Help With WMM, Freezing Issues and Black screens

[forgottenhero1]

I just want t say Hi to everyone at AMV, this is my first post. Well i just started making AMV's last month and i have been enjoying it. My first AMV was a stinker but the one im currently working on is going be good but my WMM(Windows Movie Maker) is acting wierd. I "Saved the Movie" at 14 sec. and everythign played well, than when i added 3 more clips and saved the previous clip and 2 of the new clips are black and i dont see any picture. But when i click on the clips in WMM they seem to work perfectly. I really hoped to finish half of it this weekend but this problem is setting me back. I have WMM, DivX codec and Xvid codec. I know there are better programs out there but i already finished most of the AMV so i have to stick with WMM. Please help

[forgottenhero1]

I downloaded the official DivX codec and now the video is working. But now the song is messed up. The song is slow and i hear wierd noises. When i saved it the video worked but the song messed up my video's timining and sync. For example the music goes up when naruto yells but now it goes up when a second after. Any suggestions?

[Isenfolme]

I've heard that wmm can get very buggy if you try to use it to edit XviD or DivX encoded video, so it may be that. Best thing to do is convert the XviD footage to lossless HuffYUV clips and edit with those instead.

I've discovered that even then wmm freezes all the time anyway. Just save immediately after you do *anything*, and be prepared to reopen the program a lot. *g*

[forgottenhero1]

thankx for your reply, yea after my personal experiences with WMM is very crappy. Now i can't even open up my project, when i click it, it loads. Than when i click "storyboard" it closes.

Im a newbie with AMV's but experienced with computers so can i use Adobe Premiere? At first it looked very complicated but now im getting the hang of it. I just need to know how to split specific clips from the episodes and than join them with other edited clips.

[Kariudo]

yes you can use premiere
you can do that by dragging the clip and using the razor tool (should be a button on the left side of the timeline in premiere) then you just put them next to each other on the timeline.[for reference I am using premiere pro 1.5]

Imo, a much better way to take clips is with VirtualDub(/Mod), but I need to say a few things first...
don't use divx or xvid for the footage you are using in your project, it might work some of the time, but eventually it will stop working.

For clips you will use, encode them with a lossless codec such as Lagarith or Huffyuv. The files will be bigger, but encoding with either of these means that the clips will work in any program that can import avi files, and your clips will not loose quality after recompressing (divx and xvid will loose quality, hence a lossy codec)
you can keep your footage encoded with divx/xvid, just save your clips with lossless codecs.
(depending on how many clips you have and how long they are, this method can take up a little space on your HD...but it shouldn't be more than 5 or 6 GB for a standard amv)

just in case, you shouldn't use mp3's for editing, a much better format is uncompressed wav. Doing this will save you a lot of trouble later on. You can use winamp (if you have it) to do this, or you could get BeSweet (free audio conversion tool). It takes a little bit of persistance to figure everything out, but it can help you out a lot.

back to a previous topic. Vdub(/mod) is also useful, It can import a wide range of video files, and it is useful for taking clips. to take clips, there are two buttons on the bottom (closest to the right) called mark in and mark out. go to the frame that you want your clip to start and hit mark in, go to the last frame you want and hit mark out.
you can then go to video, compression and select Lagarith or Huffyuv.
final step is go to file, save as (you want to save it as an avi).

links to the stuff I mentioned:
VirtualDubMod
Lagarith
Huffyuv
BeSweet

and don't forget to look at the guides
they are very helpful, and can usually answer any question you have about the site, amvs, etc.

[doomer000]

your best shot with wmm is to just take of the song then put it back on. as for black screens go into paint and fill black then save and import to wmm same goes for white screens and the freezing i found a little trick that works sumtimes.

1) SAVE OFTEN
2)If it freezes wait 1 min
3)if it doesn't unfreeze press crtl+alt+delete
4)End Wmm
5)DO NOT HIT END NOW WHEN MESSAGE POPS UP
6)Instead click cancel and wait a few secs
7)usaully it will ask to save your project b4 closing
8)hit yes
9)Now you must hope that it will save
10)Pray to your god
11)If nessecary, reapeat 3,4
12)Hit end now in the message box

Doomer's 12 step guide to saving your ass.

[BasharOfTheAges]

Or you could always, I don't know, not use DivX/XviD footage...

[doomer000]

ahh dude if only u knew... wmm locks up on everything, lol.
thats why it's called

Doomer's 12 steps to saving your ass

[forgottenhero1]

thankx for the help! ye i started using Premiere cuz WMM was to buggy. I am now able to cut the clips. Not when i go to the timeline to play my progress the second mini screen is playing like a TV with no signal(or cable) basically wavy lines. I know, im goin listen to your ideas and decode my DiVX/Xvid videos but i spent 3 hours on this one min. and i don't want all that work to go to waste. Is there a way to show video in the second screen? and what stuff should i do now that would be very useful and helpful in the future of this AMV? thankx

[Kariudo]

take all your clips and re-encode them with Lagarith or Huffy in virtualDub(/Mod)

there aren't many editing programs that like divx/xvid footage