follow these steps each time you want to edit your Flip videos with Windows Movie Maker.

Rosa writes, "Students recorded a movie project at home with camera using a DVD as a recording. Now they want to edit at school in Windows Movie Maker. They cannot import their movie to Movie Maker."

There's no guaranteed method for importing DVD camcorder movies into the Windows XP version Windows Movie Maker and editing them. Windows XP doesn't include the required DVD decoder software by default. Many of the consumer DVD software solutions available don't consistently work with every camcorder because some of the software packages don't include both the necessary video and audio decoders. The most reliable solution I've found for editing the files created with DVD camcorders in Windows Movie Maker is Elecard MPEG Player. Even if you already have another DVD playback solution on the computer, this method may fail without installing the Elecard software.

"How do I convert mswmm files to a Mac compatible file?"

mswmm files are the project format for Windows Movie Maker. The files tell Windows Movie Maker things about your video editing project like what video clips are used, which audio files you imported, which transitions go between which clips, and which effects are used. These files are essentially readable only in Windows Movie Maker and will definitely not work on a Mac. The two options for saving out a video file from Movie Maker are either DV-AVI or WMV. To create a Mac-compatible video file, open the mswmm file in Windows Movie Maker, save the movie at the highest quality setting WMV or preferably as a DV-AVI format file. Import this finished AVI or WMV file into iMovie or other Mac video editing application.

"Is there a place to download a driver for my Sony camcorder for Vista? I upgraded to Windows Vista, and found that my Sony video camera no longer works. I need a new driver in order for my computer to recognize my video camera."

Some of the Sony camcorders support transferring video from tape over USB or iLINK. The USB connection requires a special driver for each version of Windows. The iLINK connection typically conforms with the standard FireWire transfer common to most digital video cameras. If you were previously using the USB connection to transfer video from your Sony camcorder to your computer, that feature probably no longer works with Vista because Sony doesn't have an updated driver for the USB support. Sony has a list of supported camcorders, with very few including Vista support for USB.

Bennett asks, "How do I upload a camcorder tape to my computer? I want to upload my daughter's video I took with my camcorder to the computer. What do I need to do?"

Since you mention that the camcorder uses tape, I'm going to assume that your camcorder is some sort of digital video camera using MiniDV. This means you need a FireWire connection in your computer and the correct cabling to connect your camcorder to your PC. You also need to have software for capturing the video from your camcorder - assuming you have Windows XP or Vista, you can use Windows Movie Maker to capture your video from tape.

"How can I save a still image from my video project in Windows Movie Maker?"

Windows Movie Maker provides a very simple solution for saving a frame of video as a still image. Keep in mind this still image will be saved at whatever the resolution of your video is, which is probably not high enough quality for printing. If the video you want to grab a still image from is on DVD, you'll need to use a slightly different method for saving still images from DVD.

To save a still image from a movie in Windows Movie Maker, first select the video clip you want to save an image from in the Collections pane. Move the playback slider in the video monitor to the point in the video where you want to save a still. Click the Take Picture button below the preview window.

When prompted, choose a name for your file and click the save button. You can also save still photos from video files on the Timeline.

Livy asks, "How do you put a YouTube video on Windows Movie Maker?"

To edit YouTube videos in Windows Movie Maker you need to do a couple of things. First you need to download the video from YouTube. Next you need to convert the video from the FLV file from YouTube to a video format supported by Windows Movie Maker (like WMV). Keep in mind that the YouTube video will be 320x240, which is not a television display resolution, so if you're planning to burn a DVD the video will look even worse than it does on your computer because it will contain all of the compression artifacts introduced when it was uploaded to YouTube.

Many of the popular consumer video editing apps lack an effect for playing video in reverse. Windows Movie Maker has no method for playing video backward on the timeline. The Videowave editor included with Roxio Easy Media Creator has no video reverse mode. Using AVISynth and VirtualDub you can play out almost any video file backward, saving an AVI to import into your favorite video editor.

The following method will work for almost any video that plays back in Windows Media Player, including WMV, MP4, and most AVI files. Your mileage may vary depending on which codecs are installed, but installing ffdshow certainly can't hurt.

Cristina writes, "I am making a Christmas slide show on my Windows Movie Maker but it absolutely will NOT let me import ANY of my Christmas music and U think I've tried everything. I tried dragging it from iTunes. I made a new folder on my desktop and tried getting the songs from there and still did NOT import. Now I understand that if the song is downloaded from a source it won't import because of its format but my songs are actually from a CD so I'm not sure what to do anymore."

Since you're importing songs from iTunes and they don't work, I'm going to assume you also ripped the CD of Christmas songs using iTunes. If you purchased the tracks from iTunes, you'll need to download SoundTaxi to convert them because the method described below won't work with iTunes purchased tracks.

By default, iTunes rips CDs to the AAC format, which is a great format for storing music, but is also incompatible with Windows Movie Maker. There are two ways to solve your problem:

Tony writes, "I have recorded loads of TV programes on Windows Media Center but when I try to burn them to DVD they don't work. Helpline advised Nero 7, do you have a better solution?"

Nero will burn virtually anything to DVD. They have a great depth of features for burning, but I really dislike their user interface for simple tasks because the application seemingly makes the simple complicated. My preference for burning Windows Media Center Recordings is Roxio MyDVD.

Tom writes, "I really need some help with Windows Movie Maker. When I am making credits for the thing I've made, how do I get video to play alongside the credits. I have picked the option where you can have video rolling alongside but I don't know how please help!"

We've all seen credits rolling along next to the closing scenes of a television show or at the end of a movie. Windows Movie Maker supports this feature, but it gets applied in a counterintuitive way that makes you feel like you did something wrong. If you already created the credits you're almost there. I'll walk through the process of making credits that play over a video clip and how to get this feature to actually work when you select it.

With your movie on the video timeline, choose Tools > Titles and Credits from the menu. Choose the option to add credits at the end of the movie.

Enter all the details for your title in the available boxes. Click Change the title animation.

In the Credits section of title animations choose either Credits: Video Left or Credits: Video Top. Click Done.

At this point the credits you created will appear at the end of your movie in the Video section of the timeline.

Select the credits clip on the timeline and drag it to the Title Overlay section of the timeline below the Audio/Music section of the timeline. Overlap as much of your movie as you need to have video playing for the full duration of your credits.

If you play back the timeline you can see the credits overlaying the video in the preview window.

Anna writes, "My question is about Movie Maker - is there a control for the scrolling of the credits, i.e. to make them scroll more quickly?"

Windows Movie Maker includes an effect for speeding up video clips which works for both your movie clips and for the credits. The speed only offers one setting, which doubles the speed of the clip, making a 30 second clip playback in 15 seconds, for instance. With some creative stacking, you can use this effect up to 6 times to zip through your credits.

After creating credits for your movie, scroll to the section of the video Timeline where your credits are located.

From the Collections, choose Video Effects and locate the Speed Up, Double effect from the list of effects. Drag the effect onto your credits on the timeline.

After dragging the Speed Up, Double effect to the timeline, there should be a little blue star on your credits clip in the timeline and the length of the clip should be half the original length on the timeline.

Repeat these steps to add up to six Speed Up, Double effects to your credits as needed to adjust the speed. This same trick can be applied to any video clip to speed it up, with the caveat that a maximum of six total effects may be applied to any one video clip.

Keith writes, "How do I make DVD to play on my home DVD player?"

To make a DVD that plays on your home DVD player, you need DVD authoring software to convert the video to the file format for the DVD, as well as add menus and chapters (if you want those features). There are a number of DVD authoring software applications available. My personal favorite for making DVDs is Roxio MyDVD, which is available as both a standalone application as well as part of the Roxio Creator authoring suite. Here's how to make a DVD using Sonic MyDVD.

Sandy writes, I have a Dell Dimension 8400. I recently purchased a JVC digital camcorder. The camcorder came with some software Digital Photo Navigator and also a USB connection. When I go to put my video on the computer all I get is the still pictures on the SD card. I just bought a FireWire cable but cannot for the life of me find a spot to plug it in to the computer.

Camcorder manufacturers made things a little confusing when they added USB support for transferring still images because they don't generally ship the required cable for transferring video in the camera box. It seems like a major oversight that many computers are still shipping without FireWire ports, but I know it happens because I have a system that didn't ship with a FireWire port by default. Before we rule out that your system does not have a FireWire port, lets take a look at a few possibilities.

Norma writes, "I edit a lot of movie clips of 2 to 4 minutes in length, & would like to know how to compact them down enough to send via e-mail. The clips run approx 50 to 100MB, but the e-mail seem to take only 4MB. I get e-mail with short videos from others that have been downloaded from YouTube or a commercial site & sent as attachment. Is there a program that does this?"

I personally recommend against sending videos via email. Considering all the issues people have with infected messages and blocked content, it's far easier to send someone a link to either view online or download after they get to a site. The other complication is being forced to compromise both image quality and file size do to the limitations of whatever company provides your mail service.

If sending via email is a matter of privacy, use a service like Eyejot, which lets you define who has access to each video you want to send. You create the video, use Eyejot to share the video, and their service notifies your friends or customers that they have a video to watch. You retain complete control over who gets to watch your video. After you signup for Eyejot, you have the option to either record videos with a Webcam or upload other videos to send to people.

David writes, "Is there a way to take my DV tape and put only the audio onto a cd? So that people can listen to the audio from the program in their car? I do the multimedia for my church and we are just begining to get into this."

It's definitely possible to take the audio from your digital video tape and put it on a CD. The process will vary slightly depending on what video editing software you use, but the basics of getting the job done are the same in every application. I'll walk through the process of using Windows Movie Maker to capture and edit the video here.

After capturing the video with Windows Movie Maker, add the video to the editing Timeline on the Audio/Music track. Keep in mind that the maximum length for Audio CDs is 72 minutes, so if your audio is longer, you may want to split the video into two files.

From the menu, choose File > Save Movie File. Select My Computer from the list of options presented in the Save Movie Wizard.

Name the file and choose a location to save the file.

Select High Quality Audio (160 Kbps) from the list of Other Settings.

After Windows Movie Maker finishes exporting the audio, open the audio file in your favorite CD burning application and burn an Audio CD.

Additional Notes on Capturing Audio from a DV tape

If you want to save yourself some time in processing the audio, you could record the audio directly from the digital video camera's headphone line out with a computer or external audio recorder. This would give you immediate access to the audio file, without needing to wait for the computer to capture everything on the DV tape. Then simply open the file in an audio editor (like Audacity), edit the audio, save the file and burn it as an audio CD.

May writes, "I have made a slideshow on Windows Movie Maker. I am trying to add music to it but every file I try to import says it's not supported so it can't be used. I am trying to use Windows Media Player files. I need them to finish this. How do I make them compatible or where do I find music compatible with the Movie Maker?"

Windows Movie Maker supports a number of file formats. Uncompressed WAV and AIFF (.aiff, .aif, .aifc) files are supported. Windows Media Audio .wma files and Microsoft's ASF format both work with Windows Movie Maker. MP3 files can be used in movie projects. Even the slightly more obscure .snd, .au, .mpa, and .mp2 audio files should all import into the Windows Movie Maker Collections without issue. Assuming the files you are trying to use are one of the formats listed above, they should work with Windows Movie Maker. Like anything else, there are a few caveats.

Make Custom Windows Movie Maker Titles

This one requires some coding knowledge or at least the ability to read and write XML, but it's one of the more useful hacks I've seen for Windows Movie Maker. Among many gripes about the current version is a lack of custom settings to configure your own Title and Credits settings. You're either stuck with the defaults or need to hack together your own title screens using a photo editing application, like I did for the Steven Page video. Apparently there's a way to make your own titles and credits, Microsoft just never documented it in the API. Awhile back Rehan Ahmad documented this trick on his rehanfx site, complete with a number of examples and all the specifics you need to make custom titles.

Roger writes, Can you please tell me how to get a still picture or print a picture from a home movie? When my grandson was born, I used my camcorder to make a home movie. My daughter is starting a scrap book and wanted me to print pictures from the movie I made. I don't know if there is a way to do this? i have been reading and searching without success.

There are two key parts to the problem of extracting a still image from a video for printing. The first part of the problem is to grab the image. The second part is being able to print a usable image from a source that's lower than print quality. Extracting a still from the video is the easy part. Getting a good looking print is slightly more complicated.

Assuming your camcorder is digital, connect the camcorder via FireWire and import video to your computer using an app like Windows Movie Maker or WinDV. You can read more about capturing video in From Digital Video to DVD and a second article on Transferring video from camcorder to PC.

If you use Windows Movie Maker for video editing, select the movie clip containing the frame you want to export in the video collection, scroll to the frame you want to export and click the Take Picture button. This generates a 640x480 clip from your movie, which is then saved to your hard drive. Export it into your favorite photo editor to clean up the image or print.

A second option is to use the free video editor VirtualDub. Open the video in VirtualDub, scroll to the video frame you want to export, and select Video > Copy source frame to clipboard from the menu.

Next open your favorite image editing application and paste the frame into the image editor. For example, if you use Adobe Photoshop Elements, this is accomplished by choosing New > Image from Clipboard. You can also use the free image editor Irfanview and choose Edit > Paste to copy your frame into the application. With the video clip in the image application, choose Save As and select JPEG or JPG as the output format. Choose the maximum quality setting which results in the biggest file size and least compression of the image (in Adobe this is 12, in Irfanview the max is 100). This is necessary to make sure you get the best possible print when you are ready to print the image. The Irfanview settings are pictured below.

Because digital video is a much lower resolution than the majority of digital still cameras, 4x6 is the maximum size you should attempt to print your image. Anything larger starts looking extremely grainy. One test for choosing a suitable image size is to run through the photo printing wizard located in the My Pictures folder. Copy your still image to the My Pictures folder and click the Order prints online option in the sidebar to step through the wizard with your image, selecting the Kodak option. This sounds strange, but Kodak does a great job indicating which print sizes work best with your photo.

Frans writes, We have been trying to find out what sort of video to buy in conjunction with our laptop which has no FireWire! It seems impossible to find out. How do people import and edit digital video without a FireWire connection in their (older) computer?

We have a Toshiba Satellite Pro 4300 series, 600 mhz, 10 gb (of which 5 used), 1 USB port (USB 1.1). Question can we use this for video importing and editing? If so with what software, what sort and type of cameras can we do this with, and how?

How should we store the edited endproduct? On a CD? We have no CD writer on our laptop but could buy a external one. Or should it be a DVD writer (more expensive!)

We just want to be able to film our kid and our sailing around the world. We are complete beginners and want a simple, robust, easy to use system, preferably a camcorder that has a waterproof casing!, cheap, and preferably without having to buy a new laptop!

Would be extremely happy with some info, insights, and advice here. Have been trying to find out for days now, but it only seems to get more confusing! Please help!??

While it is certainly possible to rig up a solution that will allow you to edit movies on an older PC, you are talking about a number of video production issues. You computer has a very limited amount of hard disk space. You need a video capture solution of some kind. The computer currently lacks a solution for burning either CDs or DVDs and it sounds like you are planning to record video with a camera requiring a waterproof housing. Ignoring the age of the computer and potential for parts to start failing, a number of upgrades to your existing system will allow you to import video over FireWire with your current setup.

Video requires a fairly large amount of hard disk space. 5GB is enough room for only a few minutes of uncompressed video. Ideally you should either upgrade the internal hard drive in your laptop or buy an external drive. Replacing the internal drive may be impossible if the laptop won't support current drives or if the internal drive is inaccessible. An external solution is both cheaper and easier to work with, but works better with either USB 2.0 or FireWire. Ideally you want a minimum of 80-100GB so you can keep projects on your hard drive without continually deleting video files. External hard drives cost in the $120-200 range depending on drive size and speed.

Your problem of no FireWire connection is easily solved by purchasing a PCMCIA FireWire card. IOGear sells a card that adds both FireWire and USB 2.0 for about $60. The alternative is an equally expensive USB analog capture card which will produce lower quality video and ultimately increases the possibility of dropped video frames and problematic video editing.

While an external CD burner might be cheaper than an external DVD burner, DVD is certainly the standard for sharing video on shiny disks. Some careful online shopping will turn up regular sales with DVD burners priced in the $40-45 dollar range. Newegg.com is often the best place to find deals on external burners.

In terms of hardware upgrades for your computer, you're looking at approximately $220-300 for necessary hardware upgrades for a computer that may or may not last a few more years. While the older models of the Toshiba Satellite series were built with more reliable components than current models (I am one of several people I know who got a lemon in the last two years), computers start wearing out over time. At some point parts will fail. You're well beyond the availability of compatible replacement parts for that model. If you can budget for $800-1000, get a new laptop with all your feature requirements that should last for several more years.

In terms of software, you could easily edit your movies with free software like Windows Movie Maker (if you are using Windows XP) or VirtualDub, which will work with your existing laptop or any future purchase. DVD authoring is possible with the free Video DVD Maker or one of the authoring solutions typically bundled with DVD drives.

In terms of waterproofing your digital video camera, the only housings I can track down online are for professional level digital video cameras. The housings run about $500 with compatible cameras starting in the $2000+ range. You might be able to rig something up that would keep your components dry without breaking the bank, but alternatives for waterproof digital video are fairly scarce.

"I have videos with dialogue in both Spanish and English. I want everyone who watches the movies to understand what's being said. Is there an affordable way to add subtitles to my movie? All the programs I found online seem expensive and complicated."

Depending on what your subtitle expectations are and which computing platform you use, adding a subtitle track to your video project doesn't need to cost anything. Where subtitles get complicated is including alternate subtitle tracks like the ones found on DVD releases. It's also tricky to make the subtitles an option you can switch on or off. For these advanced subtitle features, you need DVD authoring software with subtitle support. For video files offered for download or streaming, you don't need complex DVD authoring. Since you don't specify whether you are using Windows or Mac OS X, I'll suggest alternatives for both.

Windows Movie Maker Subtitles

Windows Movie Maker includes subtitles as an option in the built in title tool. The disadvantage is the software only allows you to add on title per clip, so a dialogue intense movie needs to be broken into many small clips in order to get subtitles matched up with every verbal exchange. The other disadvantage is very little control over where the subtitles appear on screen. The only option is at the bottom of the screen with either one or two lines of text.

To create a subtitle in Windows Movie Maker, select the movie clip on the timeline by clicking on it and choose Tools > Titles and Credits from the menu. Choose the option to Add title on the selected clip in the timeline.

Type in your title text in the empty box provided and click Change the title animation. Find the Subtitle option in the list of choices. The last thing to do is adjust the color (and possibly the font) of your subtitle. The default color for titles in Windows Movie Maker is white, which is almost impossible to read in light colored sections of your movie sequence. As someone who watches many films from Korea and China, I know reading subtitles on screen is much easier is the color is a shade of yellow. Click on Change the font text and color and make selections to fit your needs.

Repeat these steps for each of the clips in your movie.

iMovie Subtitles

Apple's iMovie is more versatile in it's subtitling options, although still not perfect. When working with iMovie, you have the limitation of titles appearing in overlay on the video. iMovie supports two subtitle options, not counting the Stripe Subtitle, which is more like the marquee you see appearing at the bottom of a screen to identify the current person speaking. Option one is a two line subtitle for adding text detail on a per clip basis. A more versatile option for adding subtitles to a dialog intensive movie is the Subtitle Multiple Option.

With the Titles button selected in your workspace, expand Subtitle in the titles menu and choose Subtitle Multiple. Type in your title information and click the plus (+) button until you get all of the subtitles added for the clip.

By default iMovie uses television margins for positioning the subtitles, which means the text is bumped up higher in the picture to prevent cutting it off on your screen. If your movie is for the online distribution, check the box next to QT Margins to neatly adjust the subtitles closer to the bottom of the frame. If you have a light colored background, be sure to change the text color from the default white to something easily readable.

To create your own Windows Movie Maker custom export profile, you need the free Windows Media Profile Editor, which is installed as part of the Windows Media Encoder download. Despite Windows Media Player being at version 10, the latest version of the encoder is still associated with the Windows Media 9 Series codecs. You can download the encoder from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx

Once you install Windows Media Encoder, open Profile Editor from Start > All Programs > Windows Media > Utilities > Windows Media Profile Editor. You can create an export profile from scratch by manually configuring each setting

The first part of this process is naming your profile and providing a description. This makes it easy to identify in the Windows Movie Maker Save Movie wizard. Check the boxes next to Audio and Video, accepting the default Windows Media Audio 9.1 and Windows Media Video 9 for the codecs.

With the basic configuration out of the way, define the parameters for your video output by adding a target bit rate. Click the Add button to get started. Select a target bit rate type of either K (kilobits), M (megabits) or G (gigabits). Assuming your movie will be viewed on either a portable device or by people downloading it from the Web, K will suffice. The actual target bit rate will vary depending on your project, in my Smartphone example, I'm using 160Kbps while something like the Portable Media Center has a maximum bit rate of 800Kbps.

The target bit rate is a combination of audio and video settings. My ears perceive a noticeable audio quality difference for most audio below 64kbps, so that's my audio minimum. You may have different preferences. If I set a hard limit on 160Kbps, my maximum video bit rate is 88Kbps, because the combined 64.04kbps for audio and 88Kbps rounds to 160Kbps (in the example I rounded up to 89Kbps video rate). I prefer full motion video at 30fps. If you switch to 30fps from the 15fps default, it's a good idea to change the keyframe interval to 3-4 seconds from the default of 8 because the number of frames between keyframes is doubled when moving from 15 to 30fps.

With all your settings configured, click the Save and Close. Name your profile and save it in the :\Program Files\Movie Maker\shared\profiles folder. The next time you step through Save Movie Wizard, select your new custom profile from the Other Settings drop down menu before saving the final project.

Another option is to base your profile on one of the settings already included in Windows Media Encoder. To use one of the encoder profiles as a guide, click the Import button and browse through the list of options included in:

:\Program Files\Windows Media Components\Encoder\Settings

If you ever watch sitcoms on network television, you've seen a J-cut in action. The characters in the show comment on plans to meet for dinner somewhere. A traveling exterior shot breezes through the streets of New York before framing the exterior shot of a restaurant. Dull metal on ceramic sounds of knife and fork contacting plate as someone slices the steak in front of them play as the camera lingers on the storefront. A conversation begins as the scene dissolves to the characters engaged in mid-meal dialogue.

This setup subtly tells you a number of things about the story unfolding. You know they left the previous scene. You know they traveled outside to get to the restaurant. And it leaves room for the characters to have a conversation about the cab ride to the restaurant, without needing to act it out on screen.
You just witnessed a J-cut in action. J-cut refers to any audio transition where audio from the upcoming scene plays as the video from the current scene continues to run. You can use a similar trick to compress the timeline of your own video without losing any of the story.

For instance, if you record a Little League game, you could show the fielding team running out from the dugout onscreen, play audio from the announcement of your son as the lead-off batter and dissolve to him at the plate, compressing the downtime that takes place as the kids dig around in the dugout locating batting helmets and bats for their turn at the plate.

To create a J-cut, drag the two movie clips you want to edit to your video timeline. Drag another copy of the second movie clip number to the Audio/Music section of the timeline, matching it up with the version on the video timeline.

Select the second clip in the timeline, drag the slider to the point where you want the video from the second clip to start playing and use the Split button to divide the clip at that point. Make an identical split in the clip on the Audio/Music Timeline. If you can't get the exact spot you want to line up using your mouse to position the slider, use the Previous Frame and Next Frame buttons to tweak your settings for a more accurate position.
Slide the Audio/Music clip over so the end of the clip lines up with the end of the first video clip. You may need to zoom in on the time line for a perfect match up.

Once this section of audio is moved, delete the fragment from the second video clip from the timeline. Slide the remainder of the Audio/Music clip over to eliminate the gap between clips.

If you haven't already done so, expand the Video on the timeline to show the Audio and Transition sections. Right-click the Audio clip associated with your second video clip and Mute it to eliminate duplication of the audio between tracks.

To further make the transition between video clip one and video clip two, you may want to split video clip one at the point where the Audio/Music track starts and fade the audio associated with the video clip.
If you add a transition between your two video clips, be sure to account for the offset created as the software overlaps the two clips to make the transition.

Note: If you prefer not to clip the Audio/Music track, keep track of the exact minute:second:fraction where video clip two was split and slide the Audio/Music track over an equivalent number of seconds to keep it in sync with the video. If you use transitions, this particular strategy can get messy because you also have to factor in the offset for the transition.

Dimmi writes, "I know how to use the Windows Movie Maker to create a slideshow with titles, credits, music, transitions, and title overlays which I like very much. What I am having problems with is the recording of the project to a DVD+RW. I can record to a CD for playback on a computer but I want to record to a DVD+RW in order to play back on my television. Is there something I have to do to accomplish this? My DVD player plays back computer generated slideshows but WMM is super with the overlay titles. Thanks for you help"

Currently, Windows Movie Maker does not have built in support for burning DVDs. I'm crossing my fingers for DVD burning in Windows Vista, but so far there's no indication whether we will see this feature in a future version. If you use Windows Movie Maker for creating your slideshow, you need an additional software application to burn a standard DVD. It's also important to prep the video file output from Windows Movie Maker to be sure you end up with a compatible file. There are several ways to create a DVD from a video file created in Windows Movie Maker.

Processing Your Slideshow

Since you created a slideshow, I'm assuming your project is entirely based on still images. Make sure you output the video from Windows Movie Maker as a High quality video (NTSC). If you are working with footage from a DV camera, choose the DV-AVI option. Save your movie somewhere on your hard drive and proceed to using DVD authoring software to create a compatible DVD.

DVD Authoring

For most of my slideshow creation I'm currently using Sonic MyDVD because it includes slideshow generation for up to 1000 images, with the ability to make each image it's own chapter. MyDVD also supports importing WMV and DV-AVI files created in Windows Movie Maker for burning to DVD. After importing, you can either leave the movie as one big video or add chapter markers at key points in your slideshow. Depending on which version of MyDVD you purchase, the price ranges from $49.99 bundled with the burning plug-in for Photo Story 3 up to $149.00 for the most comprehensive burning options. The key differences between the basic version and the $149.00 deluxe version are support for hard drive backups and audio ripping and burning in the more expensive version. All versions of MyDVD Studio 6 include support for 1000 image slide shows and burning Tivo files, which aren't available in any other program at the moment.

Nero Ultra Edition and the accompanying NeroVision Express offers DVD authoring as part of the package. The slideshow options are inferior to both the free offerings in Windows Movie Maker and Photo Story, as well as the slideshow feature of MyDVD. As a burner, Nero is still among the best.

Easy Media Creator 7 from Roxio is another solid option. Version 6, which was still labeled DVD Creator had a number of frustrating bugs, so an upgrade may be required. I suggest this as an alternative primarily because a version is frequently bundled with OEM hardware from the big PC manufacturers, so you might already have it on your system. Roxio is now part of Sonic with features gradually merging between Media Creator and MyDVD so we may see a unified product sometime in the near future.

A whole host of other DVD authoring software options will burn your slideshow for playback in most consumer DVD players.

John asks: A friend of mine has a Mac and did a really neat video using nothing but still images. She did all sorts of zooms and pans and the neat Ken Burns fades. Will Windows Movie Maker do the same sort of thing?

Windows Movie Maker supports movie creation using still images. By adding special effects to the images, Movie Maker is capable of achieving a variety of artistic arrangements with still images. Movie Maker bundles a number of effects and transitions, but currently lacks a large assortment of pan and zoom effects for creating the Ken Burns still-picture-in-motion movements your friend accomplished with Apple's iMovie.

Getting similar pan and zoom effects in Movie Maker requires a third-party effects add-in called SpiceFX from Pixelan. The Pan/Zoom SpiceFX Pack includes 67 different pan and zoom effects, which may be applied separately or layered on a still image to produce the desired cinematic effect. As of this writing, the Pan/Zoom Pack is $14, making it considerably cheaper than trading your PC for a Mac. In addition to pan and zoom effects, Pixelan makes close to 400 effects and transitions designed to enhance your home movies.

Microsoft offers a second alternative for creating movies with still images bundled with the Plus! Digital Media Edition add-on for Windows XP. Photo Story is a standalone application specifically designed to combine still images, music, narration, and special effects to produce WMV format movies. Photo Story ships with plenty of pan and zoom features for creating simulated motion with still images. Plus! Digital Media Edition is typically available for under $20 from Amazon.com.

Shameless plug #2: Creating movies with still images is covered in greater detail in Easy Digital Home Movies.

One of the more frequent questions I see related to creating movies with Windows Movie Maker is how to normalize the soundtrack audio. Normalizing is the process of leveling the peak volume of an audio selection, which is particularly useful when combining a series of tracks mastered in different locations at different times. Currently, Movie Maker is very limited in audio editing features, so any heavy duty audio editing must be done in some other application. This video tutorial demonstrates the process required to normalize a soundtrack for a Movie Maker project using the Sound Editor app included in Roxio Easy Media Creator.

One thing Windows has never included is a real sound editing app. Sound Recorder is very feature limited and only edits WAV files, making it hard to quickly slice a sound byte from your favorite mp3 or wma, without investing in additional software. Fortunately, Windows XP users have a tool that is almost ideal for cutting audio tracks into smaller pieces--Windows Movie Maker.

To slice a section out of an audio track using Windows Movie Maker, follow these steps:

1) Open Windows Movie Maker

2)Click the File menu and select Import into Collections.

3) Add the clip you want to edit to the Movie Maker Collections.

4) Click the View Timeline button on the Storyboard, and then drag the audio track to the timeline.

5) Zoom Out the Timeline so that finding a precise point in the audio will be easier.

6) Play the track by clicking the Play button on the Timeline (if the point where you want to split the track is well past the beginning, move the marker closer to where you want to insert the split).

7) When the marker reaches the point in the song where you want to clip the track, click the Pause button.

8) Click the Split Track button under the video monitor to make a track division.

9) Continue playing the track until you reach the end of the segment you want to keep.

10) Pause the track and click the Split Track button again.

11) Discard the portions of the track you want to eliminate by selecting them and then clicking the delete key.

12) Save the finished audio clip by choosing File > Save Movie File (Ctrl+P) from the menu.

13) Choose My Computer as the location and click Next.

14) Name the audio file and choose a location to save it, and then click Next.

15) Click Show more choices, and then click Other Settings to select an audio quality from the dropdown menu.

When Movie Maker completes the save process, click Finish.

The final track will be in WMA format, which can be used in movies created with Windows Movie Maker, played back in most media players, or burned to CD as an audio track. The one useful feature Windows Movie Maker doesn't include is the ability to save audio tracks as WAV files, which are required to replace the default Windows system sounds.

http://www.pixelan.com/mmj/intro.htm

My book project finds me living in Windows Movie Maker 2 most days of the week. A question from one of the editors led me to seek out a solution for performing color corrections on video files using WMM2. Pixelan created the effects I needed, but I hadn't actually tried any of the standalone Pixelan effects (they also have several effects in Plus! Digital Media Edition). I'm pleasantly surprised to report the effects work very nicely, especially considering the very nominal pricing. After purchasing the bundle of 96 effects, I'm still out less money than any other consumer level video editing solution with comparable features. Whether you want to create motion effects, perform color corrections, or add artistic transitions and effects to your video creation, Pixelan offers a solid selection of tools to meet your editing needs.