Vostro 1400 Clean Vista Install -> integrated webcam not captuing in Windows Movie Maker

Hi guys. I recently bought a Vostro 1400 with XP preinstalled. After assuring myself that all the hardware worked, I wiped it and installed Vista using a retail copy I had purchased a year ago (for my older laptop, which proved unable to handle it so I reverted back to XP).

Anyways, everything is fine now in Vista, except I can't seem to do a video capture from the integrated webcam in Windows Movie Maker. It does work fine in Windows Live Messenger and the Dell Webcam Center.

I thought I could do a capture from Windows Movie Maker before while testing the preinstalled XP. (Please correct me if I am misremembering.) If that's true, then obviously I have not properly installed some driver or app, or not configured something correctly since the reinstall.

I have installed the Integrated webcam driver (which makes the webcam usable in Messenger) and webcam center application (which allows me to record videos in that app). I also installed the webcam manager, which just seems to be a way to launch the various webcam-related apps.

Can someone please tell me if the webcam works for capturing video in Windows Movie Maker, and if so, what I need to configure to get that working again? Thanks.

 

Windows Movie Maker does not have a built in feature to capture live video, it only can import video that has already been taken. Check to see if your webcam application has a feature that captures video. From there you can just import that video into movie maker.

 

Yes I can capture from the webcam application. It's just that I'm almost positive I did a capture from *within* Windows Movie Maker using the integrated webcam. I could be misremembering. But maybe Dell had something that actually made this work? (For example, if somehow the internal webcam showed up as a USB device like an external webcam...) If so I'd like to get this set up in the new OS installation as it was when it came preinstalled.

 

OK I think I have the answer. According to Wikipedia, "the Windows Vista version of Windows Movie Maker no longer supports importing video from an analog video source such as a VCR or from a webcam." I guess the version I was using in the pre-installed XP *could* import from a webcam, but the version in the newly-installed Vista *cannot*. So I could download the older 2.6 version from the Microsoft Download Center to try and confirm, but instead I'll just capture in a webcam app and import into Windows Movie Maker, as recommended. However, one drawback is that the Dell Webcam Manager only seems to support video capture from the integrated camera. I just plugged in my Xbox Live Vision camera, and although it's detected, I seem to have no way to capture video from it.

 

I think the real problem here is that your using Windows Movie Maker. What a piece of sheet. Not you, the program. Try a third party app.