pulling my hair out with Motion Pictures HD!

[portena]

I am having a frustrating time with MP - having not even realised I owned it after purchasing it bundled with Toast 8, I was surprised and very excited to discover this seemingly great application. That was, until I went to add to my project later. I had saved it ("save as" - selected destination etc) as I would any normal file, but the next time I opened it (tried several methods, including clicking on the file itself, or opening from within MP from the drop down menu "File - open recent") but all the happens is basically a big fat "STALL". Not even a whirly coloured ball to show me its working on it. After several minutes (yes, I eventually tried the tried and true solution "patience") but not even a half hour resting time (shouldn't be necessary on this powerful machine anyway) results in anything else but a blank screen. The most I've managed to see is a blank window called "window" (not "My Movie" as my file is called), with document details in the bottom left corner showing the size of the file and number of photos etc - i.e. it KNOWS there is meant to be something there). Furthermore the actual file size is around 9mb, indicating the photos ARE in there somewhere.

 

I am running a new imac g5 24inch, 2.4ghz, Leopard, etc etc (bought last week), and am running Toast 8.0.3 and the latest version of MP (2.1.4t). I have tried uninstalling Toast entirely and running 8.0.1, with no joy. Reloaded the update, still no luck.

 

I am at a loss. Talk about not knowing what you're missing until its gone - wish I'd never known it was there!

 

Help/suggestions gratefully received!

[tsantee]

Now that's a pretty serious bug. I just tried this with my MacBook Pro running 10.5.1 and the saved project does not open. The developer for Motion Pictures really has neglected this once-promising application and it now has too many problems to recommend that anyone use it. You can use iMovie HD, Fotomagico or Photo-to-Movie instead. None have the multiple images per frame option that Motion Pictures have but all are superior in every other way. I like Photo-to-Movie but won't buy it because it is developed by the same company that did Motion Pictures and I'm ticked at them for neglecting this application.

[portena]

Oh dear that's not good news but at least I'm not alone then... so what would you suggest I do next? should I email the customer service desk with details of the complaint or is that being a tad optimistic!? I really do hope it can be fixed as the grouping of pictures is the clincher for me.... I want! I need!!!

 

Thanks

[tsantee]

Oh dear that's not good news but at least I'm not alone then... so what would you suggest I do next? should I email the customer service desk with details of the complaint or is that being a tad optimistic!? I really do hope it can be fixed as the grouping of pictures is the clincher for me.... I want! I need!!!

 

Thanks

The problem only is when trying to open the file while running Leopard. I just saved a Motion Pictures project while in Leopard and was able to open it with my G5 iMac that is running Tigard. If you have a second hard drive then install Tiger on it, use the Startup Disk panel in System Preferences to choose that drive as the startup and you may be able to launch your Motion Pictures project.

[tsantee]

Oh dear that's not good news but at least I'm not alone then... so what would you suggest I do next? should I email the customer service desk with details of the complaint or is that being a tad optimistic!? I really do hope it can be fixed as the grouping of pictures is the clincher for me.... I want! I need!!!

 

Thanks

The file will open if you're on a Mac that's running Tiger rather than Leopard. I have Tiger installed on a separate hard drive and can boot from it to run applications that aren't Leopard friendly.

[portena]

THANK-YOU! pain in the *#$ but will give it a try. Not sure if Toast will run on my old ibook running Tiger as she's down to her last gb or two of free space. Maybe I can do a custom-install of just MP? Export to quicktime to make my mov file then transfer it back to the imac. I could try your suggestion of the back up drive but that's unfamiliar to me ( I don't know how to install tiger on to it) and the idea of changing the startup disc in preferences makes me anxious... i'm new to this! Thanks for the suggestions tho..!

[tsantee]

THANK-YOU! pain in the *#$ but will give it a try. Not sure if Toast will run on my old ibook running Tiger as she's down to her last gb or two of free space. Maybe I can do a custom-install of just MP? Export to quicktime to make my mov file then transfer it back to the imac. I could try your suggestion of the back up drive but that's unfamiliar to me ( I don't know how to install tiger on to it) and the idea of changing the startup disc in preferences makes me anxious... i'm new to this! Thanks for the suggestions tho..!

If you have a Firewire cable you can connect your new Mac to the iBook in Target Disk mode so that the new Mac acts just like an external hard drive. From there you should be able to launch the Motion Pictures project even though it isn't on the iBook's drive.