Windows Movie Maker

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kim Schroeder
  • Start date Start date
K

Kim Schroeder

I have some videoclips, which i want to put together to one movie.

The clips comes in 640 * 480, 8 bit sound, AVI.

No problem making a full movie in WMM in any format - but
the sound is in all cases thin and metallic.
On the original files the sound is fine.

Any idea how to fix that problem, please ?

Is there another program that can do the job (and as easy to use as WMM)
without distorting the sound ?

Kim
 
Here is something you could try:
Save the file first as a high quality NTSC file.
Then open the project again and mute the audio.
Import the WMV file you just created and drag that to the AUDIO portion of
the timeline.
Now save as a DV-AVI and see if the sound is better.
Unfortunately single channel 8bit sound tends to not sound so good but this
workaround works sometimes.
-Wojo
 
Wojo said:
Here is something you could try:
Save the file first as a high quality NTSC file.
Then open the project again and mute the audio.
Import the WMV file you just created and drag that to the AUDIO portion of
the timeline.
Now save as a DV-AVI and see if the sound is better.
Unfortunately single channel 8bit sound tends to not sound so good but this
workaround works sometimes.
-Wojo
Click to expand...

Thanks for your kind answer - but im a little lost.

How do i mute the audio, please ?

I have no audio portion of the timeline - does it only come with ver 2 ?

Im running WMM 1.1 - and since my printer wont work with XP SP 2,
im planning to stay with SP1 - so WWM ver 2 is not an option :-( , but hopefully
things would work with WMM 1.1.

Kim
 
Kim said:
Thanks for your kind answer - but im a little lost.

How do i mute the audio, please ?

I have no audio portion of the timeline - does it only
come with ver 2 ?

Im running WMM 1.1 - and since my printer wont work with
XP SP 2,
im planning to stay with SP1 - so WWM ver 2 is not an
option :-( , but hopefully
things would work with WMM 1.1.

Kim
Click to expand...
================================
You can download MM2
free from the following site.

MovieMaker 2.0
http://tinyurl.com/6vp4g

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Making Good Newsgroup Posts
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
 
John got it.
You can't use Movie Maker 2.1 without SP2 installed but you can use Movie
Maker 2.0
Also you do know that you can purchase a new printer for like 50 bucks now
right? :-)
-Wojo
 
If your original sound is fine before you use Movie Maker, and it ends up
'thin and metallic' I think you should reformat and enhance that sound. I'd
try Wojo's suggestion of dragging it down. You asked about 'muting' the
sound....just right click and choose 'mute' or click on the 'volume' and move
the slider to the far left.

A couple of ways in which I would do this....is to use either AVS Converter
(or audio tools)....the Video Converter costs $29.95 and is useful for much
more than just format conversion. There are tons of audio tools too.....you
can see the bit rate, frequence, channels, and format of the current sound,
and then change to whatever you want. I'd rip your sound off the video and
save it as a 'wav' file and bring that in to replace the sound on the movie.
This is at www.avsmedia.com
Another way I could use would be Total Recorder. Its a great tool also, and
the standard version is only $11.95. You can see and read about it at
www.highcriteria.com I use it to record 'digital' sound from cable (no cd
ripping or downloading for me...ha ha)....I even set it for late at night to
record a radio program over the internet and send the resulting file
(personal ftp) to a friend who doesnt stay up late...sorta like my early
version of pod casting. Anyway, Movie Maker must not like the format of
your audio on the clip, so i'd change it and be adventurous with applying
various effects to it too. Like add some bass and give a concert hall
sound...and it won't sound thin anymore. Good luck!
 
Wojo said:
Here is something you could try:
Save the file first as a high quality NTSC file.
Click to expand...

NTSC is not an option in 2.0, but i saved it as a HQ PAL.
By "File" you meen Movie file, right ?

To be sure whatever, i also saved it as a "Project".
Then open the project again and mute the audio.
Click to expand...

Project is still in WMM (not sure what you meen by open
the project again) - i right click every single clip (there´s 5)
and choose "Mute".
Import the WMV file you just created and drag that to the AUDIO portion of
the timeline.
Click to expand...

The imported (Movie) file shows up as clips in upper window, and i then drag
them down - one by one - to the AUDIO timeline.
So now i have a timeline with the new clips - but also with the old ones at the end
(since they have been there all the time).
Now save as a DV-AVI and see if the sound is better.
Click to expand...

I know movie is not correct - but i tried to save in DV-AVI.
Sound is still no good.
Unfortunately single channel 8bit sound tends to not sound so good but this
workaround works sometimes.
-Wojo
Click to expand...

Sorry for being plain stupid on this..

Kim
 
dickmr said:
If your original sound is fine before you use Movie Maker, and it ends up
'thin and metallic' I think you should reformat and enhance that sound. I'd
try Wojo's suggestion of dragging it down. You asked about 'muting' the
sound....just right click and choose 'mute' or click on the 'volume' and move
the slider to the far left.

A couple of ways in which I would do this....is to use either AVS Converter
(or audio tools)....the Video Converter costs $29.95 and is useful for much
more than just format conversion. There are tons of audio tools too.....you
can see the bit rate, frequence, channels, and format of the current sound,
and then change to whatever you want. I'd rip your sound off the video and
save it as a 'wav' file and bring that in to replace the sound on the movie.
This is at www.avsmedia.com
Another way I could use would be Total Recorder. Its a great tool also, and
the standard version is only $11.95. You can see and read about it at
www.highcriteria.com I use it to record 'digital' sound from cable (no cd
ripping or downloading for me...ha ha)....I even set it for late at night to
record a radio program over the internet and send the resulting file
(personal ftp) to a friend who doesnt stay up late...sorta like my early
version of pod casting. Anyway, Movie Maker must not like the format of
your audio on the clip, so i'd change it and be adventurous with applying
various effects to it too. Like add some bass and give a concert hall
sound...and it won't sound thin anymore. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comments.

In case i cant get Wojo´s suggestion to work here, wouldnt you think
that AVS Converter is my best bet ?
I can then convert the clips to a format that WMM can handle in better
ways than AVI before putting them together - or ?
Which format would be best to convert the clips to then, please ?

Kim
 
Kim Schroeder said:
Thanks for your comments.

In case i cant get Wojo´s suggestion to work here, wouldnt you think
that AVS Converter is my best bet ?
I can then convert the clips to a format that WMM can handle in better
ways than AVI before putting them together - or ?
Which format would be best to convert the clips to then, please ?

Kim
Click to expand...

See there lies the problem Kim since AVI is the best format to use with
Movie Maker. :-(
 
Hi Kim,
Don't worry we will sort this thing out somehow. :-)
Answers in line below...

Kim Schroeder said:
NTSC is not an option in 2.0, but i saved it as a HQ PAL.
By "File" you meen Movie file, right ?
Click to expand...

By file yes I mean Movie File.
HQ Pal should do the trick as well.
Stupid question: Why not install SP2 and Movie Maker 2.1?
To be sure whatever, i also saved it as a "Project".


Project is still in WMM (not sure what you meen by open
the project again) - i right click every single clip (there´s 5)
and choose "Mute".
Click to expand...

Sorry yes if you do these things all at once your right the project is still
open. :-)
The imported (Movie) file shows up as clips in upper window, and i then
drag
them down - one by one - to the AUDIO timeline.
Click to expand...


Instead try selecting ALL the clips, right clicking and selecting "Combine
Clips" (I am not sure if this feature is in WMM 2.0 or not) so you are only
dragging a single clip to the audio portion of the timeline.
So now i have a timeline with the new clips - but also with the old ones
at the end
(since they have been there all the time).
Click to expand...

Wiat a minute I think I got the confusion now. I didn't explain correctly.
You want to drag the file you created with the audio on it to the
Audio/Music portion of the timeline not the audio portion. This way the new
audio will replace the old.

-Wojo
 
Haven't been back in here for a while. To your question Kim, even if Wojo's
solution works I think AVS Video Converter is worth getting for a lot of
things, and Total Recorder too. The company that makes AVS converter makes
a lot of interesting products as you can see from their website. Latey
they've pretty much got into 'editing' too, and it looks suspiciously similar
to Movie Maker....their tools are really good, and I see they will be
supporting high def too, which is rapidly becoming a major interest of mine.
Actually I was thinking....AVS Converter has a trial that puts a watermark
on the video, but maybe the audio is not limited, and you could convert your
sound with it. I don't know. If you buy it, you just load your video into
it, and then click on other and then save audio, and choose wav. Save the
sound and bring that into Movie Maker and drag to the audio line. Just
right click and mute the sound on your original movie. You just have to
make sure you position the sound clip as close as possible to where it was
originally. For example, voice and mouth corresponding. Good luck.
 
dickmr said:
Haven't been back in here for a while. To your question Kim, even if Wojo's
solution works I think AVS Video Converter is worth getting for a lot of
things, and Total Recorder too. The company that makes AVS converter makes
a lot of interesting products as you can see from their website. Latey
they've pretty much got into 'editing' too, and it looks suspiciously similar
to Movie Maker....their tools are really good, and I see they will be
supporting high def too, which is rapidly becoming a major interest of mine.
Actually I was thinking....AVS Converter has a trial that puts a watermark
on the video, but maybe the audio is not limited, and you could convert your
sound with it. I don't know. If you buy it, you just load your video into
it, and then click on other and then save audio, and choose wav. Save the
sound and bring that into Movie Maker and drag to the audio line. Just
right click and mute the sound on your original movie. You just have to
make sure you position the sound clip as close as possible to where it was
originally. For example, voice and mouth corresponding. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for helping - i will keep the AVS Video Converter in mind
and maybe give it a try one day.

Kim
 
Wojo said:
Hi Kim,
Don't worry we will sort this thing out somehow. :-)
Answers in line below...
Click to expand...

Thanks for helping me (too) - sorry, the trick didnt worked.
Next time someone is planning to send me clips, i know to
tell it should not be taken in 8 bit sound ;-)

Clips are some short scenes from a 30 years school anniversary
- i think i will upload them as the are.

They (clips) were taken by a camera that you normally use for
taking pictures - however it can make videoclips.
Btw - does a Videocamera make better clips regarding sound ?

Kim
 
In most cases yes a video camera has much better sound and definitely better
video.
I use both a good digital camera and a video camera.
-Wojo
 
how do i get started

dickmr said:
If your original sound is fine before you use Movie Maker, and it ends up
'thin and metallic' I think you should reformat and enhance that sound. I'd
try Wojo's suggestion of dragging it down. You asked about 'muting' the
sound....just right click and choose 'mute' or click on the 'volume' and move
the slider to the far left.

A couple of ways in which I would do this....is to use either AVS Converter
(or audio tools)....the Video Converter costs $29.95 and is useful for much
more than just format conversion. There are tons of audio tools too.....you
can see the bit rate, frequence, channels, and format of the current sound,
and then change to whatever you want. I'd rip your sound off the video and
save it as a 'wav' file and bring that in to replace the sound on the movie.
This is at www.avsmedia.com
Another way I could use would be Total Recorder. Its a great tool also, and
the standard version is only $11.95. You can see and read about it at
www.highcriteria.com I use it to record 'digital' sound from cable (no cd
ripping or downloading for me...ha ha)....I even set it for late at night to
record a radio program over the internet and send the resulting file
(personal ftp) to a friend who doesnt stay up late...sorta like my early
version of pod casting. Anyway, Movie Maker must not like the format of
your audio on the clip, so i'd change it and be adventurous with applying
various effects to it too. Like add some bass and give a concert hall
sound...and it won't sound thin anymore. Good luck!
Click to expand...
 
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