# Off-Topic Discussion > The Lounge > Tech Talk >  >  Windows Movie Maker

## Burns

I would like to start doing photo slide shows set to music and figured Windows Movie Maker would serve the purpose. I haven't messed around too much with it yet, but so far I've figured out how to import music into the timeline, but my question is when I'm importing pics, do they need to be the full high-res versions, or like the size I post here on the forum (640x480)? I would imagine importing all those high res pics would make the movie file size gignormous.

Any other pointers anyone can think of to help me out with this program? I know its simple compared to the things you techies get up to, but I'm not quite up to your levels yet  :wink2: 

Thanks guys  :smiley:

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## Xox

Uhm yes me too  :Oops: 

Im a total noob in Windows Movie Maker, Just started making videos. They're pretty horrible.

I'd appreciate any advice.

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## Oneironaut Zero

> I would like to start doing photo slide shows set to music and figured Windows Movie Maker would serve the purpose. I haven't messed around too much with it yet, but so far I've figured out how to import music into the timeline, but my question is when I'm importing pics, do they need to be the full high-res versions, or like the size I post here on the forum (640x480)? I would imagine importing all those high res pics would make the movie file size gignormous.
> 
> Any other pointers anyone can think of to help me out with this program? I know its simple compared to the things you techies get up to, but I'm not quite up to your levels yet 
> 
> Thanks guys



I think 640x480 would be just fine. They will show up at that size, when you make the video. When you save the file, it will give you different options on how to set the quality. You can choose an option that will say something like "Best fit for this file size," so if you have what would originally be a large file-size, you can scale down the size to how ever many megs that you want, without losing the dimensions of the video, but maybe losing a little of the quality.

Xox: What do you need help with?

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## Burns

> I think 640x480 would be just fine. They will show up at that size, when you make the video. When you save the file, it will give you different options on how to set the quality. You can choose an option that will say something like "Best fit for this file size," so if you have what would originally be a large file-size, you can scale down the size to how ever many megs that you want, without losing the dimensions of the video, but maybe losing a little of the quality.



Thanks, O!  :smiley:  I hope you don't mind if I bug you with other questions?

I was playing with it a bit more today and its a pretty nifty little program.  :smiley:  Should be fun.

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## Xox

> Xox: What do you need help with?



 Uhm everything?  :Hiding: 

 :Oops: 

Ive been reading stuff up online.

How about just some pointers? Like things you've learned from all that time of using it.

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## Mes Tarrant

I assumed that this program wasn't any good, just simply because it comes free with your laptop. Or with mine at least. Okay guess I could give it a try.

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## Merlock

Well, there's just not much diversity when it comes to movie making software, really.

All you _really_ need is the basic abilities of video editing (cutting, mixing, etc.) with the most basic effects (mixing with blurs, fading, etc.) -- since anything more boastful just ends up looking bad, unfitting and unnatural.

I've not used Windows Movie Maker myself, since I got an earlier version of Power Director and have used that since it's simple enough to use.
Simplicity of use plays a big role too, I imagine.

I guess the only "pointer" that comes to mind for me is...timing!
Time things well and the result will end up great. The more functionality an editor provides for making timing precise, the better, I'd say.

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## Burns

> I guess the only "pointer" that comes to mind for me is...timing!
> Time things well and the result will end up great. The more functionality an editor provides for making timing precise, the better, I'd say.



Yep, I agree. And the the timing thing is the one of the things I don't have down yet... with the slide transitions and everything, I screw up the timing very easily on the timeline. I guess I still don't get what all the letters and numbers within the timeline mean. I'll have to play more with it later.

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## Oneironaut Zero

> Yep, I agree. And the the timing thing is the one of the things I don't have down yet... with the slide transitions and everything, I screw up the timing very easily on the timeline. I guess I still don't get what all the letters and numbers within the timeline mean. I'll have to play more with it later.




I'm not sure if you've messed with the feature yet, but there is a little spyglass thing over the timeline, one has a - and the other has a +. The numbers on the timeline are the hours/minutes/seconds of the video. You can use the + spyglass to stretch out the time line, so you can see up to milliseconds. Then, you can trim the length of time that your slides will stay on the screen. (Do you know how to trim them yet? If not, let me know.) That way, you can trim your slides down to a precise length, which will go with the changes of the music, to within milliseconds. If you know there is a certain sound that you want to try to catch, play the timeline and, when you hear that sound where you want to make another slide come in, stop the timeline and look at the numbers to see exactly where it is. Then make sure you trim your slide to the exact point where that sound was, so you can have your next picture begin where that sound begins.





> Uhm everything?
> 
> 
> 
> Ive been reading stuff up online.
> 
> How about just some pointers? Like things you've learned from all that time of using it.



Well there is a whole bunch that you can do with it. Give me an idea of where you're at, or what you're working with, and I can see if I can help you out.

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## Burns

> I'm not sure if you've messed with the feature yet, but there is a little spyglass thing over the timeline, one has a - and the other has a +. The numbers on the timeline are the hours/minutes/seconds of the video. You can use the + spyglass to stretch out the time line, so you can see up to milliseconds. Then, you can trim the length of time that your slides will stay on the screen. (Do you know how to trim them yet? If not, let me know.) That way, you can trim your slides down to a precise length, which will go with the changes of the music, to within milliseconds. If you know there is a certain sound that you want to try to catch, play the timeline and, when you hear that sound where you want to make another slide come in, stop the timeline and look at the numbers to see exactly where it is. Then make sure you trim your slide to the exact point where that sound was, so you can have your next picture begin where that sound begins.



 ::bowdown::  Thanks a bunch! I will definitely be referring back to this thead very often! And to answer your question, no I don't know how to trim slides yet...  :Oops:  but I would LOVE for you to explain it to me pretty please! *bats eyelashes*

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## Oneironaut Zero

Ok. 

When you add a picture to the timeline, it's going to have a certain length. It's going to span for a certain amount of those numbers. Take your mouse down to that frame that you just added to the timeline, and "grab" the end of it. Then, take the end of it, and move it closer to the beginning of that frame/photo that you just added. That will shorten it. If you look at the numbers, that particular frame/photo will take up a smaller amount of those numbers, so it will stay on the screen for a shorter amount of time.

If you were working with a video clip:

Say you were working with a video clip from Final Fantasy. It's the clip where that I started out with, where Cloud is on his motorcycle, and he is putting on his goggles. Movie Maker has cut out that particular clip for you. 
You take that clip and put it on the timeline. Now, you are working with a song that is going to change in 4 seconds, so you want to fit that clip of cloud putting on his glasses into that four seconds, but the clip that Movie Maker made is 10 seconds long.
You can grab the front part of that clip, in the timeline, and pull it towards the middle. That is going to shave a few seconds off of the front of the clip, so instead of staring with Cloud's hand all the way down low, it will be halfway up to his face. You now have a 6 second clip instead of a 10 second clip. Then, just to get it right, you need to shave off the final 2 seconds, where Cloud has the glasses on, and is just adjusting them. You go to the _end_ of that clip, grab the end, and bring it toward the middle of the clip. That shaves off the last 2 seconds. You now have the four second clip you needed to fit it into that 4 second slot, so it goes directly with the music.  :smiley: 

Same goes with photos. Shaving a few seconds (or milliseconds) off of the clip dictates how long it's going to stay on the screen.

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## Burns

You are awesome, thank soo much, O!  ::cooler::  That was really helpful.

I'm starting out with just a picture project, but the adjusting the timing of the slides with the song and the transition between slides is messing me up. I guess I just need to play with it more.

Thanks again for taking the time to help me, O  :smiley:

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## Oneironaut Zero

My pleasure, Burns...

...Considering my state of mind, last night...I'm surprised I even got all of that out.  ::rolllaugh::

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## Burns

LOL well it made sense to me at least!  ::chuckle::

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## Burns

Hey O, I've run into a bit of a problem with the timeline. When I play the slideshow from the beginning, the music matches up to how I have the slides timed and everything looks good. But if I stop it, and move the line thing to another spot in the timeline to play from a certain spot, the music and timing of slides is all messed up. Though the timeline looks the same. I don't get it. I don't see how it can match up when played from the beginning, but when I try to start it in the middle, the music doesn't match up anymore. Have you had this problem?

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## Oneironaut Zero

Hmmm. Not quite sure why it would be doing that. Sometimes my will give me the problem of lagging on the video, where one clip runs into another clip, so I can't see how smoothly they transition, but the video and audio is always in sync, when I start it from anywhere on the timeline. I don't know why that would be happening for you.

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## Burns

oh great I've managed to screw it up somehow  :Sad:  Thanks for your help anyway.

The other thing I've noticed is I can't move the pics I use in the slide show to a different folder or they won't show up in Movie Maker. Can't I get it to chose a different destination folder to search from or something?

Sorry for all the stupid questions  :Oops:  and thanks for taking the time to help me.

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## Oneironaut Zero

Heh. Well, with all the problems I've had with movie maker, in the past, I can't really say that it's something _you_ did.  ::chuckle:: 

I've never actually tried moving something that I've imported into WMM into another folder. The best I could guess is that you'll have to re-import them into movie maker, after you move them to another folder.

No problem, and you're welcome.  :smiley:

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## Burns

> The best I could guess is that you'll have to re-import them into movie maker, after you move them to another folder.



hmm yeah that's what I was thinking too. What a PITA, but oh well... at least I'll know for next time!

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## Mes Tarrant

So I have decided to give my windows movie maker a try. I have a couple of movies downloaded onto my computer, but for some reason the program can't open them. Its first suggestion was that I needed to check the box that would allow it to download the required codec, so I went and checked that box... and now all it suggests is that I restart windows movie maker and try importing the file again. But that doesn't work.  ::whyme::

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## IZ

Windows movie maker keeps crashing on me and restarting. Thats probly whats going on with you too Mes Tarrant. I just use a different Video-Editing programs. Trust me there better ones out there that are simpler and more creative. I Make AMVs on youtube, so I use them alot and found many creative ways to incorporate videos to music tracks.

Also I would'nt mess with codecs, I hate does vids that ask for them. Its like an incryption that doesn't let you do what you please with the vid. TC.

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## Mes Tarrant

::o:  Really!

Could ya link me to some better ones?

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## IZ

Well, I actualy purchased mine. But its cheaper to get Movie maker to work. Try going to updates on it and do an update. It may just need a patch, and your problem is fixed. But if you still want a better one. You can find them for around 40 dollars, well here in the states. Take care.

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## Burns

Ok, another question... sometimes when I go to add a picture, video clip, or transition, the whole preview screen will appear black and it will not play. You can click on other parts of the slide show and it will remain blacked out and will not play. If I "undo" the action, the preview comes back and it plays fine again. 

Has anyone else had this issue or know what causes it?

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## Oneironaut Zero

That's kind of hard to say, Burns. A lot of those problems have to do with codecs and whatnot, and there are so many different setting, either on your computer or the WMM options/preferences, that it's hard to pin-point what the problem would be. 

You can scan around here, in their problem solving area (menu tree to the left), or search around google to find your exact problem. I don't think I can help you with that one.  :Sad: 

Also, Mes, you did say that you got your WMM working now, right? Are you still having problems with it?

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## Mes Tarrant

Yep it's working. I actually had to download a program that could tell me what codec my avi file was made with. I was able to figure out that my file didn't have a compatible codec with WMM, so I had to download another program to convert my file to something readable.  ::roll::  So much work.  :tongue2:

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## Oneironaut Zero

> Yep it's working. I actually had to download a program that could tell me what codec my avi file was made with. I was able to figure out that my file didn't have a compatible codec with WMM, so I had to download another program to convert my file to something readable.  So much work.



Yeah. That's why, when my WMM shut down on me (It was crashing, every time I'd try to load something into the timeline), I stopped using it for like a year. I spent over a month trying to figure out what the problem is, then I just said screw it, and went on to other projects. Lol. But after I started downloading more movies and anime, I was like "Hell nah...I gotta get my movie maker back," so I spent like 7 straight hours troubleshooting, till I figured out the problem. Lol.

Troubleshooting sucks.

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## Mes Tarrant

> Yeah. That's why, when my WMM shut down on me (It was crashing, every time I'd try to load something into the timeline), I stopped using it for like a year. I spent over a month trying to figure out what the problem is, then I just said screw it, and went on to other projects. Lol. But after I started downloading more movies and anime, I was like "Hell nah...I gotta get my movie maker back," so I spent like 7 straight hours troubleshooting, till I figured out the problem. Lol.
> 
> Troubleshooting sucks.



 ::lol::  I feel your pain.

I'm sure you know already, but there's an awesomely huge forum specifically for WMM troubleshooting. I feel bad because I totally posted a thread there and only later realized that the same question had been answered several times.  :Oops:  I am a terrible person.

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## Oneironaut Zero

> I feel your pain.
> 
> I'm sure you know already, but there's an awesomely huge forum specifically for WMM troubleshooting. I feel bad because I totally posted a thread there and only later realized that the same question had been answered several times.  I am a terrible person.



Haha. I'm sure you got flammed, relentlessly, for it. In that case, you'd be worse than a terrible person...you'd be......wait for it......an "OMFG N00b!!!1111!1!" 

Rofl.

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## Burns

> That's kind of hard to say, Burns. A lot of those problems have to do with codecs and whatnot, and there are so many different setting, either on your computer or the WMM options/preferences, that it's hard to pin-point what the problem would be. 
> 
> You can scan around here, in their problem solving area (menu tree to the left), or search around google to find your exact problem. I don't think I can help you with that one.



Thanks for the link, O - I'm checking it out right now. I didn't expect you to know exactly what the problem was, I just wondered if you've ever had that happen to you. It's weird because it'll freeze up and go black, but if I move the slide around on the storyboard, sometimes it will unfreeze itself and work fine... but then I have to redo all the transitions. It's just a pain in the ass, that's all, and wondered wtf was up with that.

Thanks again for the link  :smiley:

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## Oneironaut Zero

You're welcome.  :smiley:  And, honestly, I've had so many different problems with that thing, at different times, I can't even say if I've had the same one you're having. After my last fix, though, I haven't had any more trouble with it, so I hope that whatever you find out fixes it for good.

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## Ynot

what is it exactly that you're trying to do with MS movie maker?
there's other programs out there

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## Burns

> what is it exactly that you're trying to do with MS movie maker?
> there's other programs out there



Making a picture and video montage of the dog. I'm just using Movie Maker cuz it was already on my computer and it seemed simple enough to use. I've got the show about 90&#37; done already and there's no way I'm gonna start over again. Maybe I'll use a different program for the next one I make though. Any suggestion for (free) alternatives?

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