Windows Movie Maker Won't Save

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 4:47 pm

I did a video telling my September 11 story. I converted the file - WMM can't read MOV files - then loaded it into Windows Movie Maker and did some editing of the video. I started with an 81 meg, 22 minute video that is cut to about 5 minutes and perhaps 35 meg.

My machine, as I noted in the thread on Starcraft 2, has 1.5 terabytes of disk space remaining. It also has 3 GB of memory. It's a 64-bit processor running 32-bit Windows XP Professional.

Windows Movie Maker can save the to-be-rendered video up to the 15% point, then fails saying it "cannot save the file to the specified location" giving the implication something is missing.

I did the Crepes video you guys sponsored on this machine and I've done others here as well.

I tried it again on a second machine I have on my desk, "CUBE", which is a dual core, 32 bit 3GHZ processor with 512 meg of memory and 67 GB of free disk space. I copied the files over and set it up locally there. I tried saving the rendered movie and it also quits on this machine at 15%.

This is weird as I've never had WMM refuse to save and render the output video. I guess the only thing left to try is to fire up my old HP Pavilion A305W and copy the files there, then try saving. I've not ever had a problem saving a video on that machine.

It's possible that I used a different resolution and WMM can't handle it, except I remember the Crepes video was in HD, so that makes no sense. I looked up on the Internet and the suggestion was to try cutting the video and rendering it in pieces, then bring it back together in WMM and merge the pieces.

I believe there's also an upgrade to WMM and I might see if that's available.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 5:12 pm

What version of movie maker are you using? I ask because I had to revert back to WMM 2.6, as anything later simply locks up my machine. I wonder if it's a Microsoft thing. Actually, all the other video editing programs I tried pretty much sucked out. WMM seems to be the best of a bad lot.

THE
MAYBE IT'S ME
AARDVARK

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:24 pm

I have version 5.1 of Windows Movie Maker, I loaded the program and confirmed.

What I have done is switched to a freeware program called Videopad Video Editor, and it seems to work. I redid my video in HD, didn't have to convert it - Videopad reads MOV files fine - and it's currently creating an AVI, for the 5 minute video the rendering time is 37 minutes. Oh, and the raw 8 minute HD video uses 168 meg of disk space.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:29 pm

I was thinking that if I was a professional doing video for a living I'd probably buy Sony Vegas.

Jesus Christ, you'd have to be a professional, Sony Vegas costs $600! I've bought brand new computers and never spent that much!

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:29 pm

Tdarcos wrote:Jesus Christ, you'd have to be a professional, Sony Vegas costs $600! I've bought brand new computers and never spent that much!

Sony Vegas is a lot harder to drop, though.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:30 pm

Video Pad is 20% done rendering the video, and has bumped up the estimated completion time by another hour and 20 minutes.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:01 pm

pinback wrote:
Tdarcos wrote:Jesus Christ, you'd have to be a professional, Sony Vegas costs $600! I've bought brand new computers and never spent that much!
Sony Vegas is a lot harder to drop, though.

Ah! Ah ah!

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:54 am

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:
pinback wrote:
Tdarcos wrote:Jesus Christ, you'd have to be a professional, Sony Vegas costs $600! I've bought brand new computers and never spent that much!
Sony Vegas is a lot harder to drop, though.
Ah! Ah ah!

You know, at first I thought you were making a Vegas joke, because the term for the net a casino makes from what it takes in after paying winners is called the "drop".

Anyway, the new program did okay. I will be posting the video in the "ten years ago" thread.