Windows Movie Maker Live - hands on

I am in the process of condensing close to 20 hours worth of video taken during 2009 into about 2 hours to fit on a DVD that I give to my parents and in-laws that live far away. I do it every year and they love it. It allows them to see the goings on of the kids, even if it is well after it happened.

This year all my video was taken with the Samsung SC-MX20. Along the way I've figured out the glitches and am doing my best to make good quality videos, even it if is just home videos, and share what I'm learning with you.

I've decided to use Windows Live Movie Maker for my project this year. In the past I've used various versions of Move Maker, but it's my understanding that with the release of Windows 7, the Windows Live version is the only one being supported going forward. So I'm giving it a whirl.

I'm not going to bore you with a how-to because, honestly, all versions of Movie Maker are very simple to use and anyone can crank out a projects. Making a high quality video, however, can take some patience and practice.

Windows Live Movie Maker focuses a lot on the simple, almost to the point where it makes it hard to do some of the "cooler" tricks. It seems aimed at your average junior high student that just wants to crank out something to post on YouTube. It's still possible to make your videos look more professional, but it's not easy.

So far I've been kind of disappointed with what I've been able to produce. I mean, for the grandmas and grandpas, it's good enough, but for the wannabe Spielberg in me, it's just not good enough.

Have you used Movie Maker Live? Do you like it? Have you learned any tricks to make it better? Let me know.