Windows Movie Maker has a black screen (no video, but audio still there)…Please help!!!

My first question is, did you transfer all your source video, photos and music for the project? And are they in the exact same location as the Windows 7 machine?

What I'm seeing are yellow triangle exclamation points on each of your clips. That is saying that Movie Maker can't find your media files.  If you have the files somewhere else on your computer (than the original folders), you can double-click on a missing clip and 'Find' the correct location. Then it should be visible in Movie Maker again.

I like to use the analogy of making a cake to describe the process of using Movie Maker:

• You have your ingredients (your source videos, photos and music). These are located somewhere on your computer's hard disk.
• You have your recipe (your .wlmp project file) that refers to those ingredients and tells how to mix them together to make a movie.
• When you like the way the recipe is laid out, you can then bake your final cake (the resulting movie file).

In your case you have a project file, but it doesn't sound like you have the ingredients.  Or the ingredients are in a different place than before.  You have to treat Movie Maker like a child.  If you tell your child to go get the eggs off the second shelf of the refrigerator, but you've moved them to the bottom shelf, it's like they don't exist.  They will only look on the second shelf and declare that the eggs aren't there.

Similary, if you tell Movie Maker that your source video should be in C:\Users\Win7User\Video but it is now it is a slightly different folder, it won't be found.  Point Movie Maker to the new locations and you should be fine.

P.S.  It's a common misconception to think that the project file contains the actual video, photos or audio.  Movie Maker does not embed a second copy of any media within it, just the folder location and file name.  Just like a recipe doesn't have actual ingredients (only references), a Movie Maker project doesn't have the actual media (just references).

Thank you very much for your reply.

It helped me to solve one problem - open the same project both OS (Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 8 Pro).

But the other problem remain - black preview screen in Windows Movie Maker (Windows 8 Pro).

I conducted the experiment. I started a new project in Windows Movie Maker (Windows 8 Pro) and edit the file MOD002.MOD.  Of course, as usual, there was a normal sound, but the preview screen is still black. I make minimal editing, even though the screen was black. In spite of the fact I save project. This same project I open in Windows Movie Maker (Windows 7 Ultimate). Everything was good – I see video in preview screen and hear sound.

How do I get a video in Windows Movie Maker (Windows 8 Pro) preview screen?

Andrejs

Hello Andrejs,

As you have mentioned, you are both using Movie Maker 2012 on both Windows 8 Pro and Windows 7 Ultimate. Since your computers have different operating systems, black preview screen can be an issue of insufficient codecs for Windows 8 Pro. Ensure that you have the proper codecs to play your videos and audio files – audio and video require codecs to play the file and it’s important to have the right codecs installed or updated in your PC.

- Try running the Microsoft FixIt tool for codecs: **FixIT**

- Media info will be able to identify any issue with missing of faulty codecs and whether it's already in your computer or not: Media Info

Another possibility is because of your video card drivers are not updated. Movie Maker makes extensive use of the video card GPU (graphics processing unit). The display driver affects the reliability, performance, and compatibility of the video card with different software.

To determine the version and video card driver date, run the DirectX Diagnostic Tool (dxdiag):

DirectX Diagnostic Tool

1. On your desktop, click Windows button + F on your keyboard. 
2. Click Apps then type dxdiag then hit Ok.
3. Click on the Display tab and you will see the driver details including the driver version.
4. If your video card driver seems outdated please go to the video card driver manufacturer and see if a newer version is available.

Example:

**http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us**

**http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx**

**http://downloadcenter.intel.com/**

Please let us know the result afterwards.

Thank you.

Hi,

Thank for your reply.

I have run Fixit and receive following info:

Fix it:

 Codec Crashes:

Troubleshooting is complete

Thank you for running an automated troubleshooter from Microsoft.

We did not detected any problems and therefore no fixes were applied.

I have gone to http://downloadcenter.intel.com/ and receive following info:

Graphics Driver 

Product Detected  Intel® HD Graphics 2500 or Intel® HD Graphics  

Current Driver Installed  9.17.10.2875 

Your driver is current. 

I test my video file MOD002.MOD with MediaInfo:

General

CompleteName                     : H:\Softs\Tests\MOV002.MOD

Format                           : MPEG-PS

FileSize/String                  : 24.4 MiB

Duration/String                  : 21s 528ms

OverallBitRate_Mode/String       : Variable

OverallBitRate/String            : 9 517 Kbps

Video

ID/String                        : 224 (0xE0)

Format                           : MPEG Video

Format_Version                   : Version 2

Format_Profile                   : Main@Main

Format_Settings_BVOP/String      : Yes

Format_Settings_Matrix/String    : Custom

Format_Settings_GOP              : M=3, N=12

Duration/String                  : 21s 520ms

BitRate_Mode/String              : Variable

BitRate/String                   : 9 072 Kbps

BitRate_Maximum/String           : 9 558 Kbps

Width/String                     : 704 pixels

Height/String                    : 576 pixels

DisplayAspectRatio/String        : 1.738

FrameRate/String                 : 25.000 fps

Standard                         : PAL

ColorSpace                       : YUV

ChromaSubsampling                : 4:2:0

BitDepth/String                  : 8 bits

ScanType/String                  : Interlaced

ScanOrder/String                 : Top Field First

Compression_Mode/String          : Lossy

Bits-(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.895

StreamSize/String                : 23.3 MiB (95%)

Color primaries                  : BT.601 PAL

Transfer characteristics         : BT.470 System B, BT.470 System G

Matrix coefficients              : BT.601

Audio

ID/String                        : 192 (0xC0)

Format                           : MPEG Audio

Format_Version                   : Version 1

Format_Profile                   : Layer 2

Duration/String                  : 21s 528ms

BitRate_Mode/String              : Constant

BitRate/String                   : 256 Kbps

Channel(s)/String                : 2 channels

SamplingRate/String              : 48.0 KHz

Compression_Mode/String          : Lossy

StreamSize/String                : 673 KiB (3%)

Why Windows Movie Maker (Windows 7 Ultimate) work correctly, although there is not installed any codecs, but Windows Movie Maker (Windows 8 Pro) does not work?

How do I remedy this?

Thank you in advance

Andrejs