Another Look at Vista the First 'Public' Beta (Build 5384)

My installation of build 5384 was the easiest ever... maybe part of it being smoother had to do with not shooting myself in the foot by opting to reformat the hard drive, and having the needed drivers hanging around in folders accessible to the new Vista build. Regardless of reasons, it's great to see the first public beta release installing and running well before I start checking features.

As this build marks the first of the 'publicly released' ones, let's give it a once over to see how Windows Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker work.

There will be lots of adapting/adjusting to align or realign existing software with Vista, not just to make custom profiles, transitions and effects work. For example, I installed the latest version 1.6.15 of VirtualDub a couple days ago, and saw this note on the website.

Those not as diligent as VirtualDub programmers, and users who don't keep their software up to date, will find themselves behind the 8-ball when they upgrade to Vista. I like my Aero Glass and don't want to turn it off now that I've worked hard to keep it.

This newsletter won't go into lots of details... it's just a check of the new build to be sure Movie Maker and DVD Maker continue to work well, and to highlight anything new, different or noteworthy.

I forwarded last week's issue about MyDVD 8 Premier to 3 key people at Sonic.... and promptly heard back from two of them. My concerns about tech support were passed to the head of the support function, who was already aware of and taking steps to enhance things.

Another follow-up note about my first for-sale video on Google Video... submitted on May 3... the current status is still "Video is verified; stay tuned - it will be live shortly"... 31 days and counting.

The Renaissance Wedding last Sunday was a hot 90+ degree day... I have 4 hours of video footage and Bernadette took about 800 still pictures. The website page turned from a pre-wedding countdown to the post-wedding videos... access it via the site's menu > Living Projects > Renaissance Wedding page.... or use this direct link...

The Photo Story 3 tutorial for MaximumPC is due for submittal by Monday... I'll finish it up right after I distribute this newsletter.

The first thing I did was gather a batch of 23 assorted files... asf, avi, flv, mp3, mpg, rm, wma, and wmv... copying them from my XP laptop.

I made a new collection named 'Test Files, and dragged and dropped the whole folder from My Computer into the collection.

The batch all came into the new folder... no new collections are automatically created for each of the videos.

Note the file names under the thumbnails at the right... they are all date/time stamps... not the file names from the file manager.

Below is the same list of files in my file manager... MM2 uses the same file names you see in your file manager, but Vista doesn't... it uses date/time stamp info. To see the file name, you need to either linger over a thumbnail and let the tool tip pop up with the duration and file name, or check the clip's properties to see the full path/name.

Another thing different is the icons used for different file types such as music files versus video clips... MM2 uses different ones similar to the file browser view at the left, while Vista uses a generic document icon for any file type.

My batch of test files included 3 very odd sized files, ones I use on my website... I marked the above screen shots to show that when the thumbnails display them right, the preview monitor doesn't. And when they look messed up in the thumbnail, they look right in the monitor. All 3 play at the wrong shape in WMP10 on XP, but look right in WMP11 on Vista.

Maybe I'm the only one who uses such extremely odd shapes, but you might have occasion to use a file that is off-standard.

I selected all 20 of the test clips in the collection and moved them to the project...

Note that the tool tip info shows the same file name as the clip in the collection, not the real file name that shows in collection's tool tip. Unless you rename the clips in the collection, you'll have only date/time stamp names in the project.

The project preview looked and sounded good, not counting the distortions resulting from the odd sized videos.

Full screen project previewing shows the full quality of the source files... my system kept up with the audio, but the video wasn't as smooth as it would be with a better video card or system. For now, it's fine.

Movie Maker didn't provide any feedback about the name of the project I was working on... no 'Test Project' showed where it usually does in MM2.

I opted for the biggest and best choice, and the biggest rendering challenge... Windows Media HD 1080 (7.8 Mbps)... Movie Maker said it would need 882 MB to make the 1440x1080 sized movie... it took a couple minutes to size it up, forecast a 78 minute rendering time...

There were no video effects or transitions, and no titles. Except for the large output size, it's a fairly easy rendering task.

I had mixed widescreen and standard movies and stories, and had Movie Maker's option set at standard 4:3. The pixel dimensions of the rendering choice of 1440x1080 is 4:3.

I really didn't care how things looked... more wondering how easily and well Movie Maker worked when given an assorted batch of source files.

The rendering too 75 minutes. The file size was 818 MB, a bit less than the forecast.

Playback in Vista's WMP11 showed the individual clips looking different in terms of black borders... standard sized clips such as the Big Ben story were squares with borders, while widescreen source files played at 4:3.

This wasn't a test of the playback aspect ratio or sizes... just noting in passing what I see. The bottom line was the rendering went well and the playback looked and sounded great.

I started with the HD 1440x1080 movie that was just made... and then dragged the same batch of source files used to make it in Movie Maker.

You can see My Computer in the background of the screen shot at the right that the file names in DVD Maker align with those in the file managers, not the date/time stamps as they appear in Movie Maker.

The image at the right shows the feedback from Windows DVD Maker after the batch was dragged and dropped. A well written message, and confirms the issues with the 3 files that didn't make it into Movie Maker.

DVD Maker thumbnails try to adapt to the image sizes, but some are too wide, too thin, off-based totally for odd-sized input files... whatever.

As disposable temporary items, there are no issues other than for the sake of neatness.

Note the reading at the bottom of the window... where it says there's 120 minutes of total room on the DVD... better than the one hour limit of many disc making apps.

I had submitted a request for a project-saving feature, so I was checking for it.... but didn't find one. I put little efforts into making choices worth saving, and I was eager to burn and watch the disc.

After selecting the style, I skipped the preview and pressed the start burn button.

2 hrs, 20 minutes later the disc drawer popped open and DVD Maker asked if I wanted another copy.

My Vista system burns to DVD+R discs and my laptop to DVD-R ones... as Vista made the disc, I go to the XP system to check it.

Here it is on my laptop playing in InterVideo WinDVD... the main menu window first... with some motion previews.

The Play button takes you through the videos in sequence. The Scenes button takes you to the sub-menus.

If you think these still shots look pretty cool, wait till you see it in action playing on the DVD. The choices of styles in Windows DVD Maker are outstanding... by the way, the video being previewed here is the parade at the Renaissance wedding on Sunday.

The next picture shows one of the 'Scenes' sub-menus, each a 6 pack of 'buttons' to click on, to play the movie or story files used as inputs.

There are a few of these sub-menu screens. With 6 to a window, additional sub-menu's are added as needed... the left and right arrows move you among the sub-menus, while the up arrow gets you back to the main menu.

I'm pleased to see how well Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker in Vista work at this point in the beta phase....

A little more work is needed on Movie Maker's user interface... feedback about which project is open, and file names that align with those used in file managers. I'll be submitting formal suggestions to Microsoft.

As more builds roll out, and Vista gets closer to final release, I'll do newsletters with lots more depth for both Movie Maker and DVD Maker.

I look forward to comments and discussion about this and other newsletters on the forums at:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Newsgroups are wide open for all to view and post... moderation is collective by the participants.

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:

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.

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

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.

An online gallery that fully aligns with the main priority of the website is the 'PapaJohn Expert Zone' at neptune.

Check it at Neptune and the Distributing > Neptune page of the website, where there's a developing tutorial about how to use the service.

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:

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.

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.

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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Another Look at Vista the First 'Public' Beta (Build 5384)