• Septmerber 10, 2003 •
Microsoft Releases Movie Maker 2.1 for Windows XP
By: Arie Slob
Last August, Microsoft released Windows® Movie Maker 2.1 for Windows XP. Movie Maker 2.1 is included in Sercice Pack 2 for Windows XP.
Windows Movie Maker 2.1 includes the following updates:
- Increased compatibility with other video and audio programs. To help improve compatibility between Windows Movie Maker 2.1 and other video and audio programs on your computer, you can turn on or turn off another provider's video filters. For more information about Windows Movie Maker compatibility, see the article Working with Video Filters in Windows Movie Maker 2.1.
- Enabling digital video (DV) pass-through. The DV pass-through feature lets you transfer video from an analog video camera or VCR to your computer by using a DV camera to convert the analog video to a digital format. For more information about connecting video devices and using the DV pass-through feature in Windows Movie Maker, see Capturing Video in Windows Movie Maker 2.1 by Using DV Pass-Through.
- New default capture setting. In the Video Capture Wizard, the new default capture setting is a constant bit rate (CBR) profile rather than a variable bit rate (VBR) profile.
System Requirements
Here's what you'll need (minimum) to use Windows Movie Maker 2:.
- Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 2
- A 600 MHz processor, such as an Intel Pentium III, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Athlon, or equivalent processor (recommended: A 1.5 GHz processor, such as an Intel Pentium 4, an AMD Athlon XP 1500+, or equivalent processor)
- 128 MB of RAM (recommended 512 MB)
- 32 MB of VRAM (Video RAM) (recommended 64 MB)
- 2 GB of free hard disk space
- An audio capture device (to capture audio from external sources)
- A DV or analog video capture device (to capture video from external sources)
- An Internet connection (to save and send a movie to the Web or to send a movie as an attachment in an e-mail message)
- You will also need a way to get your videos into your computer. This requires different capture hardware depending on the source of your video.
You can also download a Multilingual User Interface Packs for Windows Movie Maker 2.1. The Multilingual User Interface (MUI) Packages for Windows Movie Maker 2.1 provide a localized user interface to users of Multilingual User Interface (MUI) versions of the Windows XP operating system who have installed Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). This allows users to switch the Windows Movie Maker 2.1 menus, dialog boxes, and Help from one language to another. The download is available from the Microsoft Download Web site.
To learn more about Windows Movie Maker, see Get Started with Windows Movie Maker, or check out the Windows Movie Maker 2.1 FAQ.
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