every version of vista i've tried the DVD maker just crashes when adding a video no matter what format, or while its converting, any fixes for this?

Did you by chance install something like Roxio? Some have reported problems after installing Roxio Cd creator 9.

What codec packs do you have installed?

Have you updated the firmware for your burner?

Is the source file on another hard drive other than the one Vista is installed on? Some people report that their burning with DVD maker fails if the source file is on the same physical drive Vista is installed on.

Is the media your burining to of good quality?

check all the codecs spooky mentioned. but also check things like divx and and 3rd party video editing tools you may have loaded, most of these haven't working with vista very well. if at all

no roxio installed its a piece of ....

i've tried it with the windows built in mpeg2 codec when i was editing a home made dvd, also tried it with FFDSHOW codecs and xvid for other content

nothing wrong with the dvd burner i can burn dvds and cd's fine

i've tried it with the source on the same physical drive and on a different one

windows dvd maker doesnt even get to burning it, but yes my media is good quality

rarrrrrrrrrrr bump

You mentioned FFDSHOW codecs and xvid. Which version, and who's version did you install?

I had almost the same issue. Trying to make a DVD with AVI video files, it started the encoding process and at the 0.5% it crashed with a critical error. Sometimes it referenced to the kernell32.dll file, others to MCACM32.dll. After checking some forums, a fix was to install the k-lite codec pack, and use the codec tweak tool that comes with it and disable all entries for any Indeo codec listed there, before doing that I uninstalled the Xvid codec pack previoulsy installed. After that DVD maker acted worst, it chrashed as soon as I added any video file. So I uninstalled the k-lite pack, and the issue remained, but now making reference to divx codec files. Then I uninstalled the Divx codec pack (don't remember if I installed it in the past ). Downloaded the Divx player with its codecs, rebooted, and tried again, it worked.

So very likely DVD maker is pretty picky about the codecs installed, so take a look and reinstall/uninstall the codecs that you have and check one by one until you have the correct codecs for DVD maker to work.

Hope this helps