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Windows Movie Maker Super Slow to Edit

Anonymous
2014-09-07T20:25:41+00:00

Hi, I've got a Windows7 64 Bit system, freshly installed, and WMM 2012. I'm finding that when I import HD clips, the preparation process works as expected, and the saving movie process works as expected, but when I want to edit the project, the program acts very sluggish. I could move the timeline from 0:00 to 3:00 (3 minutes), and it might take the program 2-3 minutes before I can see or play the content that is at 3:00. So editing a 30 minute video clip might 12 minutes just to set a start and end point that is different than the native clip had to begin with, meaning just trimming off a couple of minutes at the start and finish. 

Prior to reinstalling Windows I was able to edit anything as you would expect, moving the timeline anywhere within any clip, even a 3 hour long clip, would give instant response, no waiting as described above.  I don't know what version of WMM I had on the system as it had been editing video very nicely since about 2010, but I would guess that MS was updating it regularly anyway.  No other programs are running slowly on the system, it just seems to be WMM that has this problem. The computer isn't doing anything else, and I've cleared the temp files from the system before hand, that makes no difference.   Task manager will show 45-60% processor usage when the prob is happening, so it seems like it's a huge, processor intensive process for the system to find the newly requested edit point in the project. 

Oddly, every now then (one out of 8-9 projects) the software behaves normally.

Does anybody have suggestions as to how to fix this?  I did have a virus on the system thanks to the Mobo manufacturer's bundled software that I shouldn't have loaded, but that has been removed by MS Security Essentials, and I get clean scans now, and malwarebytes also reports a clean system.  I'm probably going to attempt load W7 on another drive and see if that corrects the problem, but if anybody knows what might fix the prob, it seems like that would be way easier than doing another full install of W7 again.

Thanks for reading and/or helping!

Windows for home | Other | Music, photos, and video

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-09-09T07:15:01+00:00

    Hi,

    I'll be happy to help you with your issue that Windows Movie Maker is slow when editing project files. For us to troubleshoot your issue, kindly try to repair Movie Maker to make sure there is no corrupted file causing the issue. Follow the steps below to do this:

    1. Press Windows + R, input AppWiz.cpl, then click OK.

    2. Search for Windows Essentials 2012 on the list and then select it.

    1. Click Uninstall/Change.
    2. Click Repair all Windows Essentials programs.

    If the above steps did not help, kindly provide the following information so that we can isolate the issue further:

    -What are the file types you were trying to edit?

    -What is the version of Movie Maker installed on your computer? If it is Movie Maker 2011, kindly download the updated version here.

    To check the version of Movie Maker, follow the steps below:

    1. Open Movie Maker.
    2. Press Alt + F , then click on About Movie Maker.

    We look forward to your reply.

    Thank you.

    6 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2014-10-07T02:57:31+00:00

    Hi, 

    This problem (mostly) went away for about 3 weeks, then suddenly resurfaced in the past few days.

    ---[Maybe it only works well in the last 1/2 of the month?]---

    When WMM was (mostly) functioning, the program was working normally, except that the audio and video would not be synced, off by 1/2 second or so in the preview mode. Finished video would be in sync.

    Anyway, I did the repair before I wrote the above support request, and again after your reply, neither made any difference.

    The type of video I'm editing are almost always .wtv files that were created by WMC.

    The version of WMM is 2012 (Build 16.4.3528.0331)

    I do believe I fully described this problem before, but I've again reviewed the resource monitor when using WMM, literally any movement in the timeline of a 4 minute clip will result in 8-9 minutes of moviemaker using 50% of the processor resources, even causing other programs to behave sluggishly.

    It's like this version of WMM requires a supercomputer to perform properly, and my AMD Phenom II X2 555 320 GHz processor is too slow. btw, I'm running Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit with 4GB. I'd wonder if I was lacking resources, but this same config used to run WMM perfectly, even if WMC was recording multiple programs at the same time.  I could scrub the timeline back and forth, even in a 3 hour video, and MM would respond instantly, no lag in the picture or sound at all.

    One difference that I think may be present now that was not previously, I don't recall seeing MPEG-4/H.264 Video File as an available project type. As it is now, that option comes up as the default, and I always change it to a Windows Media File. I don't think I had to do that previously.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-03-21T06:46:14+00:00

    I have the same problem. I'm running Win 7 64 bit on Dell XPS 8700 running 32 GB of RAM.

    Go figure.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-04-27T02:50:07+00:00

    I have the same issue after upgrade my machine from Window 7 32 bit to Window 7 64 bit, along with 4GB to 8GB of memory upgrade and regular hard drive to SSD drive.

    Had no problem before the upgrade.  I would think the movie maker should be faster by now, but every time I tried to set the start and end point, the timeline window on the right became gray for good 10-20 minutes.  It happened on multiple video files, all recorded by Microsoft Media Center through TV tuner.  The file format is dvr-ms.  Size is a few 100MB -> a few GB in size recorded in HD (1920x1080) I believe.  Eventually the final cut was saved in MP4 (the slowness is not part of the save option).

    System Info:

    Dell E6420

    Intel Core i5-2520M CPU @ 2.5GHz

    8GB memory  (upgraded from 4GB)

    64 bit Window 7.

    256GB of SSD (about 60GB free).

    Windows Movie Maker 2012, build 16.4.3528.0331)

    Michael

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-10-07T20:39:31+00:00

    More information on this same problem...

    If I edit a .wmv file that I've already created, the program works perfectly.

    If I edit a .wtv file that was standard definition, the program works perfectly.

    It's only HD content, and the preparation phase doesn't take any longer than usual.

    When MM is having this problem (every time lately) it doesn't indicate that it has to "prepare" the video again, it just takes way longer than usual to move from one point in the timeline to another.  I've also noticed that the clip view window on the r/h side will show the first frame of the clip, but then if I change the start or end point, or even just move the current point in the timeline, the clip view only displays a black & gray box. Then there is the long 4-15 minute wait before the main window shows the video frame that corresponds to the current point in the timeline. Finally, the clip view will show the first frame of the new start point.   I have the "zoom timescale" setting to zoomed all the way out (-) so that there is only one frame shown, and I'm usually only editing one clip at a time.

    All of the lag time that is so unusual is coupled with extreme amounts of processor resource consumption by MovieMaker, my only guess is that the program is "re-preparing" the video every time any adjustment is made, or even when the timeline is moved.

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