Re: WMM Crashing

From: John Kelly (not.released_at_dot.com)
Date: 10/09/04


Date: Sat, 09 Oct 2004 20:03:17 GMT

Hello there,

        You sound as though you are suffering from a codec problem. There are two root
        causes and below you will find the solution for each together with some notes
        on other issues.

        Option 1)

        The one stop solution for that is a program called Rename Codecs and it is
        available from my web site (Free). Make sure you check out the FAQ, on the
        site, on what it does and how to run it (That will take about one minute of
        your time!!) All the info you need is on the web site. The latest version is
        1.51.

        This reassuringly safe to use program requires no knowledge on your part about
        what it is doing or how it is doing it or what it is doing it too!!! neither do
        you need to know where any of these files are or whether it is safe to rename
        them or not.....and best of all, ITS FREE !!!

        Option 2)

        If this does not solve your problem then try the following out...it has proved
        to be a successful procedure for a variety of problems.

        1) Download the full version of DirectX Ver 9.0c, Media Player 9 (10 if you
        prefer), and Service Pack 2(SP2).

        2) Reboot you computer and Install DirectX

        3) Reboot again and install Windows Media Player

        4) Reboot yet again and install Service Pack 2

        5) Reboot one more time

        Yes it sounds very tedious, but if you want to be certain all file locks are
        removed so that the correct files can be installed this is the way you have to
        go.

        It is very important that you only download the full versions of these programs
        and that you DO NOT attempt an install over the internet.

Other Notes
===========
Graphic Card Acceleration
-------------------------

        There is advice floating around that you should disable the graphics
        acceleration abilities of your graphics card if Movie Maker locks up or crashes
        out. Doing this is roughly equivalent to taking out your current graphics card
        and replacing it with an Etch-o-Sketch toy.

        The Graphics card on the machine I edit on is a cut above the average, it has
        DV In & Out as well as Video In & Out. It does all sorts of clever things and
        it is extremely fast. Then the day came when I tried Movie Maker 2 for the
        first time. It was a disaster. Knowing what the problem was I immediately
        logged on to Microsoft and got the latest driver. There was no change with the
        performance of the Graphics card with respect to Movie Maker. After a lot of
        messing about I went to the cards manufacturer and downloaded there most recent
        driver. I was convinced that the one from Microsoft was in some way defective.
        It turned out that I was right but for the wrong reason.

        The version of the driver from Microsoft was more recent than the one on my
        system AND more recent than the one from the OEM.BUT, the OEM had made minor
        changes to how the card worked and these were not taken into consideration by
        the Microsoft update!!!

        So, do not get the generic update from Microsoft until you have tried the
        latest driver from the manufacturer of your card.

Registration
------------

        There is in my view some very bad advice floating around that tells you to
        unregister the offending codec. If you take this advise be warned that
        unregistering any file and doing it wrong will more than likely stop the
        program that file belongs to from working all together and may in an extreme
        situation cause your entire XP system to fail. This is true whether you make a
        mistake using the Registry editor or the registration program itself, one
        mistake and you are potentially in deep trouble. Whatever you unregister in
        this manner has to be restored and you should take note that the registration
        of a codec can often involve more than one registry entry. If you are expert in
        these matters you will have no problem.

        I have also found that MP3, Mpeg and Jpeg files can cause problems, So...

        Convert all MP3 to WAV or WMA

        Convert all MPeg to AVI

        Convert all Jpeg to BMP

Video Conversion
------------------------

        For Video Conversion you should also check out the Knowledge Base Section of my
        "Great Links > Knowledge Base" One of the website's in there called "Video
        Help" has the best collection of useful information I have yet come across on
        converting between the various formats together with links to the software
        needed.

Image Size
----------------
        There is a lot of very bad advice being given out on Aspect Ratios in relation
        to still images. The short version of the advice you actually need is this.

16:9
-----
        If you want a 16:9 ratio final product (video) you should crop your image to
        the ratio of 16:9. In addition (talking in terms of PAL) you should use your
        favourite image editor to resize the image so that is 576 pixels tall...the
        width takes care of itself if you cropped it to 16:9.

4:3

---
	If you want a 4:3 picture (older style TV screen) then crop it to that ratio,
	then resize the image so that its height is......576 (Pal mewasurement), again
	the width takes care of itself.
Weird Sizes
-----------------
	Under no circumstances should you EVER create or resize an image so thats its
	dimensions are something like 800 x 600....if you do you will get a slightly
	blured image...and no amount of tinkering around the edges will ever put it
	right. See the FAQ on Movie Maker and Ratio on my website for a more detailed
	example of why that image will blur.
---
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work
Just glad I don't live in Croydon, UK
                 \|||/
                (o o)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work


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