Windows Movie Maker changing video clip colors

[sparrow19]

Hello, Intelligent People

For some reason, the colors of the video clips I import in WMM seem to be the negatives, or something close, of the proper colors. This doesn't happen when I preview the clips while they're still part of a collection, but only when I drag and drop a clip into the storyboard (although the thumbnails of the clips while in the collection also have funky colors). Just for example, when I tried this with Sukisyo, Nao's hair stayed pink, but Sora's turned from blue to the same shade of pink as Nao's. Weird, huh? Or am I just an idiot?

Anyways, I would really appreciate some advice on how to fix this! Thanks!

[libertypo]

Hmm...seems a problem of wrong formats ( NTSC / PAL ).

Give us more details on the files. Use Gspot for the details on the files

[sparrow19]

Thanks for answering! Just so you know what you're dealing with, I have absolutely no idea what NTSC/PAL means I actually think I'm going to give up on WMM, since it keeps freezing, etc.

The reason I even tried to use it in the first place was because I had a somewhat different problem with NTI Home Video Maker. Using this program, when I opened what was as far as I could tell an .avi video, the bottom half of the frame would be cut off. This happened for any .avi video I tried. Vids downloaded off youtube (.wmv in that case), however, played fine. I got frustrated and turned to WMM, which obviously didn't help...

Any ideas? Thanks

[Caboose]

o.0 It's not your decoder is it?
I know when I use WMM the clips are green until I drag them onto the time-line. All of my video files used to do it too until I found a new decoder.
I'm most probably wrong though :\

[sparrow19]

I'm kind of clueless about decoders, too... is there one that you would recomend? I think that what I've got now is DivX. But then again I don't know what the difference between a codec and a decoder is... this is pathetic.

[libertypo]

Just tell me what do you want to do...

[KarumA]

I have absolutely no idea what NTSC/PAL means

Video codes inserted in some films so that they play for only a certain region
If you buy a DVD you have either PAL or NTSC -> PAL is the region code used in Europe and also Asia I think and NTSC is used in America and also the southern side (not sure where else for some)

If I (European) buy a DVD player it will be PAL coded so if I were to buy a DVD NTSC from America and put it in the DVD player it wouldn't play cause it can't read the coding. Same if you turn it around and it also happens if you video tape something with either a PAL camera or a NTSC camera

If you film a clip in PAL and then start editing it in a file set to NTCS you will get a messed up screen, the coding will mess up and things will happen that shouldn't happen. Or the damn file won't load and give an error about the coding

What Libertypo probably meant is that perhaps you had a video file with this kind of coding that you tried using in Windows MovieMaker while the coding set in that project was not the same as the file. Though I don't think this is the case, I think it is probably your decoder that is messing up the colours (don't fully know how WMM works but it uses the decoder that is inside the program itself I guess)

Also a codec is used when you play the file in example windows media player
A decoder sees the codes in the video and takes them out completely so you can work on the original file whereas a codec translates the code onto your screen
A decoder is the reverse of a codec