So, today, I start up the program, and import my stuff (which is fine, though
the Vaio Content Analyzer does annoying shit with hidden folders full of various
sizes of thumbnails -- one folder per analyzed file D:), but it's like UR VIDEOS
ARE NOT READABLE BAWWWWWWW. What the fuck, I say, they play IN EVERYTHING. I
went and checked out the Movie Story acceptable formats. AVI is there.
"Well this is an AVI!" I shout. (Except Motion JPEG) it says.
"Oh... fuck," I mutter. My Canon camera caps to M-JPEG, which is
handy, so long as you don't want to do anything with it.
It took forever to find a format I could (1) convert to that would be (a) a
reasonable size and (b) not take too long and (2) that Vaio Movie Story would
actually accept. HuffYUV works, but turns 45 second clips into 700MB behemoths.
In the end, I had to go for mpeg2, which is fine because mpeg2 has lots of uses,
and is still a reasonable size. That was the biggest hurdle behind me.
I started creating the video, which is very simple: import content (videos,
photos); mark the ones you definitely want in the final video as "high
priority"; choose a template from the ones provided (it takes a bit of
hunting to find appropriate ones -- I chose a school one, but it was all cherry
blossomy, which is wrong for October bunkasai); pick the song you want; set the
opening and ending titles; click start.
I did that. It created the preview for the video... and then threw an error.
"An error occurred while making a movie." The use of "a"
instead of "the" struck me as though someone Japanese had written the
error message. It was also painfully nonspecific, which again suggested to me
that it was simply taken from the Japanese. That's fine I guess, more an
observation than anything else.
That error was corrected by stripping all Shift_JIS from the tags of the song
I was using. Then it threw another nonspecific error. I thought maybe I was
running out of memory (I'm doing this in Vista Ultimate with 1GB of RAM, and
3948234 background processes, none of which are killable because they're all
required by Movie Story), but in the end it was actually the fact that I'd put a
period in the end title. As soon as I removed it, the video was created no
sweat. It gives you a preview and a timeline, so you can watch and be like
"good lord, why did it choose that picture there, you moron program"
and change the content completely or just drag and drop to change the order.
You can also, at that time, edit the title cards and put in whatever punctuation
your heart desires.
Once I was happy, it was export time. It took 20 minutes to export to mpeg2
(again, there were other options, but I had no idea if I'd be able to use the
MPEG-4 with AAC LC audio it wanted to use anywhere I wanted to, and mpeg2, as we
know, is safe).
I do wonder, though, why movie making programs like this always have such a
variety of annoying little foibles. The only way around them, usually, is
through trial and error and having a bit of experience. If I'd been a new
computer user, or new to video programs and didn't know how they can be, I would
have been very angry and and frustrated and whatnot. Movie Story is one of the
big upsell points on Vaios, at least here. "Look, we know all you parents
and grandparents have cameras and video cameras and want neat ways to present
this stuff. Buy a Vaio, you get this program, and then you can make these
delightful videos, burn them to DVD or Blu-Ray, and share them with everyone you
know and enjoy them for years to come."
I can just imagine some poor old granny, bent 90 degrees, importing the
photos and videos she took at her grandson's first elementary school sports day,
really happy about the memories she has, and the fun, interesting way she's
going to be able to share them with her family, only to be accosted by, "An
error occurred while creating a movie." She's new, she's not extremely
computer savvy, and she's really put herself out there on this project, and then
to get that? If it offered a suggestion as to what the error was, or a possible
solution to try, she may be able to muddle through; this way, she's apt to get
frustrated, angry, and sad.
It's a damned shame these errors are so dodgy. It's a great program if you
can get around them, but for their target demographic, these errors will be
insurmountable.
Review by Serge (about 1 year ago)
So, today, I start up the program, and import my stuff (which is fine, though the Vaio Content Analyzer does annoying shit with hidden folders full of various sizes of thumbnails -- one folder per analyzed file D:), but it's like UR VIDEOS ARE NOT READABLE BAWWWWWWW. What the fuck, I say, they play IN EVERYTHING. I went and checked out the Movie Story acceptable formats. AVI is there. "Well this is an AVI!" I shout. (Except Motion JPEG) it says. "Oh... fuck," I mutter. My Canon camera caps to M-JPEG, which is handy, so long as you don't want to do anything with it.
It took forever to find a format I could (1) convert to that would be (a) a reasonable size and (b) not take too long and (2) that Vaio Movie Story would actually accept. HuffYUV works, but turns 45 second clips into 700MB behemoths. In the end, I had to go for mpeg2, which is fine because mpeg2 has lots of uses, and is still a reasonable size. That was the biggest hurdle behind me.
I started creating the video, which is very simple: import content (videos, photos); mark the ones you definitely want in the final video as "high priority"; choose a template from the ones provided (it takes a bit of hunting to find appropriate ones -- I chose a school one, but it was all cherry blossomy, which is wrong for October bunkasai); pick the song you want; set the opening and ending titles; click start.
I did that. It created the preview for the video... and then threw an error. "An error occurred while making a movie." The use of "a" instead of "the" struck me as though someone Japanese had written the error message. It was also painfully nonspecific, which again suggested to me that it was simply taken from the Japanese. That's fine I guess, more an observation than anything else.
That error was corrected by stripping all Shift_JIS from the tags of the song I was using. Then it threw another nonspecific error. I thought maybe I was running out of memory (I'm doing this in Vista Ultimate with 1GB of RAM, and 3948234 background processes, none of which are killable because they're all required by Movie Story), but in the end it was actually the fact that I'd put a period in the end title. As soon as I removed it, the video was created no sweat. It gives you a preview and a timeline, so you can watch and be like "good lord, why did it choose that picture there, you moron program" and change the content completely or just drag and drop to change the order. You can also, at that time, edit the title cards and put in whatever punctuation your heart desires.
Once I was happy, it was export time. It took 20 minutes to export to mpeg2 (again, there were other options, but I had no idea if I'd be able to use the MPEG-4 with AAC LC audio it wanted to use anywhere I wanted to, and mpeg2, as we know, is safe).
I do wonder, though, why movie making programs like this always have such a variety of annoying little foibles. The only way around them, usually, is through trial and error and having a bit of experience. If I'd been a new computer user, or new to video programs and didn't know how they can be, I would have been very angry and and frustrated and whatnot. Movie Story is one of the big upsell points on Vaios, at least here. "Look, we know all you parents and grandparents have cameras and video cameras and want neat ways to present this stuff. Buy a Vaio, you get this program, and then you can make these delightful videos, burn them to DVD or Blu-Ray, and share them with everyone you know and enjoy them for years to come."
I can just imagine some poor old granny, bent 90 degrees, importing the photos and videos she took at her grandson's first elementary school sports day, really happy about the memories she has, and the fun, interesting way she's going to be able to share them with her family, only to be accosted by, "An error occurred while creating a movie." She's new, she's not extremely computer savvy, and she's really put herself out there on this project, and then to get that? If it offered a suggestion as to what the error was, or a possible solution to try, she may be able to muddle through; this way, she's apt to get frustrated, angry, and sad.
It's a damned shame these errors are so dodgy. It's a great program if you can get around them, but for their target demographic, these errors will be insurmountable.