I have the codecs (at first it wouldn’t even get into WMM, but I managed to solve that part); I’m trying to create a fanvid and the clips of the show play perfectly in windows media player and in “Collections” of Windows Movie Maker - but whenever I drag the clip to the storyboard area only the audio plays, and the screen is just black. Any thoughts? Thanks. 
Sorry - the files are AVI, which I downloaded off of Limewire.
How did you solve your codec probelem with the lime wire videos because I’m having the same problem. PLEASE HELP!
I’m having the EXACT same problem; vids are AVI, and play fine in media player and in collections, but it’s just a black screen and only audio is working... I’m making a fanvid as well...
Yes, for me, the AVI files will only appear in a black screen but still with sound.
Maybe you can try other Video Converter without Windows Movie Maker, some powerful video converters support more codes.
You can download the video converter tool for a try, hope it helps. :)
Video Converter Link
I converted mine with mediacoder. It transcodes it to the kind of file you need.
Im having a similar issue where when I put a video clip in the timeline only the audio drops down and not the video. file type is mpeg. Using Windows Vista
has anyone solved this ? ive had this problem for over a year and its the reason why i stopped making videos. when the video (either AVI or WMV) is in movie maker, it plays fine in the preview box. but once i drag it to the story line, when i try to play it from the storyline the preview box is black and only the audio plays.
I HAVE THE SOLUTION
I had the same problem but i found out why easily! I have two solutions, one is you may be dragging it onto the Audio Section by accident and you just drag it back to video file. You may have changed your video settings or your device is not compatible with you computer/laptop/netbook!
I think with Anthony’s problem you need to click 'Show Timeline' and check it is under 'Video Section' then it should play the video. What device are you using?
Hello,
I think there is some problem in your operating system that’s why movie maker didn’t load well. so try to load operating system with any other cd. i will also try to get some more information about this.
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Dish Network
yes i have the exact problem thanks for asking this
Shame nobody has resolve dthis problem, mine is the same, and I’ve made no mistakes with dragging or timeline show. Windows movia maker is a pain in the butt, it used to work great. As its no a program, you can’t just re-install... :-(
I had the same problem, download «ffdshow» and it should work fine.
i think i have the solution!!!!!!!!
first if your vid is a mod to have to remane it to avi
to do this in the folder your vids are in click organise and then folder and search options then view and uncheck the hide extensions for know file types (remember to check it back u finished renaming)
then i used freemake videoconverter to convert my avi to mwv
and then u should be able to just drag your now converted mwv files into movie maker and it sould be all good!!!!!!
I had this problem also, until I did this:
If you have windows vista or 7 then you can download windows movie maker version 2.6. this should fix the problem (it’s the vista version of movie maker that looks like the XP version) My videoa are now working ^_^
It seems that this is a very big problem. It is all over the web. The audio plays, but where the video should play itself is a black screen. I have looked every where and have found about 100 “solutions” to the problem, but none have worked,... looks like i will have to go to version 2.6
My problem is the opposite - only the video plays in the storyboard, but not the audio! I have tried everything I know to do. Is anyone else familiar with this problem?
I had the same problem, but when I installed windows movie maker 2.6 the problem was solved.