Video from DV camera but no audio

[David Badger]

I've been using VideoStudio10+ for some time (and before that version 7). Many times I have done the routine of capturing video using a firewire cable from video camera to computer and it has always been reliable.
Except on one recent occasion.
I had used two DV videocameras to record an event, and after capturing the video from both DV tapes I discovered that neither mpg file had audio.
(When I looked at the properties for each clip, it was blank in the audio codec section).
There was certainly audio on the DV tapes and when I repeated the capture process the mpg file also had audio. (The sad bit was that I'd reused one of the tapes before I discovered that the audio had not been captured).
Does anyone have any idea how this might happen? After hundreds of routine successful transfers of video+audio I was baffled as to what had happened, and I've not been able to replicate it since.

Thanks
David

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi David

Most unfortunate, especially to re-use the tape and erase the footage.

If everything has worked before and after then I would suspect a plug/cable problem.
Maybe the connection was loose!

Capturing to Mpeg rather than Dv-Avi may be another error source since we have to select the capture properties, get them wrong and you have problems.

Capturing to Dv-Avi is easy as you have no settings to worry about.

Good Luck

Bet you check the capture next time.

Trevor

[David Badger]

Thanks for your thoughts, Trevor.
I did wonder whether it could have been that a firewire cable plug was not pushed in firmly. However that would imply that audio is sent separately (a different pin) from the video. Is that how it works? (I have no idea).
I have the capture format set by default to DVD so I always get an mpg file without having to specifically select anything when I capture video.
The only setting I might change when I capture video is the capture folder, so it seems unlikely that the loss of the audio was a result of any change in settings in VideoStudio.

Best wishes
David

[2Dogs]

When you capture directly to MPEG2, you access capture options by clicking on the "Options" cogwheel just below the capture folder details. This gives you a further two options - the first of which, "Capture options" has two checkboxes - one for "Capture audio" and the other for "Capture to library". It might just be that you inadvertently clicked on the "Capture audio" box and that could result in what you experienced.

Sort of an odd option to be presented with, really. I can appreciate that there might be times when you don't want audio, but it's easy enough to mute it on the timeline, and not easy to recover from the unfortunate situation you find yourself in.