I think I have a codec problem. D:

[Neverwhere]

Hiii everyone~! First time posting, so forgive me if I'm... unfamiliar with going-ons. Um... Let's see.

I'm eighteen, in college, and in my spare time I really like to make music videos. It's one of my hobbies and I love it. I use Windows Movie Maker, which has always been kind of fickle. We have an abusive relationship most days, but we get along. We've gotten along a lot better since I got Windows Vista, since WMM for Vista doesn't crash nearly as often.

Now, here's the thing. Out of the blue, ever since I did... something to my computer, WMM crashes when I try to save my project as a movie. It edits just fine, preview-plays just fine, but as soon as I go to save it as a movie it crashes and restarts. I have no idea why. It's apparently anything that has to do with a Windows program and .avis because recently I tried to burn a DVD and that crashed too, in exactly the same way. Every single time.

I've restarted, I've scanned my computer for bugs, I've defragmented, I've checked my disk for consistency errors, I've uninstalled and reinstalled at least six different versions of K-Lite codec packs and the Vista codec pack and none of them helped. Some of them made it worse. At this point I'm at my wit's end and I really don't know what to do, so any hints/tips/advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I think this actually started when I updated my K-Lite codec pack, but I went back and installed the exact version I used to have and that didn't fix it either.

Anyway, thanks for the help in advance!

[Vegito72]

Unfortunately, Windows Movie Maker goes haywire when you install codec packs. In the options menu of WMM there's a compatiblity tab. I heard somewhere that if there are over 200 plug-ins for WMM that it'll crash. You can try unticking some of the codecs that are enable for WMM.

Unforutunatley for me, this has also happened. I'm running XP Home, and I have the same problem. Never got it fixed. Just got a new editor.

[redwudz]

Sounds like another victim of K-lite. There are many, many threads about codec pack problems, K-lite above all. What you may have is multiple similar codecs installed that have basically destroyed each other.

You can easily have too many codecs. And often codec packs don't completely un-install.

You might be able to use a program like DXman or Codec Sniper to try to clean up the mess. Worst case may require a OS re-install.

My advice is to just install the codecs you need and no others. In most cases, ffdshow may be all you need. But you will have to clean up things first.

Now, with all that said, you may not have a codec problem. But I would still clean up the system. WMM seems very buggy at times and I would recommend a different program. Unless you are really set on the WMV format, there are plenty of programs out there that may be a better choice, IMO.

And welcome to our forums.

[steveotx]

Is it possible or dangerous to clean out every codec and just install ffdshow?

I believe any problem I have ever had with a "conversion" type program was due to bad, broken, or duplicate codecs on my system.

I have used gspot to cleanup missing files before and filmerit once.

[redwudz]

You don't want to remove your original system codecs. And yes, you can cause damage. DXman or Codec Sniper are two options. Codec Sniper can remove ones you might want to keep, so be careful with it. I don't have any experience with DxMan, but it seems a bit safer.

I would create a restore point before doing any of this.

As has been mentioned many times here, codec packs usually create more problems than they cure.

I found this list of original XP SP2 system codecs from MS: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899113

[tmh]

Here's some advise - skip WMM and get a cheap, useful editing softwarelike Magix Movie Edit Pro (if you get version 11 it;s very cheap and can be found nearly free after rebates some places). Very easy to use, stable, yes has some quirks, etc. but much better than WMM. Many video and audio traks, etc.

Others Ok also, I just use MEP so I know it.

[daamon]

Once you get your codecs sorted out, AviTricks might be worth a look - it's free, and sounds like it'll do what you want.

Good luck!