Windows Movie Maker suddenly missing codex

[johnnyb58]

I don't know whats going on but it stops every 5 to 10 seconds in movie maker. I guess I need to refine the settings

Update: Windows Movie Maker crashed on the second try with AVI.
I can't find any setting to fix the conversion process and I'm getting tired. I'll have to try something else than AVI to see it works., but I'll wait till tomorrow after I've rested up.

 

[S.T.A.R.S.]

AVI was just an example.
If you are having problems with AVI then use WMV.

But converted video to AVI in FORMAT FACTORY works just fine on my Windows XP Movie Maker.
If Windows Movie Maker is crashing often then you have some other problems too.Usually the various codecs you have installed are causing that problem.
So either uninstall all those codecs or disable them in Windows Movie Maker.

By the way I forgot to mention one thing.
When installing FORMAT FACTORY and when at the end of installation you are asked to install missing codecs,do NOT install them!

Windows Movie Maker does not like many different video codecs and that VERY OFTEN causes it to crash.
So this is what you should have installed ONLY:

-Windows Movie Maker
-Format factory
-XVID video codec

That is ALL YOU NEED!

With XVID video codec you are able to open AVI files just fine AND load them in Windows Movie Maker without problems and without crashing.

This is how I do things for MANY years and I never had any problems.

So one more time.You ONLY need:

-Windows Movie Maker
-Format factory
-XVID video codec

I suggest you right now to completely uninstall ALL codecs you have,disable them in Windows Movie Maker options (if any of them left after uninstallation) and THEN install FORMAT FACTORY and THEN install XVID VIDEO CODEC.

And of course one more time do not forget that when installing FORMAT FACTORY and when at the end of installation you are asked to install missing codecs,do NOT install them!

After this just convert your video files either to WMV or AVI using FORMAT FACTORY and you should be able to load them and edit them in Windows Movie Maker just fine.
And this WILL work because I do things on this way for approximately 10 years.

If it doesn't work to you then you do something wrong...




Let me know! :good:






Cheers!

 

[johnnyb58]

Ok I did install the install missing codec’s so I just now went into Movie Maker looking for a way to uninstall the codex like you said.

I really didn’t know where to do that so I clicked on “Options” in the tool menu and it immediately froze. I had to force it to close and now I have blue “Options” tab on top of everything that will not go away even with Movie Maker closed. This happened a couple of days ago and I think I had to log off to get rid of the blue tab.

Anyway I was cleaning up my video and project files and noticed that I had a lot more MOV files that I recorded with this same camera last winter and did edit them in Movie Maker without converting them. I found a link to a DivX® codec that I installed last year and I believe I recently deleted it thinking I didn’t need it. I was having problems with the computer running slow and suspected something running in the background.

 

[johnnyb58]

Thanks for all your help!

Well I believe there is a problem with Windows Movie Maker 6.

I just looked into reinstalling it, but MS is no longer offering it because of a security bug in Windows Essentials.

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/ms13-045

Anyway I’m growing tired of fooling with this and need to move on. I’m at the point where I just want to buy a new Video Editing program and be done with it.

 

[S.T.A.R.S.]

You cannot UNINSTALL codecs through Windows Movie Maker.You can only disable them from there.

You need to uninstall them manually using their setup or REVO uninstaller.

Also if your Windows Movie Maker freezes AS SOON AS you open the OPTIONS dialog then something is seriously wrong with it.


So:

1. Uninstall ALL codecs you have on your computer and then restart your computer!

2. Use Eusing Free Registry Cleaner to remove ALL invalid registry entries and then restart your computer!

3. Now open Windows movie maker and try to open the OPTIONS dialog window.Once in there,go to COMPATIBILITY tab and uncheck ALL check boxes (if any):

That will disable all loaded codecs to function in Windows movie maker.
Now go into GENERAL tab and click RESTORE ALL DEFAULTS then go into ADVANCED tab and click RESTORE ALL DEFAULTS and finally go again in COMPATIBILITY tab and click RESTORE ALL DEFAULTS.
And finally click OK.

NOTE: Before clicking OK be SURE that all check boxes on COMPATIBILITY tab are unchecked!!!

Once you clicked OK,exit Windows movie maker and restart your computer.

4. Install Format factory and then restart your computer!
NOTE: When installing FORMAT FACTORY and when at the end of installation you are asked to install missing codecs,do NOT install them!

5. Install XVID codec ONLY and then restart your computer!

6. Now take one of your MOV files and use Format factory to convert it to WMV.Be sure to put the conversion quality to the highest level in Format factory conversion settings right before converting if you want a good video quality.It looks like this:

7. Once converted,import that converted WMV file in Windows movie maker.

8. Now try to save that movie file by going to "Save to my computer":

Give it some name,choose the save location and click next.
After that choose the video quality you want to use:

"DV-AVI (NTSC)" is the highest quality setting you can choose here.It produces good quality,but video files can be big in size.
You can of course always choose "Best quality for playback on my computer (recommended).

After that click next and wait for movie saving process to finish...

NOTE: Once the movie is saved and you are happy with it,BUT the file size is too big,then simply AGAIN use Format factory to convert it to WMV or AVI to shrink the file size.Just be careful to not adjust the conversion quality settings the wrong way!

 

[johnnyb58]

I cannot find any installed codexs, but I did delete Format Factory and cleaned the registry twice before reinstalling Format Factory. This time I did not install missing codecs and I converted my video to WMV. I opened Movie Maker and loaded the converted video. Everything looked good without the stuttering, but it only converted 1 min out of 3 min. I clicked on options in Movie Maker to see if there was some sort of time restriction and Windows Movie Maker froze up the same as before.
I don’t have any more time to work on this today and I’ll have to put it on hold for awhile, but thanks for your help.

 

[johnnyb58]

Ok I got Windows Movie Maker fixed so that it doesn’t crash when selecting the “Options” button.

I don’t know what actually fixed the problem, but I noticed that there was a “Windows Essentials” update in my Windows Update list even though the Microsoft web site said it was no longer available. I installed the update and restarted windows.

Movie Maker froze when I selected the “Options” button, but instead of forcing it to close, I hit the restart program. I again selected the “Options” button only this time it worked so I unselected everything in the window. I then closed and reopened the program a couple of times and could not get it the freeze up, so I think it’s fixed.

I still do not understand why it only plays for one minute, but I discovered that it will play the whole length if I split it at each minute. I looked in Format Factory for something that might be in it and can’t find anything.

As far as removing Codexs, I can’t find any. I did find what I think is some, don’t know for sure. I have to programs listed from the Canon ZoomBrowser called Canon MOV Encoder & Canon MOV Decoder. I believe they allow viewing MOV file in ZoomBrowser, but they must not work because MOV files do not play.