WMM Suckage

[Hobbs]

Okay, so I make amv's using Windows Movie Maker (it's free w/ my comp and I don't have the money for another editing platform) but lately I've been having some problems.

I've published two videos recently, but the finished .wmv is messed up. The bottom half of the screen is green, and the top half is a scrunched-in screen of the footage I've used.

I've noticed that the troublesome video clips seem to come from .avi files I use. Could this be a simple codec error?

[crashhelmet]

The codec is my first thought. I've never really messed WMM to know what it's options are. I've been using Pinnacle Studio for my video editing. Check to see if it gives you the options to choose the codec or if adjusting the format or resolution helps (compression issue maybe?). I'll pole around with it and see what I get and I'll get back to ya.

CH

[Chanlin]

My first thought is codec as well. I would suggest possibly converting the footage to another format and then working with it again.

www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

This link is for a program called SUPER (Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer) It is a completely freeware program that can convert video from pretty much any format to any format except for some rather obscure ones.

EDIT:

My immediate second thought is possibly the player. Have you tried playing the finished video in another video player to see if it has the same problem?

[wolfie]

From the description, it sounds like the software might be mixing up progressive vs. interlaced. I'm assuming you're using it to turn a video camera/camcorder output into a DVD.

The NTSC (national television standards council) signal that a camcorder gives out is interlaced (goes though the odd lines of one frame, then the even lines of that frame, then the odd lines of the next frame). Most computer video formats (like AVI and WMV) are progressive (go through all the lines of one frame, then all the lines of the next). If you've got your settings wrong, it might be taking the first half-frame (odd lines) of each frame as being the whole thing, then filling in the lines it expected but didn't get with a default solid colour.

I've never used WMM, so I can't tell you what controls to look for, but this is a classic symptom. In a previous career, I was working on a video encoder, and made up a "test" 640x480 BMP to catch various issues with progressive-to-interlaced (had "Red" "Green" "Blue" spelled out in the appropriate colours, a block of vertical one-pixel wide lines, and two blocks of horizontal one-pixel high lines - one with the odd lines black, the other with the even lines black, so the first would turn out black on the "odd" half-frame and white on the "even" half-frame, and the second would be the other way around).

[Chanlin]

I've never used WMM, so I can't tell you what controls to look for, but this is a classic symptom.

For movie maker the option to change the format comes when you chose to save the movie file.

You get to a screen with the choice of

Best quality for playback on my computer.

Under that you will have a selection of See More Choices.

The 3rd choice after you click that link lets you select the file formats and in parenthesis will say NTSC next to the formats that are interlaced versus progressive.