I'm using Windows Movie Maker for the first time (ever) and when I try to save my project as a finished movie, I get an error:

"Windows Movie Maker cannot save the movie to the specified location. Verify that the original source files used in your movie are still available, that the saving location is still available, and that there is enough free disk space available, and try again."

I have verified all that repeatedly. I'm saving to my C drive. I have 38 Gig of free space. The project is less than 50 Meg. All the project files are together in one directory, and I'm the Administrator of this machine and have read/write access to everything. Any ideas why MSWMM is being such a pain, or how to fix it?

The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery. - Bertrand Russell, 1932

The best place to go for help with any issues with WMM is HERE. MVP papaJohn is considered to be the authority on this free but not so great software provided "as is" by M$.

i_Xp/VistaUser

You may want to try to save it to a particular folder versus directly to the C: drive.

Create a folder somewhere and save it there.

HTH
Bryan

I agree with Bryan. There are some limitations on the contents of the c:\ (root) folder.

I third what Bryco says as well.

WinSimple Software

Oh, I wasn't saving it to the root. I was saving it to C:\Images\Pictures\2008-06-20\ where the rest of my project files were. I just meant that I was saving to my C drive in general as opposed to trying to save it to some netwok location that I don't have the proper permissions for.

Obviously, I'm not impressed with WMM.

I did manage to narrow down the scope of the issue though. It seems that I have a faulty WMV codec. According to GSpot (see screen shot link below), it can't properly render the video stream, which is fine by me because frankly I hate the Windows Media codecs.

So - anybody know of a better utility I can use since I really don't feel like dicking around with a screwed up WMV codec?

Gspot Screenie

The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery. - Bertrand Russell, 1932

Updated ... Bill Gates agreed with my statement that WMM is not a so great software provided by M$. Read his rant in this 2003 e-mail message to his fellow M$ofties.

i_Xp/VistaUser

I've recently aquired VirtualDub and VirtualDub Mod - do these perform many of the same functions?

The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery. - Bertrand Russell, 1932

They allow you to capture and cut out unwanted parts to the video. It only supports AVI files which get big in very little time. A minute long video can be as big as 500MB.

They do not have features such as a storyboard, effects, or transitions.

WinSimple Software