Vista and DVR-MS Video Editing: Yes, It Finally Works

[Jason Dunn]

As much as I enjoy using my Windows Media Center Edition 2005, it's been a constant source of frustrating that the video files it records (DVR-MS format) are so difficult to work with. The files are in MPEG2 format, but placed in an ASF wrapper that contains all the metadata about the recording from the guide. Every tool I've used to work with those files has been awkward in one way or another: almost nothing will open the DVR-MS files natively, and if they do, it usually involves extracting the MPEG2 to a separate file - a time-consuming process. Most of the tools one the market are from hobbyists who are as frustrated as I am at working with DVR-MS files, and sadly the tools have tended to not be very high quality (think command-line).

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/vista-windows-movie-maker.jpg

Microsoft has been infuriatingly unresponsive on this issue: their own Windows Movie Maker tool can't open DVR-MS files without a registry hack, and even then, it's unstable and messy (which is why it takes a registry hack to enable, they didn't want to allow it by default because they knew the experience was so poor). Windows Media Encoder, the dusty and ignored encoder, can't do anything with DVR-MS files.

So, given all that, you can imagine the grin that spread across my face the first time I tried to open a DVR-MS file in Windows Movie Maker under Vista and it worked without the slightest glitch. I was able to open a two hour TV show, edit out the commercials easily using the Split button, and export it as a 1 mbps 640 x 480 WMV file, which looks great when played on my TV via the Xbox 360. Windows Movie Maker has also been polished up a bit under Vista, and I enjoyed using it. This is the experience that should have been possible three years ago, and while it's inexcusable that Microsoft took so long to deliver it, I'll give credit where credit is due: Vista finally enables me to easily edit DVR-MS files.

[Vincent Ferrari]

I've always liked Windows Movie Maker. It's a damned good program considering it's free. My only gripe with it was that it didn't burn DVD's, etc. It's nice to see they made improvements to their editor that were needed.

Wonder if they're gonna offer a Pro version? Frankly, they should, because the potential is quite good.

[Jason Dunn]

My only gripe with it was that it didn't burn DVD's, etc. It's nice to see they made improvements to their editor that were needed. Wonder if they're gonna offer a Pro version?

Indeed, the lack of DVD burning kind of sucked - but I think it was one of those "we'd better not add too much to it or companies that make DVD burning software will sue us" scenarios. Microsoft has that problem a lot. Anyway, Windows DVD Maker is now included in all versions of Vista except for Home Basic (I think) and it's quite a cool app - I'll probably write about it next week.

As for a Pro version, if memory serves Vista Ultimate Windows Movie Maker will be able to edit HD video, but not Home Premium...which I think is kind of lame so have one version only in Ultimate, but that's Microsoft's way of adding value to Vista Ultimate. <shrug> I kind of doubt someone who's editing HD video will use Windows Movie Maker anyway (though I find myself using it a lot more on Vista than XP).

[Vincent Ferrari]

There are so many great things in XP that people never really talk about.

Not for nothing, but I LOVE the Picture and Fax viewer. It's the default viewer for JPGs, etc., on every system I use it on... DRM / content protection issues aside, they did do a really good job on Vista also. I think anyone with the horsepower to run the whole shebang is going to be very happy with it.

[aroma]

HOT DANG! That IS good news! Now if I can just get that darn hard drive problems resolved on my HTPC box.