.... back to the main topic...
v6.1 has muvee autoProducer... while v8 has CineMagic. Similar to AutoMovie in Movie Maker 2, they are the highest
level video editing wizards...
Give them source files and they'll make an edited movie.
I bought muvee when it first came out over 4 years ago... but didn't use it after the first fun-filled few weeks.
MyDVD Studio v6.1 includes that muvee software. Let's give CineMagic some video files and see how it does.
I used WinDV to capture 6 scenes from the dance recital footage... to type II DV-AVI files.... then opened the unedited
scenes in CineMagic. No need to give it background music for these.
I worked on the newsletter as it automatically analyzed the files, taking about 15 minutes for the 18+ minutes of
video clips.
It selected 100 seconds of the footage and strung together a number of clips, with default long fades or dissolves
between them.
The preview window played it, but silently. There was no audio.
At Step 2 of CineMagic you customize it, selecting a style, photo duration (I had only video clips so it was grayed
out), overall production duration, and sequential versus random clip order...
I chose Memories, set the production duration to 120 seconds, and left it in sequential order.
At the final Step 3 window, I first opted to preview the movie... it took only a few seconds, making it easy to go
back a window to redo the customizing choices and preview again...
CineMagic is similar to the AutoMovie feature of Movie Maker, something else like muvee that I don't use. It can do
the first cut, and then you can edit it from there.
There's nothing wrong with the approach... for users who don't have the time or inclination to get into making lots
of editing decisions like you do in Movie Maker 2. I prefer being in the driver's seat, but having fun at times checking to see what the fully
automatic approach can do.
When you're ready to go on, Step 3 gives you the choices shown at the right. I opted to edit it in VideoWave, the
next menu choice in MyDVD.
VideoWave looks a bit similar to Movie Maker in it's overall interface... it's easy to adapt.
When finished editing, there's a long and interesting list of rendering choices... version 8 Windows Media Codecs,
Generic AVI (I wonder what compression codec it uses), Generic MPEG-1 and 2, Windows Media Video (maybe they use version 9 codecs).
The rendering time was about as expected... I selected Windows Media Video 8 for Local Area Network (768 Kbps)...
my current usual choice in MM2, which gives me a good looking movie of 640x480 that works well online.
Checking the rendered movie in WMP showed it was smaller... 320x240 at 450 Kbps. Did I pick the wrong choice? I repeated
it and got the same results.
Besides the lower quality than expected, there was no audio. CineMagic had stripped the audio from the clips. It only
works with background music separate from the video files... I hadn't given it any music... or something didn't work right.
It doesn't seem like the right process for dance recital videos... maybe for still pictures with a music file. I'll
use Movie Maker to make the dance recital videos.
The steps of the process went along well, with no hangs, freezes, or error messages.
When hearing no audio (funny.... the recital was my first major test of a new shotgun mic and here I am editing the
footage and not hearing it)... I stopped at times to check by playing something else on my laptop... the audio was fine everywhere.
Moving up to the next menu item, the one for capturing video from a digital camcorder or DVD.
As we have ways to capture from a camcorder, let's check it by using the other option, capturing from a DVD.
I got as far as telling it I wanted to capture from a DVD, but it didn't show the DVD contents... either:
My version of the software doesn't support the feature... with MyDVD software it's possible that some features work
and some don't, and it's not easy at times to know which things work. Try it... if it doesn't work, you'll often get a marketing pitch.
I tried a couple discs and gave up, assuming it's not a feature that works for my version.
I then tried capturing from my camcorder via firewire... and it worked fine. The file properties of the captured files
said they were compressed with the Panasonic DV Codec with 16 bit 32 kHz audio ...
There was an option to do a Smart scan... when pressed the tape was analyzed in fast forward speed.
Thumbnails of each scene were created next to the preview monitor.
The thumbnails let you browse the contents of the tape. The Roxio Media Import wizard was controlling the camcorder,
moving around the tape as needed.
It was a fun experience, even if I didn't capture to any MPEG files during it.
Time to move on upwards to the next menu option, something that was in previous versions of MyDVD but one I hadn't
tried.
Plug and Burn (DV to DVD)
I gave it the first of the 2 tapes from the dance recital, one with a full hour of footage.
Select a menu style, fill in the disc title, select the quality level (HQ, SP, LP or custom), auto create chapters
(I picked doing it using scene breaks)... and opted to do the whole tape.
I left for a while as it captured the hour of video and produced a DVD.
It was another interesting enjoyable experiences. I checked and didn't see it using my hard drive space, not even
for temporary files (it must have been used a bit, but so little space that I couldn't tell)... the video is being captured from the camcorder
tape, being converted on the fly in real time to MPEG-2 files, and flowing right onto the disc.
It really does deliver on what the menu choice says, Plug and Burn (DV to DVD).
I finished by thinking... "what if I made a batch of movies in Movie Maker, and saved them to a camcorder DV tape?
I could then make a DVD from the tape without having to use any of my hard drive space, and having it done in real time." Maybe someday.
Time to go up to the next menu item....
(Quick DVD) MyDVD Express
I'll start with the same set of DV-AVI type II files of the recital clips... and open the menu item which takes me
to MyDVD Express. It should be the quickest, easiest option of making a DVD from saved movies and stories.
I first tried to bring 6 wmv files into it at once. It did it, but with only 1 menu icon. I restarted and added one
at a time to get 6 menu buttons.
You can choose to burn a DVD, VCD, or SVCD. I did the odd one, an SVCD which encoded and burned fine. There's a small
'Encoding preview' monitor which shows you the video being made. Feel free to do other things with the computer during the renderings. Let it
have all the resources during the last part, the burning of the disc. Interfering with that step can result in a coaster.
Playback of the SVCD in Windows Media Player was good... the MPEG-2 SVCD files are 480x480 pixels (non-square in
playback so they look normal 4:3), and the audio is there...
For an easy and quick disc, this express line seems like a good choice. Let's see what more you get with the top
menu choice, the one for full service DVD.
MyDVD 8... Make a DVD
Using the same 6 video files I used in the express line... dragging and dropping them in one at a time.
Then I added a slide show of still pix with 3 music files for background, and previewed the show... it played each
picture for a long 25 seconds, as it fit the number of pictures to the overall duration of the 3 music files.
By moving on to the next window, it gave me options to customize it... 5 seconds per pix... and select a visual style.
I checked the option to apply pan and zoom to all, but I didn't notice any of them moving in the preview... maybe the movement would be there
in the DVD.
MyDVD 8 includes 14 menu styles... and a button to get more. The two online packages with 5 more styles in each are
$29.99 each.
One of the menu tasks is to add an intro movie... I did... adding an unrelated video.
You can opt to edit a movie from within MyDVD. Effects, transitions, text overlays, background music... and the audio
of the video clip itself work in this part of the app.
These editing features are sweet spots in the package. More editing options in more places... there can't be too
many things to select from.
The screen shot shows my grand-daughter Olivia on stage, with the frame and text effects added by MyDVD.
You can add chapter points to any or all of the movies in the menu.
Put a blank disc in the drive, press the burn button... and it's into encoding and disk making.
DVD Playback
Here's where things took a scary turn, but recovered.
Attempts to play my first full-featured DVD back showed it being a rare 'coaster', not recognized by any of the DVD
software on my laptop, not even by MyDVD 8 which made it.
One error message said it couldn't recognize the format of the disc.... but there hadn't been any error messages
throughout the process of rendering and burning. Other indications were about there not being a disc in the drive.
I had watched it burn, and could visually see the section of the disc that was used... and it looked normal. I put
the disc in a drive of my Vista system and it opened it in WMP, showed the files on the disc, and started to show the Intro Movie... I put other
DVDs in my laptop and they played fine... the only issue was my laptop which just made the disc couldn't read it.
So goes the all-too-normal issues when making and playing home-made DVDs. To cross-check it, I did the project over
from scratch and made another disc... which played fine. The coaster was an anomaly and I threw it away.
Conclusions and Closing
I'm glad it worked as well as it did. You can run into issues with MyDVD, some of no consequence and others serious.
I don't like closing on a negative note, but Sonic/Roxio have some work to do to have the community of users saying positive things about their
tech support.
An example of a minor but possibly frustrating one: I installed My DVD Premier 8 on March 3rd. The install went fine,
and on March 28th I decided to do the online registration. First I did Cine Player which registered fine. Then MyDVD 8 which told me I didn't
have an internet connection.
I tried again and again to register it, at least weekly, and always got the message that I didn't have an internet
connection. 3 months of unsuccessful attempts. Guess when it decided to acknowledge my connection and successfully register? Yup, as I was writing
the info about registration for this newsletter... on May 20th.... OK, I missed my chances to get a screen shot of the error message.
Not being able to register isn't a serious issue. But I've run into technical issues on previous versions of MyDVD,
taking a week once to do what was usually done in a few hours as I had to spoon feed files to each step of the process. In such instances, Sonic
tech support is either unreachable or essentially useless. On my most serious issue to date, it's now over a year since I mailed a set of the
source files to Sonic for lab checking/testing at their end... with no response.
The one coaster from the testing done for this newsletter is a non-issue, as I didn't need it, and I might have been
pushing files and data around too quickly for it. Next week's work with the Renaissance wedding videos will be different. I'll cross my fingers,
knock on wood, and use other software if I need to.
Is MyDVD good? Yes!!! Is it worth the $50 to $80 price tag? Sure. Will you be able to resolve any technical issues
if you run into them? Probably not... tech support was bad before, but now Roxio can say it wasn't on their watch, and Sonic can say to check
with Roxio. You might have to switch to something else. I won't be able to help.
.... and from what I can see, the underpinnings of Vista's new DVD Maker is from... Sonic
I look forward to comments and discussion about this and other newsletters on the forums at:
Windows Movie Makers.net
Have a great week...
PapaJohn
Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 -
www. papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 -
www.photostory.papajohn.org
Products and Services
I'm involved in many things that support users of Movie Maker and Photo Story, and adding more regularly. Some are
free and others reasonably priced.
Radio and Podcasting
TheDVShow
is the only weekly Podcast having more useful information about desktop video editing and production than anywhere else on the Web. Digital video
editing, nonlinear editing, streaming media, software releases, tutorials, business tips, technical help, download of the day and news on the
latest products to make everything easier. It's where professional and consumer desktop video users go to stay on the cutting edge.
Call the phone mail machine to get your technical question answered on the air... call (206)-203-3516
The radio broadcast is from Boston, and the website has downloadable podcast files. The June 19th 2005 podcast was
the first 'bi-weekly' show with a segment about Movie Maker 2.
Books
and Magazines
Movie Maker 2 - Do Amazing Things (with its online companion on
www.papajohn.org),
published by Microsoft Press...
Movie Maker 2 - Zero to Hero - with support on the publisher's forum -
Friends
of Ed
MaximumPC's winter 2005 quarterly special... had a 7 page tutorial 'Make a Killer Home Movie with
Maker 2'. The special edition of the video made for it is now
on
my website as a file download.
The November 2005 edition of Maximum PC had a well done reworked 6 page reprint of the same article, starting on
page 42 after the Happy 20th Birthday article for Windows.
I'm now writing a 5 page article about Photo Story 3 for an upcoming issue.
Learning
VirtualDub - published by Packt Publishing in April 2005, is the first book about VirtualDub software. I wrote the introductory chapter
about downloading and setting up the software: VirtualDub, VDubMod and AVISynth.
Websites
Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 -
www. papajohn.org
- the site's 3 goals are: Doing Amazing Things, a detailed tutorial for PhotoStory 3, and helping you solve Movie Maker 2 problems.
PhotoStory 2 -
www.papajohn.org/photostory2/PS2.html
- a detailed tutorial about using the earlier version.
Online Support - Forums and Newsgroups
I'm a regular on many online forums and newsgroups, the key ones being:
Forums are open to all for viewing, but require registration of those who want to post. Moderators
actively participate to ensure the forum discussions move forward and stay on track.
Movie Maker and Photo Story forums at W
indows Movie Makers
Movie Maker 2 forum at
SimplyDV.com
Newsgroups are wide open for all to view and post... moderation is collective by the participants.
Windows XP Movie Maker newsgroup -
microsoft.public.windowsxp.moviemaker
Photo Story 2 newsgroup -
microsoft.public.plus
Photo Story 3 newsgroup -
microsoft.public.windowsxp.photos
Weekly Newsletters
Movie Maker 2/Photo Story newsletter. The annual subscription is $20 and the link to subscribe is on the main page
of my Movie Maker website at:
www.
papajohn.org
Topics for upcoming newsletters (always subject to change):
#106 - June 3 - open
#107 - June 10 - open
#108 - June 17 - open
Newsletters issued more than 6 weeks ago are posted by Rob Morris to an
Archive Site on his Windows Movie Makers' website. Links from my website pages to specific newsletters make it easier for
viewers to see the content of both while browsing a topic.
Drop an email to suggest a newsletter topic... I can use more requests rather than fewer.
Software
Add-On Transitions and Effects
Transition Maker
2 (TM2) is a utility for the ultimate in making your own personal and custom transitions for Movie Maker 2. It's a joint product
from Patrick Leabo, the programmer, and myself.
I've beta tested some of
the Pixelan packages
and think very highly of their people and products.
ProDAD's Adorage packages for Movie Maker 2 are additional sources of very professionally
developed transitions and effects. And here are the links
Package
for Movie Maker - Volume 1
PapaJohn's Transitions - Volume 2
PapaJohn's Video Effects - Volume 3
Personal Database
With more info to manage,
consider additional tools that help.
My personal database has been an ongoing project over many years, and is now available to others. A tutorial about
using it is on the Managing > Personal Database page of my site, and more info is in the database package itself.
It's free for the asking to regular newsletter subscribers... send an email request and I'll return it with the
zipped file, which is less than 1 MB.
To others it's $10. To order, use the button on the top of the Managing > Personal Database page.
Online Gallery
An online gallery that fully aligns with the main priority of the website is the
'PapaJohn
Expert Zone' at neptune.
Check it at
N eptune
and the Distributing > Neptune page of the website, where there's a developing tutorial about how to use the service.
Training
in conjunction with the Portage, Michigan library, I offer two free training sessions about Movie
Maker and Photo Story, an intro session and a workshop. Scheduled sessions are:
Monday - June 5 - 7-8:30 pm - Workshop
Monday - July 10 - 7-8:30 pm - Intro to Movie Maker and Photo Story
Monday - August 7 - 7-8:30 pm - Workshop
The classroom has a large screen overhead projection system... and individual laptops for each attendee to use.
You learn by doing, with a little guidance from me.
Other fee-based services
If you can't save a movie
because your project has become too complex, e-mail a copy and I'll divide it into manageable sub-projects, and provide detailed
instructions about how to render the parts and assemble them into your final movie. $49.95 (no cost if it's not the right solution or doesn't
work) - for details, see the sidebar on the Problem Solving > Can't Save a Movie page of
www. papajohn.org
Movie Maker 2/Photo Story training and support services start at $75 per hour - send an email -
PapaJohn@CharterMi.net and
I'll help you determine your needs, and work with you to plan and implement them.
Wedding combo website/video packages - check the bottom branch of the Movie Maker 2 website for
a sample of what you can expect for the online portion of the package.
2006 - PapaJohn
Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
About John 'PapaJohn' Buechler from Microsoft.com
 |
John "PapaJohn" Buechler, of Kalamazoo, Mich., goes by PapaJohn online. An avid user of Movie Maker since its first release, and
a regular supporter of the community of Movie Maker users, John received a 2003 MVP award from Microsoft for that support. In March
2003, he started a comprehensive website about Movie Maker 2 at www.PapaJohn.org.
He maintains the website, writes books and articles, teaches, and provides support services - all for the community of Movie Maker 2
users. An engineer by formal education, John is a computer database and multimedia expert by business and personal experience. He co-authored
the first book about Movie Maker 2 and is actively working on a second one. You can find his advice in the
Windows XP Movie Maker newsgroup and in the Windows Movie Makers Forums. |
 This
newsletter is republished with permission of John "PapaJohn" Buechler.
Please note that this is an archive of newsletters and some information may become outdated. PapaJohn, and the webmaster of this
site, provides this information "AS IS" with no warranties.
Visit - PapaJohn's Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 2 Newsletter Index
|
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MyDVD
was the software on my first computer that had a DVD burner, and on all of my following ones. I didn't specify it... added by the OEM. 
