VideoStudio 11 video/audio problem

cterlich · Post by **cterlich** » Sat May 17, 2008 3:29 am

Hi again. Obviously I dont know much about this so you'll have to forgive me for asking probably obvious questions, but I can hear the audio on my video clips when I play them in windows media player or if I edit them in windows movie maker. I can even hear them in video studio if I play the clip on its own, its only when I edit them in video studio and play the whole project that the audio disappears. Does this mean I dont have the right codec even though I can hear the sound at other times?

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat May 17, 2008 5:35 am

Having thought about your problem a little bit, I seem to recall someone else reporting something similar. His solution, if I recall correctly, was to change the volume level in the project by just a little bit, up or down. In other words, if it is currently set at 100 (which it probably will be, by default), set it to 99. Then try playing it in project mode.

Also, have you tried rendering the project to a new file (Share > Create Video File > DVD)? If so, can you hear the audio there?

cterlich · Post by **cterlich** » Wed May 21, 2008 12:07 am

That sounds like an interesting solution! I gave it a go just then but unfortunately it didnt work for me. I have tried rendering the video and it has no sound then too. How do I go about finding out what is the right audio codec for me, if that is the problem? Thanks again as always for your help. I appreciate it!

Post by **Ken Berry** » Wed May 21, 2008 3:36 am

If you right click on one of the files, either in the VS timline or in the library window, and choose Properties, it should tell you what the audio format is.

cterlich · Post by **cterlich** » Thu May 22, 2008 7:45 am

The audio format is MPEG-1 audio layer 2, which apparently is supported on my computer. I dont know if any of the other properties are important (22050 Hz, 64kbps, mono)? I have tried adjusting the "project properties" to match these properties but there is no exact match. I can't selctet an option where the bit rate and frequency are the same as my clips. I dont know if that matters? I tried to render a project I'd created where I selected the option to render it to be "same as first clip". When I did this it came up with the message "unable to access the audio codec driver". Does that help? I dont know what to do.

cterlich · Post by **cterlich** » Tue May 27, 2008 12:56 am

Any other ideas?

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue May 27, 2008 1:09 am

Not really, I am sorry to say.

Mpeg layer 2 is standard audio for PAL DVDs. It is not part of the NTSC standard, though most NTSC players these days can play. And of course it is provided for in VS, though I think the codec itself is installed as part of Windows.

It is just that the properties of these particular clips seem a little strange to me (22050 Hz, 64kbps, mono)... Where exactly did the video come from and how was it captured?

cterlich · Post by **cterlich** » Thu May 29, 2008 1:10 am

I filmed the clips with a digital video camcorder I bought off ebay recently. The brand is digilife (DDV-5120A). I simply downloaded the clips straight from the memory card in the camera to my computer and then imported them into video studio.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Thu May 29, 2008 1:24 am

The specs on that camera say its video format are "AVI" but nothing more than that. There are over 800 video formats that call themselves AVI as it is really just a wrapper format. Can you right click on one of the files within Video Studio, either in the timeline or in the library window, and copy all its properties here please...

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu May 29, 2008 1:41 am

I think this is his "camcorder"

Specifications

in this link we can see he is recording in the extremely highly compressed MPEG4 format Alternative review

cterlich wrote:I filmed the clips with a digital video camcorder I bought off ebay recently. The brand is digilife (DDV-5120A). I simply downloaded the clips straight from the memory card in the camera to my computer and then imported them into video studio.

He appears to be using SD cards as a storage medium. Hardly surprising he is having problems editing this form of video. It would appear to be more of a camera than a camcorder.

cterlich · Post by **cterlich** » Thu May 29, 2008 1:48 am

File
File name: DIGI0001.AVI
File format: Microsoft AVI files
File size: 6,001KB
Frame rate: 30.000 frames/sec
Duration: 15.400 seconds
Data rate: 388.48 kbps

Video
Compression: XviD MPEG-4 Codec
Attributes: 24 bits, 720 x 480
Total frames: 462 frame(s)

Audio
Compression: MPEG Audio Layer2
Attributes: 22050 Hz, 64kbps, Mono
Total samples: 342, 142 samples[/img]

Post by **Ken Berry** » Thu May 29, 2008 2:33 am

Do you have the XVid codec on your computer? You can Google for it, but its an open source codec and so, freeware.

cterlich · Post by **cterlich** » Fri May 30, 2008 1:22 am

Yep, I've got the Xvid codec. It came with the camera and is the recent version. And that photo posted above is the camera im using. Sorry, "camcorder" is just what the user manuel for the camera calls itself, and yeh it uses an SD memory card. Could that be causeing problems?

cterlich · Post by **cterlich** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 12:51 am

So no other ideas? Thanks very much for your interest in helping me. I really appreciate it.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 4:59 am

I think that what you must take into account is that the particular camcorder you have is probably good at what it is intended for - a lightweight camera/camcorder that probably fits in a shirt pocket. Don't expect too much from it, it is convenient and if you simply use the pictures and videos that are taken with it as they are - no editing - then the results should be reasonable.

There are a lot of things going against you if you wish to edit the videos.
1. They are recorded in a very highly compressed Xvid format.
To elaborate on this - the more popular form of camcorder is a mini DV camcorder which has a cassette tape. These record in an "avi" format known as DV and use 13 Gigabytes of hard drive space per hour.
Xvid is considered a view only format - highly compressed but retaining high quality and uses 700 Megabytes per hour. Ideal for sharing over the internet and widely used by TV Companies who place their programs on the internet for download.

2. The storage medium is an SD card. These are great for still images but I would be wary of storing video on such a format. This is due to the transfer rate where whatever is on the SD card has to be transferred to the PC (and back again in some circumstances).

Being aware of these limitations will hopefully assist you in your expectations of what can and cannot be achieved with the equipment you have available.