Audio warped & clicking when exporting to DV camcorder

[David Ellis]

I am having all sorts of problems with VS8 (recently upgraded from VS6).

I have produced a project and created the AVI video files successfully, however I am having problems when exporting these back to my Sony DV Camcorder.

Firstly I could not get any music to export, the video and normal sound came out fine but none of the added wav files transferred back to the camcorder. I solved this by running the version 8.01 patch. However, now the wav files come across but I am getting a clicking noise and considerable sound distortion on the DV Tape. The sound speeds up and freezes, and this also appears to have the knock-on effect of slowing and speeding up the video. All the time the original AVI files are fine and play back on the computer, but just won't transfer back to the camcorder without this distortion.

I am doing a wedding video in 4 weeks time and I am starting to panic that VS8 won't work!

Can anyone help? I have downloaded all 4 main patches as recommended in the PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING A PROBLEM ON THIS FORUM thread.

Thanks,
David.

[THoff]

Are the audio settings you selected compatible with your camcorder?

[Ken Berry]

... and have you experimented with change the Encoder Type of the DV/AVI file you are wanting to export i.e. if you have produced a Type 1, produce a Type 2 and try to export that, and see what happens...

[David Ellis]

The settings that I am using worked perfectly under VS6 with the same computer and camcorder.

I will try changing the AVI type from type 2 to Type 1 although I don't hold out a lot of hope as the capture comes across as type 2, and type 2 worked fine beforehand. Still I will try it and post back.

Thanks,
David.

[THoff]

I don't think changing the DV type will help if you've been able to process the selected type without problems before -- the type is only applicable to AVI files, and the data sent to the camcorder via FireWire will always be identically formatted.

[randazzo]

Is the problem also there when you burn your project to DVD?

This is disturbing but my customers receive a DVD or VCR-tape with their wedding movie. So the main point is to get that sorted out. Exporting to DV camcorder is for my customers of no interest (only by exception).

And for the exporting from the AVI file to Camcorder you could remain using VS6 if wanted.

So focus on your footage and editing and leave this "problem" behind you. VS8 (why not waited for VS9??) should do just fine for your needs.

Good luck!

Jean-Pierre

[David Ellis]

I haven't tried burning to DVD yet (and normally use Nero anyway, which I find a better authoring program). I normally produce both Video (VHS) and DVD of my projects, so will need the DV Tape to produce the edited video...and I have one regular customer who likes to have just the DV copy so he can play with it himself.

I cannot understand why it worked before with VS6 and not now, given that VS8 was supposed to be an upgrade. I didn't buy VS9 as I didn't know at the time I bought the upgrade that it was about to be released. It was only when I joined this board 2 days ago that I even knew it existed!

I don't want to go back to VS6 as you can do a lot more with the audio (change levels within sound clips etc), however I will be very annoyed if it won't work when it worked fine before with the same set-up.

I will probably try again and see if the same thing happens twice.

David.

[Ken Berry]

I think what Jean-Pierre Randazzo was suggesting was that you could do all your edits in VS 8 and produce the final DV/AVI file. Then, if you don't manage to export the final product using that program, then if VS 6 still works, you could use that for the export process only. I know this would only be a workaround, but it is a possibility. I well remember when I had problems in exporting back to my vidcam using VS 7 2 years ago, I found that an old copy of Video Wave that I had, exported with no problems. So I used that.

Speaking of which, one possible reason for your problem may be associated with any previous installation you might have made of the Video Wave program. Unfortunately, installations of various versions of VideoWave (up to an including version 6, I think) add to Windows a quite unnecessary DV Codec which can affect the performance of other OHCI-standard editing programs.

What's especially annoying is that the Codec is not even required by VideoWave if it is being run on an OHCI-standard FireWire card or port.

1/ Go to the Start menu, and select Control Panel.

2/ In Control Panel, select System > Hardware >Device Manager > Sound, Video and Game Controllers.

3/ Click on the Video Codecs
4/ If DVSoft (TM) is there, then click on it and then on the Properties button at bottom right. This will bring up a new window, where there are two options - Settings and Remove

5/ Click on Settings and another windows appears saying, DVSoft(TM) Adaptec. When you see this, you know for sure that this is the one Codec you want to get rid of.

6/ Click OK, and this brings you back to the window with the two options - Settings and Remove.

7/ Select Remove, and get rid of this Codec.

8/ OK out of things, and then restart the PC.

Another possibility is that you are using TI 1394 device drivers which may require removal and replacement by the standard Ms 1394 ones.

[THoff]

Another simple alternative -- provided the DV AVI file itself is good -- would be to use WinDV to send the video back to the camcorder. It doesn't get any simpler or easier than using this great, free little program.

[David Ellis]

Thanks for the suggestions. I see what you meant about using VS6 just for the DV copying process - that sounds worthy of a try (unfortunately I uninstalled VS6, but can reinstall and try again).

I also may try WinDV too.

Many thanks,

David.

[David Ellis]

I had a go with WinDV, which worked fine as far as copying back the AVI file to my DV Camcorder was concerned...apart from the fact that WinDV does not activate the camcorder automatically...you have to do it manually, using the record button.

The main problem with that was that I had a 1-hour project, split into 4 separate AVI edits. I found it impossible to get a perfect edit as I had to manually stop and restart the camcorder recording, whilst playing AVI clips on the computer. I either lost a bit or had a gap between the two clips.

I also tried using VS6 but it didn't like it as the AVI files I created in VS8 were type 2 files and VS6 would only export type 1 files. I got around this by using the type 2 avi files in a new project to render a new set of type 1 AVI files, and then use VS6 to send back to the camcorder. This worked fine, but meant I got pretty close to filling my 120Gb Hard Drive, as I had several copies on the computer at once. Why won't it work properly direct from VS8?

Never mind...I managed to get it to work, but with an awful lot of hassle. I will take it up with Ulead support as I shouldn't have to rely on VS6 to export an AVI file when I just paid good money to upgrade.

Thanks for all your help.

David.

[David Ellis]

I am still having problems exporting a rendered AVI file back to DV camcorder. Using VS6 to export has worked sometimes and not others. I am still getting sound / picture distortion.
After at least six emails to Ulead support I am no further forward.
Anyone else had problems exporting back to the DV camcorder from VS8?

David.

[mell]

Hi,

I've experienced your said problems while exporting certain rendered DV (AVI) files back to DVcam.

In my case, I finally tracked it down to my harddisk's running out of space. I had a 45 min file rendered which took a good 9GB and my leftover space after a few renderings was less than 8GB ... the clicking audio and frame dropouts occured.

After clearing space of nearly 30GB the problem vanished ... it may be that VS8 requires 2X of workspace available on your disk to export glitch-free ... just maybe. After all your attempts, no harm trying clearing out some old files to make room and render to DV once more time.

Cheers.