MF5 - Question About Menu Background Audio

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 5:01 am

maddrummer3301 wrote:.....
I was taught if there was alot of motion to use constant bit-rate.
......
MD

Please view
http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=10880
If you add the
[VIODRIVER]
Advance=1
to
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Ulead Systems\Ulead DVD MovieFactory\5.0\DVDMF.ini
file then you can also alter the GOP structure as per Terry Stetlers Tutorial.

Regards
Steve J

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 7:21 am

Thanks,
That a nice tutorial. I've used the advanced many times.
Ulead will reject some settings in that menu.
I had to distribute some videos and only could put the movie on CD's.
It was about a 3.2 gig file. In that advanced menu on the last right tab
is a feature that I've heard no one use before.
I set that to the file size I wanted to break the video into and it worked.
That was in VS7 before the templates would let you customize and break the
file up. A nice feature into VS9.

I did increase the pixel depth search and usualy set closed GOP's to 3.
I don't know if because it was set for variable bit rate but one section of the
video was encoded like "Flash", long echoing of the images. Reminded me of
the comic book "Flash".
I use to use the Ligos mpeg encoder (ulead use to use the Ligo's encoder with their earlier products also). Uleads is much easier to use.

Now, onto making a HD slideshow.

MD

snoops · Post by **snoops** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 10:45 am

I'm using MF5 trial, and the audio does preview: background audio in menu and chapter menus as well as clips themselves.

I'm using the cheap onboard (SoundMAX) audio hardware, with no additional audio hardware installed.

Maybe this will help or "ring a bell" concerning the audio drivers and DirectX installed on those systems that do not preview...
Aside from all the Ulead and MF DLLs and Filters, MF5 has these loaded and uses them for audio playback:
- system32\dsound.dll (DirectSound)
- system32\msacm32.drv (Sound Mapper)
- system32\wdmaud.drv (WDM Audio Driver Mapper)
plus all the installed codecs (and their order of priority) on your system are loaded.

1. Maybe check Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio -> Hardware -> Audio Codecs -> Properties -> Properties, if there is an unwanted 3rd party codec.

2. Maybe reset the default playback for audio files back to (Microsoft) Media Player in case 3rd party software (Quicktime) has taken over.

3. You might want to use a codec manager like "Radlight Filter Manager" or "Codec Sniper" to manually enable/disable codecs. This is recommended only for advanced users.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 2:20 pm

snoops,
Thanks, I have mine disabled in the bios.
I'm gooing to enable it again and assign windows to use it as default.
Try see if the audio previews.

MD

michaeltee · Post by **michaeltee** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 3:54 pm

maddrummer3301 wrote:Steve,
I must tell you that your doing a fantastic thing with those helpful links/posts. Nice job.

YES! Very helpful and MUCH appreciated Steve

maddrummer3301 wrote:Mike, Steve,
I bought the full version. No hassle installs.
I didn't delete that registry key that was pointed out.
The audio may be trying to playback via a different channel/codec.
I don't know. I also installed the program on the HP laptop and that will not preview the audio either. I'm sure they are aware of these things and as usual repair them.

Thanks very much for the detailed postings of your findings!

-Mike

ruggy1 · Post by **ruggy1** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 9:42 am

I reported a week or two ago on this forum that audio was not working with preview in MF5. At least I am not alone. It is definitely a MF5 bug.

htchien · Post by **htchien** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 10:02 am

Not knowing why, but the audio preview in DVDMF 5 works on my both systems, desktop and laptop.

My DVDMF 5 version is also v5.0.0183.0.

If you can provide some more details I think it might help Ulead to check the issue.

Best regards,
H.T.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:38 pm

OK,
Using the onboard soundchip on the Laptop in MF5 the audio is
"Working" for previewing. I then hooked up the external usb audio device and assigned it as windows default and the sound for MF5 also "Worked"

I think it's my machine

I think the problem is the funky mixer and drivers for the "SoundBlaster Live" card that will not preview the audio.
I also have problems with the Live card for capturing and ulead seems to access the recording settings properly. Other analog recording apps channel the chosen recording channel to the wave output channel (probably via windows wave mapper) and record from that, then the actual recording channel has to be muted or a delay feedback is heard.

There are features in SOME SB Mixer such as "Monitor Audio while recording".
Some programs when accessing the card automatically "Uncheck" that switch/function. Depending on the recording program you can get feedback on the common bus side of the output circuitry because of the famous SoundBlaster's "What You Hear" channel. I think that ulead is outputting the sound for previewing and it's getting killed in the mixer settings.

I think it's in my mixer settings and soundcard on the machine with the SoundBlaster Live card.
I also have some usb audio devices and I'll try them as the windows default audio channel on that machine.

I installed MF5 on the laptop and at first didn't think it was previewing the sound. I was wrong, it was playing the sound thru the usb audio interface which was not connected to the stereo system.

I'm willing to bet the previewing is a problem with the funky soundcards that use that "What U Hear" function.
I'll try the usb audio external device tonight on the machine with the Live card in it. It should work then.

Thanks guys for reporting yours is working. I've found the problem with mine now. The funky SB mixer's.
The only reason I've kept that Live card is it has DSP hardware chips on it that one of my audio apps have direct access to. Otherwiser I should have thrown it in the box with all the other SB's that are junk.
Time to buy another M-Audio product, $$$$$ 24/96khz

MD

michaeltee · Post by **michaeltee** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:09 pm

maddrummer3301 wrote:I think the problem is the funky mixer and drivers for the "SoundBlaster Live" card that will not preview the audio...
MD

Hi MD,

If you've managed to make it work, no doubt your theory is correct. Still, I wonder why the SB Live drivers/software seem to work properly with MF4 preview but not MF5? Maybe MF4 has some sort of integrated compatibility that wasn't included in MF5. If so, perhaps Ulead would correct this through a patch at some point.

-Mike

michaeltee · Post by **michaeltee** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:36 pm

Yes MD, you were definitely correct. I just set SoundMax as the system default and the preview audio works perfectly! Good call

-Mike

ruggy1 · Post by **ruggy1** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 11:01 pm

Yes, I too have a Creative Sound Blaster Live that used to work OK in MF4. I am not quite sure how to change the SoundMax paraameter - can someone help me please? Also, will this change affect anything else I do with SB Live as I use it to record live music via an external mixer? Thanks

michaeltee · Post by **michaeltee** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 12:10 am

ruggy1 wrote:Yes, I too have a Creative Sound Blaster Live that used to work OK in MF4. I am not quite sure how to change the SoundMax paraameter - can someone help me please? Also, will this change affect anything else I do with SB Live as I use it to record live music via an external mixer? Thanks

Go to the XP Control Panel and select "Sound And Audio Devices". On the "Audio" tab, one of the dialog boxes is named "Sound Playback". Use the drop-down menu to select "SoundMAX Digital Audio" as the default device. Also set the MIDI playback to Microsoft GS. I think you can leave"Sound Recording" on SB Live if you wish. At the bottom, check the "Use only default devices" box. You would also want to go to the "Voice" tab and make SoundMAX the default voice playback device. Lastly, plug your speakers into the the SoundMAX output on the back of your PC as this port will now be outputting all of your audio including system sounds.

I've never done a mixed configuration (using SoundMAX for playback and SB Live for recording) but hopefully the above will give you what you want. If not, you would have to switch everything to SoundMAX and do your recording through it rather than SB Live. Either that or keep everything SB Live and go without the menu audio preview hoping Ulead will eventually patch it.

-Mike

ruggy1 · Post by **ruggy1** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 12:45 am

Great, Thanks for your help.

michaeltee · Post by **michaeltee** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 1:10 am

ruggy1 wrote:Great, Thanks for your help.

Sure but... after posting I gave the mixed configuration a try and found that I couldn't record through SB Live with SoundMAX set as the default playback device. I hope it's possible as I would definitely like to use this arrangement if it can be made to work. Maybe there's an expert here that can point us in the right direction.

But although MF5's menu audio preview definitely DOES work with the system default set to SoundMAX I also discovered (at least on my PC) SB Live provides a MUCH cleaner input signal. SoundMAX picks up quite a bit of system noise/hash which DOES (unfortunately) come through when recording through any of the channels including WAV/MP3. Consequently I've decided to live without MF5 menu audio preview in favor of cleaner recording capability for the time being. With SoundBlaster cards being as popular as they are I'm fairly confident Ulead will have to address the issue sooner or later.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 1:26 am

Just a suggestion which may or may not work though I think it will.
Create another Windows XP User and set that user profile so that
the method by MichaelTee is used in that profile but not in your "normal" profile.

Go to the XP Control Panel and select "Sound And Audio Devices". On the "Audio" tab, one of the dialog boxes is named "Sound Playback". Use the drop-down menu to select "SoundMAX Digital Audio" as the default device. Also set the MIDI playback to Microsoft GS. I think you can leave"Sound Recording" on SB Live if you wish. At the bottom, check the "Use only default devices" box. You would also want to go to the "Voice" tab and make SoundMAX the default voice playback device. Lastly, plug your speakers into the the SoundMAX output on the back of your PC as this port will now be outputting all of your audio including system sounds.

If that doesn't work try creating a new Windows Profile as outlined in this post
http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=9611

Steve J