Windows Movie Maker Issue

mk04

Honorable
Nov 15, 2013
52
0
10,630
Hello all, I'm having a bit of an issue with Windows Movie Maker and would like some insight (if possible) by users on here who might have experienced something similar. I'm on Windows 7, 64-bit.

So, I've been recording some gameplays with FRAPS and have been saving them (compressing) and uploading them to Youtube all through Windows Movie Maker. I completed my first game series very recently with NO issues at all. Now, once I started playing a new game and tried to use Windows Movie Maker, I seem to get a message that correlates to Windows Media Player.

This is the error: "Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file."

But I've BEEN using FRAPS and Windows Movie Maker with my first game series to compress the videos with no issues at all. The ONLY thing that I'm doing different is playing a new game.

The process, very briefly is like this: Record on FRAPS > Add video to Windows Movie Maker > Wait for it to load > Save movie as HD 1080 (blue box with 1080 written on it, I'm at work so I don't recall word for word what it is) > Finished compressing, proceed to upload to Youtube.

That's the simple process that I've been doing with the first game I played. But now it goes through the process of trying to save the video in HD, and says it succeeded in doing so, but I can't open the file. That's where that error message comes up. I also noticed that when it DOES succeed in saving the video, it would show a thumbnail, but now it shows a blue audio sign (like a music note).

Sorry for somewhat of the long post. I was trying to be detailed as possible. If any clarifications or more info is needed, I'll provide.

Thanks, and hope someone can help me out :(

Edit: I forgot to mention, I tried opening it on VLC player as well. I have both but Windows Media Player is default. Rather than getting an error though, nothing opens haha. It just stays black with the VLC logo in the middle. So I'm guessing it directly has to do with the compressing which is what I don't understand since I've been doing it. Oh and I have no issue playing the raw file.
 
Solution
By raw file i suppose you meant the uncompressed one in FRAPS, right?

Anyways this doesn't seem much of an issue but rather bad luck with final encoding and saving of file. The converted result is corrupt imo and that's why VLC or WMP is unable to play it. Thumbnail not showing video preview is a good indicator of this. And it doesn't really matter which player you use since what matters is whether you have the right video codecs installed on your PC to play that particular video format or not.

Try to convert that video again using WMM and see if the encoded video plays okay or not after that. Most likely it will.

=========

And now lemme offer you some more advice in this field. I have been out of touch with game recording but i...

Kratos47

Distinguished
Jan 26, 2014
181
0
18,760
By raw file i suppose you meant the uncompressed one in FRAPS, right?

Anyways this doesn't seem much of an issue but rather bad luck with final encoding and saving of file. The converted result is corrupt imo and that's why VLC or WMP is unable to play it. Thumbnail not showing video preview is a good indicator of this. And it doesn't really matter which player you use since what matters is whether you have the right video codecs installed on your PC to play that particular video format or not.

Try to convert that video again using WMM and see if the encoded video plays okay or not after that. Most likely it will.

=========

And now lemme offer you some more advice in this field. I have been out of touch with game recording but i used to be crazy about these things. I recorded plenty of games like GTA SA and GTA 4 and lots of cool videos of NFS: Most Wanted back in my days.

The very first thing you need to do is install the best video\audio codec pack collection and that is K-lite codec pack. Install both 32 and 64 bit versions on your windows 7 x64 bit.

After this you need to see if FRAPS is a good recording software or not for you. There are plenty of recording softwares out there but famous one these days is Bandicam. Check it out bro:
http://www.bandicam.com/fraps-alternative/

Other alternatives are dxtory, MSI Afterburner & smart pixel.
http://www.smartpixel.com/

People often use video converters to encode it to H.264 anyways. H.264 is the new standard for compressing videos with more advanced compression methods. FRAPS videos are often converted into this format to get a more compressed video in filesize without actual noticeable loss of quality both in video and audio. Thus it becomes quite very easy to share on web. Which is what you're doing.

People like Bandicam because it records the game directly into H.264 format.

Another tip that most people are unfamiliar with is that you need to record your games on a complete different hard drive, if possible. It'll remove some annoyances when game data is being retrieved from HDD when loading a level and stuff where the game is installed.

Plenty of gamers these days are doing this and have their own dedicated YT channels for it so you could ask them what they personally prefer and maybe you can find more tricks & stuff.

Hope all this helps you somewhat and good luck on this endeavour. I wish you all the best bro!
 
Solution

mk04

Honorable
Nov 15, 2013
52
0
10,630


Yep, that's what I meant by raw file. And ah yes, I was actually going to try saving it in WMM which is the second option next to H.264. I'll definitely be trying that once I get home.

Ah, it's nice to hear some information from someone who has tried recording games themselves. Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll definitely look into the "K-lite codec pack". I heard that it's risky to download it without knowing anything about it so I'll probably do some research on it beforehand.

As for recording software, FRAPS is doing me justice atm but who knows, I may change if there is something better. As of now, I'll probably stick to it since I already bought it (haha), but I will look into it in the near future, hopefully.

As for recording on a different HDD, I actually thought about that once but atm, it's way too much of a hassle haha. At this point of recording gameplays and such, I'm comfortable with where I'm at, more or less. I'm just trying to get used to it and see how it goes! But I'd like to do that in the future as well, once I can put money into upgrading and such.

And finally, thanks for the kind words! I really do appreciate it. I wish you all the best with what's occurring in your life as well :ange: