Windows Live Movie Maker: coming this year (but not yet)

The Lead Program Manager on the Windows Live Movie Maker team (and as it happens one of LiveSide’s oldest friends, from back in the MSN Spaces days), Mike Torres, posted on Windows Live Wire today with a status update for Windows Live Movie Maker.

As you may know, Windows Live Movie Maker will be a completely rebuilt replacement for the Windows Movie Maker product that has shipped with Windows since Windows ME (but won’t be shipping in Windows 7).  It was included as an early beta with Windows Live Essentials, but as Torres admits:

People were surprised (or shocked, rather!) at the limited number of transitions, effects, and overall functionality in the program. We wanted to release the beta to start the conversation about the use of the ribbon and some of the overall changes to the software model, but in hindsight, the application just wasn’t useful enough for that.

While there’s no timeline for when we’ll see an updated version of WLMM (except for “this year”), Torres offers some glimpses of what to expect from a new version, including more rich-editing capabilities (more transitions, trim, split, multiple soundtracks are all feedback requests), “some sort of a timeline”, and a simple interface that would “(a)llow more experienced people to go deeper when they need to”. 

What won’t be available in v1 is support for Windows XP, as Windows Live Movie Maker is built on the new graphics capabilities in Vista and 7, including DirectX.

Comments

  • http://www.liveside.net/members/mrmckeb/default.aspx mrmckeb

    Thankyou, this news is what I wanted to hear.

  • http://www.liveside.net/members/Alber1690/default.aspx Alber1690

    I’m with “mrmckeb” on this and immensely pleased to see attention brought to this issue :D!!!

    When I saw Windows Movie Maker completely dissapear from Windows 7, I was devasted because all I could picture was the made-for-2-year-olds Windows Live Movie Maker as the “alternative.” But finally, I have renewed hope that Windows Movie Maker might actually have a decent replacement in Windows 7.

  • JohnCz

    this is good news…trim/split editing is crucial for even the simplist of home video. and I can’t imagine composing anything longer than 5 minutes without some kind of time line. i’m happy they are addressing these.

  • http://www.liveside.net/members/efjay/default.aspx efjay

    Please pass on the message NOT to forget Windows Mobile phones, its really sad to see some great software from MS that does not work or does not even consider WM users. Doesnt stop devs from developing for other platforms (as i know pretty much everyone has an iphone) but seriously, interface aside WM is one of the mose powerful mobile OS’s available and its ridiculous to see MS themselves constangly ignoring it.

  • http://www.liveside.net/members/andrew19ao/default.aspx andrew19ao

    Finally. Even Windows Movie Maker in XP did not have enough capabilities.

  • JohnCz

    @efjay, phones and portable devices are great for communication, gathering (ex. camera) and consuming content on the go. i think editing content (ex. Movie Maker) would be fairly painful. however, perhaps a very basic feature set, like adding titles and geo/tagging could be useful.

  • http://www.liveside.net/members/hamiltonguy/default.aspx hamiltonguy

    Thank god, that beta was an unmitigated disaster. I dont care about uploading to youtube. I want to dress up my home movies.

  • http://www.liveside.net/members/efjay/default.aspx efjay

    @JohnCz; I actually meant the capability to convert a movie to a WM device compatible format, including taking into account the screen resolution. With Movie maker now the only res for PPC’s/WM is 320×240 which is only 1 of the resolutions supported now by WM phones meaning having to resort to 3rd party software just to get a playable file. However you are most likely to see an option for an ipod which will convert and play back much better than on MS’s own mobile OS.

  • http://www.liveside.net/members/calum_2D00_cook/default.aspx calum-cook

    What do you mean, pretty much everyone has an iPhone? Last time I checked, WM still had a deservedly higher market share.