[Win7] Windows movie maker shows no picture

I apologise if there's a similar thread, but the only similar one I found was for vista. I am currently on a Windows 7 Home x64 system, so the vista option didn't work for me.

I use windows movie maker to put together clips from different .avi files. I have also had to convert certain files from mp4 -> avi to use them in windows movie maker. But, when I add some .avi-files (including not converted ones, and converted ones) I only get a black picture, but the audio works fine. I can imagine I'm maybe missing some codecs, but I really don't have any idea on what I might be missing.

I'm currently using: CCCP codec pack, DivX codecs, Win7codecs 2.7.9 (by shark007, that I found on this page while browsing). Installing the later one uninstalled my other ones, but it still didn't help with the black video, so I reinstalled CCCP as I use that for anime.

Anyone got any idea what to do? I use Windows Movie Maker 2.6. Windows Live Movie Maker isn't an option (it won't cut the files as I want it to, already tried).

Really thankful for any assistance!

 

Am I correct in assuming the AVI files play fine in Windows Media Player?

 

They play fine in any video player. I'm using Media Player Classic mainly, but they run fine in both Windows Media Player and DivX Player Plus.

 

What happens if you add just one file and try to make a movie with it. Do you get video output then?

 

What I have done is just opening the WMM and added the .avi-file I wanted to try (the file being all alone). That just shows a blank black video, audio works fine. So I have added them in one by one, and splitting them doesn't make a video appear (it's pretty much impossible too to split videos if you can't see where you split o.o). Other .avi files work, except just the ~25 ones I want to work with.

 

This is starting to sound like there is something fishy about the way those videos were encoded.

 

Try GSpot and see what it tells you about the video encoding. Unzip Gspot. Go into the Gspot folder and click on the exe. Use the Path line to browse to one of the videos. Then it will analyze the video and in the top right it will show the video codec and whether it is installed on your system. Does it say the necessary code is installed?

 

I'm sure the necessary codec is installed, as he can play the files just fine in any media player. It's just Movie Maker that's barfing on the files.

 

Many media players have built in codecs so they can play even if the system doesn't have the necessary codec. It can't hurt to see what Gspot says the codec is and whether it is installed.

 

This is what it says in the top right half of Gspot:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/Miruru-chan/Codecs.png

It doesn't say much to me, but it's apparently a codec I guess I don't have? (this about needing lots of codecs and how to find the missing one is pretty much a jungle to me, so I really appreciate the help I've gotten here!)

 

It looks like those files are really mp4 files not avi.
Windows Movie Maker doesn't play well with mp4s.

I have Win7 and Shark007's codec pack which works well for me. (I know you tried Shark's codecs and that didn't help.) I only have about 4 mp4 files on my computer. Movie Maker opens 3 of them which were written by Handbrake. The other Movie Maker is spending 15 or so minutes "preparing". We will see what happens after it completes.

I'm not sure what to tell you other than you need a software for editing mp4's. I'll let you know what happens with Movie Maker when it finishes but I don't think it is so much a codec problem with your computer as it is MM doesn't like mp4's.

Hmm,
Even my problem mp4 that is encoded just like yours eventually opened in MM. When you try just one file, is it immediately available for editing--even though it only plays sound? No time spent "preparing" the video?

 

One thought on alternative software for joining mp4 files would be either video Redo or SteamClip. They might be worth a try for simple editing since they would avoid the need for converting before editing.

 

Funny thing is that the files actually are .avi's. I even converted some of them from mp4 to AVI using just handbrake, because I couldn't get a hold of them in .avi's. I also tried AlltoAVI, but that one didn't seem to want to start the conversion properly for some odd reason. And WMM 2.6 imports the file, but doesn't really spend much time thinking about it. I just get a black video with the sound. I don't really know what's wrong. Though it bugs me that Gspot says "Codec status undetermined". I guess one way I can make it work is importing the files into WLMM (which can read them) and then from there save them as WMV and THEN import them into WMM, but there shouldn't be so much hazzle... I don't know.

I'm really lost... WHEN importing the file/s into WMM, using the "Import Video" option, it can see the files (though on the thumbnail (on movie files) most of them won't show a picture but just a movie icon), and when I try to import, it just goes into WMM, thumbnail has a picture, but the video doesn't. It's pretty weird. When importing the files that has a thumbnail in the importing file preview, has to be scanned through, shows a video, and WMM creates separate clips for the file (tho I don't really like that).

Edit: I'll see later today what I get with StreamClip. Main point is that I want to be quite exact in where to split the video, and WLMM won't give me that (it splits rather horribly, while WMM does it good).

 

I'm sorry that I don't have a real answer. I've never been a fan of Movie Maker because it is slow so I know little about it. I see now that Movie Maker Live sees the video and can play it but it won't thumbnail the scenes the way it is supposed to.

The thing about those files is they are using an Apple codec (H.264/AVC). Movie Maker expects an AVI to use either DivX or its open-source counterpart XviD. (Avi is just a container. You can name any file .avi but it has to be encoded using Xvid or DivX for WMM to play nice.)

I'll give Redo and Steamclip a quick look on my mp4 encoded like yours and see how splitting and joining go.

 

Hi,

I didn't realize VideoRedo was a pay program. A bit too expensive for simple editing.

StreamClip should do what you want but the help guide is not that great. I could only give it a few minutes to test but it should work for simple editing. I didn't have time to check out joining.

You will need Quicktime Alternative version 1.81 from FileHippo (link is under requirements on the download page of Streamclip). You can deselect the MediaPlayer Classic during the installation since you don't need that for encoding.

I think the 3ivx download is also necessary to convert to a decent size avi. I tried saving to avi without 3ivx and the clip was larger than the original file size.

I'll take another look at the program later to se if I missed something in the encoding/compression selections.

*Installing Quicktime Alternative (which includes the Apple codecs) made no difference in how Movie Make Live handled the video. So I still don't know how to get Movie Maker to play nice with the video.

 

Is it difficult to re-encode them using XviD then? Thing is, I am using these files to make a custom music video (split scenes, time with music beat etc), which I have planned for a long time (years, actually), and abandoning the project would make me feel rather unsatisfied. I have personally either not worked with any other program than WMM when doing these things, I quite like how you can skip between frames. One option is to use WLMM and save the files as WMV:s.

Sadly I haven't had time to try StreamClip yet, but I will see if I can get the time in the near future. Possibly tomorrow. Keep me updated how it works for you, and I'll write how I find StreamClip. I will also see if I can find a good converter and see if any change comes around if I convert avi (my files) -> avi... I don't know.

 

I have now tested some converters with different results.

AlltoAVI - wouldn't even start with the convertion properly from .avi nor .mp4-files.
Any Video Converter 3.2.1 - Did convert, but with a pixelly and laggy result.
Handbrake 0.9.5 - Did convert, but was a bit difficult to set up for someone not so experienced, and only way to decide what to convert to was to change the file name output ending. Also, wouldn't work in WMM properly even with xvid encoder checked in. Weird.
Freemake Video Converter - Did a splendid job both on .mp4-files and x264 .avi-files to xvid .avi. Only "fault" is maybe that the files become bigger than the original, but I don't exactly mind that, really. As I don't have to keep the "original" files, as long as I have the video, it's okay (hdd space ain't a problem to me).

Anyway, this is what I have tested since yesterday. I've decided to try to convert all ~25ish files to xvid .avi, and hopefully will that not give any problems. If it does... Well, I guess I'd have to find a solution then.

Thanks for clearing out the problem with the encoding! As a bit of a codec newbie, it's not the first thing you think about...