Missing MPEG audio

[gbjbasdw]

Firstly - I'm new to Videostudio and video editing in general BUT I do have 30 years IT experience !

I have some MPEG2 video clips which I am trying to edit together using the trial version of Videostudio 8.

The clips play fine in my PC DVD player software but when I have them in Videostudio I lose the sound.

In the audio view there is the rubberband line on the clip and I can split the audio from the clip by right clicking it and taking the option. This suggests to me that the clip is 'imported' into VS correctly as it seems to know there is audio there.

The sample audio clip 'A01.mp3' shipped with the prooduct plays ok so it isn't something to do with my speakers.

I have followed the procedure to posted on this forum to set the project properties to those of the MPEG clip I am using to test with.

Here are the clip properties if this helps :-
File format PAL DVD
File Size 17866KB
Duration 21.240 seconds

Video type MPEG-2 Video Upper field first
Total frames 531 frames
Attributes 24bits, 704x576, 4:3
Frame rate 25,000 Frames/sec
Data rate Variable bit rate ( Max 9556 kbps)
Audio type Dolby Digital Audio
Total samples 1,019,520 samples
Attributes 48000hz
Layer none
Bit rate 256kbps

I am at a loss as to what to do next - any advice welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Steve Worley

[BrianCee]

The problem is that your video clip has Dolby Digital sound and UVS8 will not play Dolby Digital without a plug-in which you will find here :-

http://www.ulead.co.uk/store/vs/runme.htm#plugin

then scroll down the page to find it - it will cost you £14.99 I'm afraid so have your credit card ready.

..

[gbjbasdw]

Many thanks for the quick response, Brian.

As I am only evaluating the product so I wont be spending £14.99 on the plugin.

This having to buy separate bits infuriates me. Its like Nero - you have to buy a plugin for its DVD player.

Is there any way I can convert the audio in the video clips to something that UVS8 can understand for free ?

Steve

[BrianCee]

There is a free plug-in which some people have used - it will decode so that you can hear the sound in UVS8 but does not allow you to burn Dolby Digital to your DVD - I'll do a search see if I can find it - you make like to have a look yourself using the little blue 'search ' function at the top of this page

[gbjbasdw]

Would it encode the audio into the output video file created as I plan to use Nero to actually burn the DVD ?

[BrianCee]

OK found it now - it's here :-

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/AC3_Filter.htm

don't know about the free one - never used it but with the Ulead one you just download and run it and then play your video again and 'hey presto' you have sound - no settings or anything to do.

NO the free one will not encode for output.

[gbjbasdw]

I've downloaded and installed the free codec but it is still not playing any sound.

I've installed it into c:\program files\ac3filter and into c:\trailulead\ac3filter and I have also copied ac3filter.ax into c:\trailulead directory.

I have also rebooted my PC.

I guess there must be something else I need to do to get VS8 to use it ??

Thanks for finding it for me by the way.

Steve

[joegib]

As a workaround you could try the evaluation version of Womble MPEG-VCR available here:

http://www.womble.com/

Open your source Mpeg in Mpeg-VCR and then "Save" it. This will open a settings dialogue which includes an "Audio" section. Click on the "Mpeg" button and then "OK" and this will save your Mpeg file with the AC3 sound converted to Mpeg format. Then you can load the saved file into into VS8 with full frontal sound. This should meet your needs for evaluating VS8 but for serious work you'll eventually need the AC3 plugin as this sound format is more generally compatible with DVD players.

[nikof]

I have one similar problem. I import video from dvd. But since the audio is dolby digital I can not hear any sound. I have installed ac3 filter (plug in) but there is no difference....