DVD playback has blank/dark clips

[NewbieWithAMovie]

I have successfully created and burned a DVD using Windows Movie maker and Win DVD maker. However when I go to play the DVD on my DVD player or even on my computer using Win Media Player, several scenes show up dark or blank. The DVD shows as playing, the clock is ticking up and the slider bar is moving, but there is no picture. All clips were captured in the same manner. As far as I can tell there are no consistancy between the clips that are dark.

Has anybody experienced this and what is the fix?

newbiewithamovie

[Baldrick]

Please give us more information about video source files that you are editing in windows movie maker.
And are you exporting to wmv in Windows Movie Maker? DOes that clip look okey? I would instead export to dv-av and then make a dvd in windvd maker.

[NewbieWithAMovie]

Thanks for the response.

All clips were captured using the same camera; my Canon 850 IS. In fact a batch of clips were all taken within minutes of each other and the camera settings did not change, but some are turning up blank on the DVD. I haven't tried exporting, but I will try playing with the formats. The process I used was to add all the Win Movie Maker "project" files (8 in total) into WIN DVD, and then burn it. I will try saving them as .wmv first and then importing those to WINDVD.

I have added a few titles and transition effects in Movie Maker, has there ever been an issue with some of the transitions or effects?

My computer is a brand new and I am up-to-date with all patches.

[Krispy Kritter]

You need to start with basics. For instance, after transferring all of the files onto your computer, try playing them all. If they all play fine, then you can obviously rule out the camera and transfer process.

Whenever you have problems such as this, you need to take a deep breath, start over, and verify the files play after EACH step of the process (note that I said EACH step), the failure point will then be obvious.

Once you know where the process is broken, we can then find a solution to the actual problem.

[NewbieWithAMovie]

Thanks KK they all played fine after importing. That was obvious when I was editing in Movie Maker.

Baldrick's solved it for me! I published first to my computer in a DVD Quality .wmv file, and it looked fine. I then burned the DVD using DVD Maker and all clips are fine.

So I will leave it for someone else to figure out why DVD Maker has trouble publishing Movie Maker Project files.

Thanks again for the tips.