Windows Movie Maker To VCD, ?

Does any one know how to convert Windows movie Maker file to VCD Maybe Mpeg so I can play it on my DVD player.Cheers

It sounds like Microsoft gave no instructions on how to transfer video to disc. TYPICAL MS BS!!!

I cant tell you how to do it, but my advice is to use one of the other free/inexpensive tools available that just blows away this MS crap.

Sorry for the venting, but they are terrible at this kind of stuff and support is non-existent.

TMPGEnc will convert or Nero will auto.convert when you burn a vcd.

Thanx for that I agree that MS Sucks, I will also try Nero

Hello forum,

Where do I start? A little background is in order I suppose, as I put contribute to this thread my queries and comments.

On a recent holiday - and using a Canon IXUS II 3.2 Mega pixel camera - I took maybe a hundred photos and recorded a few short thirty second videos too.

When I got back to Sydney I plugged the Canon camera into a television and used the in-built slide-show option to display the photos and videos. If a video was in-between a couple of photos, the video would play fine. The photos appeared nice 'n' sharp on the television when the Canon IXUS II was plugged in directly. Most of the photos were around 1 MB in size. They were large, but not full screen for which I am glad because blowing up an image to full screen often degrades the image quality.

Well. Trying to recreate the above on a CD has so far been impossible for me.

After uploading the photos and videos to my computer, I found myself struggling to find a program that did everything I wanted at the time. I wanted to make a slide show of my recent holiday and put it on a CD for easy access on a DVD player that is plugged into a television.

Eventually I came to realise Windows XP included a Movie Maker program, and after hours of investigating and considering programs like Nero, XnView, 10. Slideshow, Picasa2 and taking a peak at the Adobe and Macromedia sites, I decided to give Movie Maker a try. By this time I was in a tired, frustrated and confused and confused state.

I've just spent all Easter on this. Three and a half days in front of the PC trying to get a decent slide show happening on CD for a family get-together last night, which was Easter Sunday. I missed the family get-together because I was editing all day and up editing to 1AM this morning. I even spent a few hours editing this morning (Easter Monday) doing some finishing touches to a Windows Movie Maker Project file which is now a 500 MB .WMV file that runs 42 minutes.

I'm still ignorant of my options, which is why I'm poking around on this Web site. I do know some of what I don't want: I don't want to piss around with a hodge-podge conglomeration of programs that are made by different people, but can work together in a disjointed fashion. I want one program that will do what I want seamlessly.

I mean, even with Windows Movie Maker, I had to first use another Microsoft program called "Photostory" that turns groups of "slides" (photos) into a video. Features of Photostory that appeal to me include pan and zoom effects, which bring to life a slideshow - something I wanted because I think perhaps one hundred static slides is boring viewing. Photostory didn't even see the video files in my folder when I was importing photos. I had to go into Windows Movie Maker and import the Photostory files I wanted to use, which had by this time been converted into Microsoft's WMV files. I'd be importing photos and creating a video out of them in one editor, then importing this newly created video it into another editor. Seems dumb in my opinion, and less flexible from a creative point of view.

So, I'm converting photos into WMVs, then adding more photos and videos and converting this into another WMV down the track.

Why can't I just stick the photos into one program and select the photos on which I want to impose panning and zoom effects? Windows Movie Maker and Photostory should be one program.

I think I did this sort of thing years ago when I was using TMPGenc with one or two other programs like VDUB (Virtual Dub?) to convert .ASF files to .MPEG files. The results for me were sub-standard, but I must admit the source files were rubbish. A one hour .ASF that was only 80 Mb in size? And here's me converting it to an MPEG, which is a fair bit larger? The resolution was awful.

As mentioned previously, I wanted to make slide shows. But I wanted to be able to include video in-between some photos. Video that would automatically play. This was all I wanted at the beginning. Just a way to re-create what is built-in my Canon IXUS II camera.

Some of the slide show programs didn't even recognise video.

After a while using Windows Movie Maker I became more ambitious from an editing point of view. I started adding audio tracks and text graphics. I now want to find a program that gives me much more control over the different aspects of video editing. I suppose I want to get a more powerful program.

Anyway, after all this rambling on, my current issue is this: I deliberately created a large 500 Mb WMV file of a short 42 minute slideshow when exporting from the Windows Movie Maker Project files. The Movie Maker save/export options (and help files) describe how video quality is better the larger the size of the file. I think the bit rate is something like 1.5 or 1.7 for the 500 Mb WMV I created today.

WMVs won't play on my DVD player and I doubt they'd play on my Dad's either. I would much rather have Windows Movie Maker convert it's project file to a readable format like VCD or maybe just "MPEG" or whatever is readable on a stand-alone DVD player. Instead, I have to run the finished slideshow/movie through two converstions. WMMP to ==> WMV to ==> VCD (or whatever runs on a DVD player). I gather there is a loss of image quality with each conversion? This is something I wish to avoid.

I'll get my DVD burner up 'n' running soon I suppose, but I was hoping that I could make a really high resolution VCD. The last attempt looked rubbish. It was only a 168 Mb WMV file burned to VCD format using Nero and it looked disgustingly blurry and low-resolution.

How do I create a high-resolution VCD? It is only a small 42 minute slideshow, but I opted to make it really large at 500 Mb with something like a 1.7 bitrate in the hope that this would lead to a quality final result.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thank you,

Seamus.

Originally Posted by mats.hogberg

1) After creating your slideshow, export as DV AVI from WMM.
2) Encode DV AVI to VCD specs mpg (TMPGEnc).
3) Author as VCD with VCDEasy.

/Mats

Thank you for that real fast reply Mats.

I kinda "ramble on" a bit, 'eh?

Anyway, right now I'm trying TMPGEnc to make an SVCD (WMV to SVCD). The "bun is in the oven" and should be ready in an hour or so. I'll see if that is adequate but I'm doubtful. Still, it is a 500MB file that - according to TMPGEnc - will be about 726MB in size when it is finished and the actual video will be about 44 minutes duration. So, TMPGEnc is "converting up" from a 500MB WMV to a 726MB MPEG2. The odd thing is my CDRs have "80min/700MB" printed on them, but in TMPGEnc, I had several preset sizes to choose from and I think the 80 minute CD was 800MB in size. Might have to run TMPGEnc again if the current MPEG2 is a tadd too large for my CDRs. :/

Thanks for your clear instructions. Will give 'em a try soon. I need to find a better editing program. Maybe Apple have a better solution than Windows Movie Maker.

Thanks again,

Gotta go to bed soon.

SVCD's normally burn as Mode 2, using Nero. This mode doesn't have all the extra file checking data and can burn up to 830MB or a little more on a 700MB/80 minute CD, so you should be fine. However SVCD's don't work on all standalone players. VCD format is more universal.

For more slideshow programs, look here: https://www.videohelp.com/tools?s=28#28

I'm a bit lost as to why you'd go to WMV format from Movie Maker? As best I know, WMV is a very low quality video for use on the internet. I haven't used WMM in a while but I'll assume it won't output any DVD player compliant, high bit-rate format for a VCD or DVD. if that's the case, then do as someone else said and create an AVI file from your WMM project. THEN convert the AVI to mpeg1 or mpeg2 to make it compliant (VCD, DVD). Author and burn.

Lots of products do the whole thing, some pretty well if you don't want to get to complicated. WMM is actually a very easy editing tool for basic stuff. The problem with WMM it that the output is "Microsoftized" so not very compatable with stand alone players.

Look in the tools section for what you're trying to do then read about some of the higher-rated apps. Doing what you want is very easy.......once you know how! Don't get bogged down in the details yet, just learn the "flow" of the process.

Take Photo/Video ---- Capture (transfer) to Computer ---- Combine/Edit as you desire ---- Encode to VCD/DVD compliant file -----Author (menus, etc. ---Burn to disc.

That's how it's done. It's up to you to use programs that combine several or all of these or seperate apps for each. The ONLY step you should have a quality loss from the original ,aterial is the ENCODE step. If you're losing quality somewhere else something is likely wrong. A good edcode app makes even the quality loss in that step minimal.

WMM outputs to only 2 kinds of video file formats: WMV and AVI. With the WMV, you have a wide range of choices from low quality/low bitrate to very high quality/mediumhigh bitrate. With the AVI, you only have the choice of DV codec at DV bitrate (25Mbps--pretty high for consumers).

If that was your end format, it would probably make sense to just encode once (to WMV?).
But most people are wanting to get this to a format compatible with CE (consumer electronics) devices like DVD, VCD, CDAudio, ipod, 3G phones, etc. So it makes the most sense to save with as little compression as possible (ideally NONE), which means you should always export to DV-AVI, as this will give you the least compression, and is (usually) more universal as an import/source format than WMV files are.

Note: One thing that might mess you up is the fact that WMM only exports DV type1 files, not type 2. You'll probably want to use a Type1->Type2 converter utility for even more compatibility with the majority of apps. Otherwise, you may end up with a clip that looks great but has NO AUDIO.

Scott

Hello all, I've found quite a few answers to my problems/queries, regarding putting my edited video images from WMM to VCD, in the above posts, so thanks already.

The problem I have now is that I can't find how to export as DV AVI from WMM. Any references I've found to DV AVI in the help section have dealt with importing only. None of the options in the "Save Wizard" prompt converting.

I'd be grateful for any help.

Thanks very much for leading me through that jimmalenko.

I look forward to catching up on all this on the weekend.

A sincere thank you to the people who have helped me in this forum. Your generosity when it comes to sharing your knowledge here is greatly appreciated.

I suppose for my purposes, I should buy a DVD burner. I think maybe I'll never get a good sharp image if I take the VCD path. I tried making a SVCD but it would not play in the stand alone DVD player.

Anyway, past my bed time now.

Thank you once again.