Resolved Movie Maker Basics

I am just starting with Movie Maker to edit and enhance some old home movies that were converted to DVD. I don't quite understand the format of a video DVD but I gather that the VOB files contain the actual clips even though it plays as a single video. In any case, my first hurdle is that when I add a VOB file to Movie Maker, it only loads the first dozens or so seconds. How do I get it to load the entire thing? Also when I tried adding a title to the beginning then played it, the title displays fine but then the incomplete clip is just black. Obviously I am missing something very basic and the documentation is of little help on how to use this program so a bit of hand holding would be greatly appreciated.

 

I've never used Movie Maker before, but it sounds as if you *may* need to convert the DVD file to another format that Movie maker can read. I don't recall a situation similar to yours, but I have converted .mov files to something else using a free program found at http://www.pazera-software.com/ called 3Pg to AVI. There are host of other converters available there too.

Have you tried using Windows DVD Maker?

Note: if you are using Firefox, you may get a red warning page of some sort if you select a converter, but Web of Trust is giving the site an excellent rating, so I do not know what the warning was all about.

 

I hadn't though of converting it. I'll give it a try. Thanks.

 

Keep us informed of your progress.

 

I haven't been able to spend much time on it but I think I still have a problem. I converted the DVD to an avi but it looks like the converter did not really do the whole thing.

 

Which converter did you use?

You may have to play with the output settings and see if that helps.

EDIT: Try selecting *all* of the files in the Video_TS folder and see what happens.

 

I used "Any Video Converter ". I don't select files, I select the DVD device. I still need to do more checking however.

 

I'll download and install that program myself and see what I can make of it.

 

I balked after the program had references to Ad-Aware. I could have unchecked the installation boxes, but I feared Ad-Aware would install a folder in my program files tree regardless.


Sorry.

 

I guess I need to better understand what the files on the DVD represent. The attached is what is on the DVD in the VIDEO_TS folder. It appears that the file named VIDEO_TS.IFO will point to the entire video. However, only Windows Media Player seems to know how to open and play that file. Movie Maker does not.

 

Outside of trying a different converter, I really don't what else to offer except that you could try and rip the DVD to the harddrive and see if Movie Maker can then read the files.

Five Best DVD Ripping Tools​

I use an older version (4) of DVD Fab, but I can't seem to find it anymore.


Even if you do rip the DVD, you may still need to convert it provided you find the right converter. My money is on the proper converter.

 

Did you ever try Windows DVD Maker? It is built-in to Windows 7 operating system.

 

Yes, it can't open anything.

 

Yeah, it sounds like the files need converting.

 

After numerous attempts, I have given up trying to edit this thing. I guess I will just run it as is and not be able to annotate it. I may try again if/when some newer technology comes out.

 

Did you have any success ripping the video to the drive?

 

I have not yet tried. I've been pretty swamped and it will be some time before I decide to get back to it.

 

I'd try it as a last resort when you get the time. If Movie Maker still can't read it, try converting the ripped video and give Movie Maker another try.

 

I got around to trying to rip it. This is very bizarre. I used WinX DVD Ripper. First I ripped to an MP4. That crashed Movie Maker and Media Player. It caused Realplayer to just hang. I had to power off to reboot to get rid of Realplayer as even taskmgr could not close it. However, it does play with MPC-HC 64. I then converted to avi and got the same result except Realplayer closed without a reboot when it hung. MPC-HC 64 still played it but obviously that will not help me edit the thing with Movie Maker.

 

Take a look at http://www.papajohn.org/ it's a good place to start for help with Movie Maker.