Workup 'old' AVI file with it's audio

wom47 · Post by **wom47** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 8:54 pm

Hi there and thanks for your help:
I am new (with Videostudio 11.5+) and (hopefully) the answer to my question is simple. I had (earlier) imported videos with Magix 4 that created the AVI and WAV files, but also additional avd, H0, and HDP files. When I now want to work up those videos with VS Editor, I import the AVI file to the video track, and the WAV file to the music track. The problem is, when I cut the video clip, the sound is not cut together such that I have to adjust each time the sound to the video. Pictures and sound behave independently. This is especially tedious, when I want to insert eg. transitions, or effects between scenes. How could I 'link' the sound to the pictures, such that it is also cut and automatically sticks and moves with the cut video? I am probably too new, but I could not find a hint for this in the manuals or FAQs, and trials in different ways did not work either. Do I have to re-import from scratch with VS?

Post by **Ken Berry** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 9:06 pm

At the very least we need to know the exact properties of the .avi clips. Unfortunately, there is a wide variety of video formats out there which happen to use .avi as their extension for convenience. In other words, it is merely a carrier format. There is 'true' or uncompressed .avi which is huge -- 65 GB per hour of video. Then there is DV/AVI from a mini DV video camera -- still very large at 13 GB per hour. At the other end of the scale are highly compressed mpeg-4 formats such as DivX and XVid which also use the extension.

So right click on your .avi within Video Studio (either on the timeline or in the Library pane) and copy down ALL its properties here please. That will at least be a start...

Note that you have to right click within VS. Doing so just using My Computer/Windows Explorer will not give you all the properties.

wom47 · Post by **wom47** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 4:44 pm

The format of the AVI file: Microsoft AVI - OpenDML, size: 12.8 GB (corr to 1hour video, 3643 sec), picture rate: 25/sec, daterate: 1151.13 kbps; compression: DV Video Encoder - Type 2, 24 Bits, 720x576, 4:3; 91'091 pictures. No audio properties.
Format of the related WAV: Microsoft WAV file, size: 455'455 KB, duration: 3643 sec. No Video properties.
Audio: compression: PCM, 32.000 kHz; 16 Bit; Stereo; 116'596'480 total samples.
Hope this helps.

Post by **Ron P.** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 6:08 pm

VS defaults to Type-2 DV, which uses a separate stream for the audio. DV Type-1, the audio and video are mulitplexed (mixed together) into a single stream. This makes it easier to keep them insync while editing.

In the Capture step, click the Gear looking icon (Options), and select Video Properties. Set it to Type-1. Then recapture your video..

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 10:05 pm

The alternative is to leave your original DV/AVI in the main track of the timeline and the WAV track uncut in the audio track, and go to Share > Create Video File, and choose 'Same as first clip' or DV (and here you could choose Type 1 or 2). This will produce a new DV/AVI file which contains both the video and audio in one stream. There will be no noticeable quality loss as you can re-encode DV quite a few times before any degradation becomes noticeable. Then you can cut and edit the new DV/AVI wherever you want, and the audio will be cut at the same time.

wom47 · Post by **wom47** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 3:54 pm

Dear Ken,
just to complete this thread: The re-rendering as a DV appears to do the job. Thanks a lot for your help! This saves me a lot of time as I still have about 10 hours of old AVI data! This item can be considered closed now. javascript:emoticon(':D')
Very Happy