How to fix error 80004003 in Windows Live Movie Maker

Error 80004003

A number of people have been reporting corruption issues (error 80004003) when trying to reopen a Windows Live Movie Maker project. It happens after a person has made changes to a WLMM project then he/she tries to reopen the project. WLMM displays an error (80004003) saying that it is unable to open the file.

Sorry, Movie Maker can't open this project file. The file might not be compatible with Windows Live Movie Maker or be corrupted.

If you are willing to wait, Microsoft will fix a corrupted file for you. I've also fixed quite a few files for people in the Microsoft Answers forums.

This post is for anyone that wants to know what is happening behind the scenes, or that wants to try to fix the problem on their own.

The first step is to make a copy of the file so you aren't working with the original. Next, right-click on the copy of the project file and choose 'Open With' and pick the Notepad application.

Scroll to the bottom of the file to find a <BoundPlaceHolders> section. It says that the "Text" section has an extentID of 4. Looking just above that you should see a section that starts with <ExtentSelector ExtentID="4" which lists all the added titles and captions by number. Make a note of all these because you'll need them later.

Now search further up for each section starting with <TitleClip. Ignore any sections that have a complete section between the <Effects> and </Effects> tags. Eventually you'll hit a few that just have <Effects/> (an empty Effects section).

Check if that ExtentID in the list of ExtentIDs in the Text section from before (the ones you made a note of). If it isn't you can ignore this, but if you find that it has an empty Effects section *and* it is listed in that block of text ExtentIDs, that's a problem.

Take the empty <Effects> line and replace it with a block of <Effects> ... </Effects> from a working title. I usually fill in the <BoundPropertyStringSet Name="string"> section with a recognizable string like "FIX ME!" so I can find it later. Most often, there is only one caption that is corrupted, so you might be able to stop here. However, you should check all <TitleClip sections to be sure. After replacing the empty Effects sections in all bad captions with good data, you can save the file.

You should now be able to open the project in Windows Live Movie Maker just like before. Look for any caption(s) that say "FIX ME!" and correct the position, text and styling as needed.

As a final step, I'd recommend downloading the latest version of Windows Live Movie Maker. Version 15.4.3555.0308 which was released in March has a fix to prevent this corruption from happening in future projects. It won't fix broken projects, but at least it will stop you from having this problem going forward. It's really not all that magical and can be done easily, if you are careful and only work in a copy.

Blaine's Custom Transition Pack 4 (Twists)

I've been meaning to release another transition pack for awhile now. If you watch the Transition Pack 4 - Sample Video you'll see they are a series of cool twist transitions.

These transitions require the use of Rehan's ShaderTFX add-on. If you've never installed this before, follow the directions on his website and test they work first. If you've already installed a copy of ShaderTFX (registered or unregistered), you can skip these steps.

There are two installers depending on whether you are running WMM 6.0 on a 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows. The installer will put the necessary files into, C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\Shared.

Prerequisite: Rehan's ShaderTFX add-on.

Windows Movie Maker 6.0:
Blaine's Transition Pack 4 (64-bit) Installer
Blaine's Transition Pack 4 (32-bit) Installer

After restarting Windows Movie Maker, you should have 28 new Twist transitions with corresponding icons. There are 4 twist directions and 7 different background colors.

*Note: These transitions require the architecture of WMM 6.0 and can't be made to work on the earlier WMM 2.6 or the later WLMM. For anyone that wants to customize the background color, check the .xml.

Blaine's Paint Splat Titles

I had a request in the forums for titles on top of paint splats. Here's a sample video to help you visualize the titles.

Note: These titles will work in WMM 2.1 (XP) and WMM 6.0 (Vista/Win7). I've provided XML for both versions in the installers.

There are two installers depending on whether you are running on a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows. The installer will put the necessary files into, C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\Shared.

Blaine's Paint Splat Titles (32-bit)
Blaine's Paint Splat Titles (64-bit)

There are 4 different colored paint splats. To use one of the new titles:
Go to 'Tools' > 'Titles and Credits' > 'Title on the selected clip'.
Type your text in the first box.
Click on 'change the title animation'.
Under your list of one line titles, find the new animation in the desired color:

Paint Splat (Blue)

Paint Splat (Green)

Paint Splat (Purple)

Paint Splat (Red)

As with other titles, you can change the font and other styling attributes. Finally, click 'Done'.
Adjust the title duration by shrinking/stretching the rectangle on the Title Overlay track.

Blaine's Video with Scrolling Text

In response to a query on the Windows Movie Makers forums, I created this custom title animation. It shrinks the current video and shows it on the left. You can then type a lot of text (credits, notes, disclaimers, copyrights, etc.) and have it scroll by on the right.

For instructions on how to add this custom title and use it in Windows Movie Maker 6.0, please check the WMM forums. Please post there if you have further questions.

Blaine's TV Signal Effects

Back in the "old" days, we all had analog TVs where the picture was drawn by an electron beam on a cathode ray tube (CRT). The resulting picture often had noise in the signal, visible scan lines and a slight curvature to the screen. Well, now you can relive those days by applying one of my TV Signal Effects. These effects work with Windows Movie Maker 6.0 (either under Vista or Windows 7).

To install the TV Signal Effects into Windows Movie Maker, you have a choice of installers depending on whether you are running WMM 6.0 on a 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows. Pick the correct installer and it will put the necessary files into C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\Shared.

Windows Movie Maker 6.0:
Blaine's TV Signal Effects (64-bit) Installer
Blaine's TV Signal Effects (32-bit) Installer

After restarting Windows Movie Maker, you should have 4 new TV Signal effects with corresponding icons:

TV Signal (All) - all 3 effects applied at once (curvature, noise and scanlines)

TV Signal (Curvature) - distorts the picture to give it a slight curvature.

TV Signal (Noise) - adds some random "dot crawl" to the clip.

TV Signal (Scanlines) - draws the screen in bands of light and dark, with some color fringing.

You can apply the individual effects, or just use the combined TV Signal (All) effect. You might also want to apply a Blur effect or Grayscale effect, especially if you are simulating a black and white TV, or maybe a surveillance monitor.

Note: These transitions require the architecture of WMM 6.0 and can't be made to work on versions 2.6 or earlier.

Blaine's Custom Transition Pack 3 (Paper Fold)

Before the end of the year, I wanted to publish another set of transitions for Windows Movie Maker 6.0*. These are called "Paper Fold" transitions which will be obvious if you watch the Transition Pack 3 - Sample Video.

These transitions require the use of Rehan's ShaderTFX add-on. If you've never installed this before, follow the directions on his website and test they work first. If you've already installed a copy of ShaderTFX (registered or unregistered), you can skip these steps.

There are two installers depending on whether you are running WMM 6.0 on a 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows. The installer will put the necessary files into, C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\Shared.

Prerequisite: Rehan's ShaderTFX add-on.

Windows Movie Maker 6.0:
Blaine's Transition Pack 3 (64-bit) Installer
Blaine's Transition Pack 3 (32-bit) Installer

After restarting Windows Movie Maker, you should have 7 new Paper Fold transitions with corresponding icons. They all look like the screen is being folded down the middle and then it opens up to the new clip. The only difference between the clips is the color background that appears.

*Note: These transitions require the architecture of WMM 6.0 and can't be made to work on versions 2.6 or earlier. For anyone that wants to customize the background color, check the .xml.

Custom Camera Shutter and Letterbox Effects for Windows Movie Maker 6.0 (Updated)

Updated! This package has been updated with a camera shutter effect and white letterbox bars. Enjoy!

There have been lots of requests on the forums for a letterbox/widescreen effect which adds bars to the top and bottom of your video. Well, I went one step farther and added a couple more effects that let you have the bars appear and disappear. Here's a sample video of the moving letterbox effects.

Note: These effects take advantage of the effects architecture of Windows Movie Maker 6.0 and therefore will not work in XP. There are other solutions for XP such as a letterbox title.

There are two installers depending on whether you are running WMM 6.0 on a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows. The installer will put the necessary files into, C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\Shared.

Windows Movie Maker 6.0:
Blaine's Letterbox Effects (32-bit)
Blaine's Letterbox Effects (64-bit)

After installing, you'll have new effects called:

Camera Shutter - quick in and out (New)

Letterbox - static letterbox in black

Letterbox (In) - adds letterbox in black

Letterbox (Out) - removes letterbox in black

Letterbox White - static letterbox in white (New)

Letterbox White (In) - adds letterbox in white (New)

Letterbox White (Out) - removes letterbox in white (New)

Blaine's ASCII Text Effects for Windows Movie Maker 6.0 (Updated!)

Updated! This package has been updated with 3 different effects (Text, Binary and Japanese). Enjoy!

Have you heard of ASCII Art? It's a method of drawing pictures using just the characters on your keyboard. How cool would it be if you could apply an effect in Windows Movie Maker to have your photos or videos instantly converted to ASCII Art? Well with my latest ASCII Text effects you can do it very easily.

A couple notes:
These effects require a registered copy of Rehan's ShaderTFX add-on. It will also work if you are still within the trial period of ShaderTFX. If you've never installed ShaderTFX before, follow the directions on Rehan's website and test that his transitions and effects work first. If you've already installed and registered a copy of ShaderTFX, you can skip these steps.

For a preview of what these effects look like, check out Blaine's ASCII Text Effects (Updated)

For the new effects, there are two installers depending on whether you are running WMM 6.0 on a 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows. The installer will put the necessary files into, C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\Shared.

Prerequisite: Rehan's ShaderTFX add-on (registered or unexpired!).

Windows Movie Maker 6.0:
Blaine's ASCII Text Effects (64-bit) Installer
Blaine's ASCII Text Effects (32-bit) Installer

After restarting Windows Movie Maker, you should have three new effects called:

ASCII Binary - Uses just zeroes and ones

ASCII Japanese - Uses Japanese katakana symbols

ASCII Text - Uses letters, numbers and symbols

Just apply one of these effects to your video like any other effect. Often you may want to apply a 'Brightness, Increase' once or twice, or a Blur effect to your clip before the ASCII effect. Brightness added afterwards can also help.

*Note: These effects require the architecture of WMM 6.0 and can't be made to work on versions 2.6 or earlier, nor will it work on Windows Live Movie Maker.

Blaine's Custom Transition Pack 2 (MultiSlide)

Time for another pack of transitions for Windows Movie Maker 6.0*. I call these "MultiSlide" transitions. Check out the Transition Pack 2 - Sample Video and you'll see why.

These transitions require the use of Rehan's ShaderTFX add-on. If you've never installed this before, follow the directions on his website and test they work first. If you've already installed a copy of ShaderTFX (registered or unregistered), you can skip these steps. There are two installers depending on whether you are running WMM 6.0 on a 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows. The installer will put the necessary files into, C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\Shared.

Prerequisite: Rehan's ShaderTFX add-on.

Windows Movie Maker 6.0:
Blaine's Transition Pack 2 (64-bit) Installer
Blaine's Transition Pack 2 (32-bit) Installer

After restarting Windows Movie Maker, you should have 7 new transitions with corresponding icons:

MultiSlide (2 columns) - Each column slides in opposite directions

MultiSlide (2 rows) - Each row slides in opposite directions

MultiSlide (many columns) - Each column slides in opposite directions

MultiSlide (many rows) - Each row slides in opposite directions

MultiSlide (quad diagonal) - Each corner moves in a different diagonal direction

MultiSlide (quad orthogonal) - Each corner moves in a different compass direction

MultiSlide (weaving) - Lines and columns appear to weave in and out.

*Note: These transitions require the architecture of WMM 6.0 and can't be made to work on versions 2.6 or earlier.

Alias (or Simpsons) Title for Windows Movie Maker

If you have ever watched the TV show Alias or The Simpsons, you've seen this title. It starts with a solid background and a title (such as the name of the location, or the words "The Simpsons"). Through that you can see the video, after a few seconds the words expand toward the screen and you can see the full video behind. Here's a sample video to help you visualize it.

Note: This title will work in WMM 2.1 (XP) and WMM 6.0 (Vista). I've provided XML for both versions in the installers.

There are two installers depending on whether you are running on a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows. The installer will put the necessary files into, C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\Shared.

Blaine's Alias Title (32-bit)
Blaine's Alias Title (64-bit)

To use the new title:
Go to 'Tools' > 'Titles and Credits' > 'Title on the selected clip'.
Type your text in the first box.
Click on 'change the title animation'.
Under your list of one line titles, find the new animation:

Alias Title

As with other titles, you can change the font and other styling attributes. For the best results, pick a big, bold font like Arial Black. Note: the color you choose for the font will actually be the color of the background, since the video and text are reversed.
Finally, click 'Done'.

A couple additional things you might want to do. If you want the title to take longer, stretch it to the right. I added the 'Fade In from White' effect to the video so that the text would start white.