Project & MPEG Audio Ok-DVD Audio crackly Please Help!

[MichaelW]

Newbie here but have done the following:

1. Captured via firewire with no sound problems in DV files
2. Played back in preview and looks and sounds fine
3. Created Video which sounds fine but does have some image distortion at bottom
4. Created DVD. The video is perfect but the audio is popping and distorting/crackling.

I captured audio at 160kps and created DVD using same audio settings. I have tried creating DVD at 225kpb but this causes other problems.

The audio setting on the DV camera is set a 12bit - could this be an issue?

Somewhere in the conversion something is happening - any ideas? as I have wasted many discs experimenting.

Thanks

[heinz-oz]

I had a similar problem with MSP7, found it to be hardware related (on board sound). What are your hardware spec's?

[THoff]

1. Use DVD-RW media while experimenting.

2. You said you captured DV at 160Kbps -- are you transcoding on the fly? What format is the audio in (MP3 / AC3 / MPEG2)? If you are taking the DV audio, transcoding to 160Kbps AC3 during capture, and then re-encoding again to 256Kbps while creating the DVD, you could well wind up with resampling noise.

3. Have you tried outputting to a VIDEO_TS folder and playing that using a software-based DVD player to check out the audio?

[MichaelW]

I had a similar problem with MSP7, found it to be hardware related (on board sound). What are your hardware spec's?

Athlon 64 3200
MSi K8T Neo motherboard (onboard Realtek AC97 audio)
1gig ram
200g hdd
ATI Radeon 9600 AGP

I haven't tried the disc in the normal DVD player as yet given I was playing at 6am this morning!

[MichaelW]

1. Use DVD-RW media while experimenting.

2. You said you captured DV at 160Kbps -- are you transcoding on the fly? What format is the audio in (MP3 / AC3 / MPEG2)? If you are taking the DV audio, transcoding to 160Kbps AC3 during capture, and then re-encoding again to 256Kbps while creating the DVD, you could well wind up with resampling noise.

3. Have you tried outputting to a VIDEO_TS folder and playing that using a software-based DVD player to check out the audio?

All good questions. Not sure will need to check when home.

1. How do I tell if I am transcoding?
2. I have tried encoding DVD at same as capture 160
3. Video_TS folder - dont I need an Audio folder also? Maybe it's my PowerDVD (LG supplied player)

The funny thing is the audio is fine in the encoded MPEG.

[heinz-oz]

AC 97 based on board sound card was the culprit in my case. Have you got access to a separate soundcard? Stay clear of VIA chipped cards or CREATIVE ones, use too much PCI bandwidth and hug resources. Still ok to try and see if there is a difference.

Could give that a try or take the plunge and buy a card. Santa Cruz / Turtle Beach are the recommended ones for MSP.

[MichaelW]

AC 97 based on board sound card was the culprit in my case. Have you got access to a separate soundcard? Stay clear of VIA chipped cards or CREATIVE ones, use too much PCI bandwidth and hug resources. Still ok to try and see if there is a difference.

Could give that a try or take the plunge and buy a card. Santa Cruz / Turtle Beach are the recommended ones for MSP.

Thanks - got any idea on what i should pay given your in Melbourne too?

[THoff]

You will always have to transcode if you are using DV source material, and outputting to a DVD, because the compression methods are very different. The question is whether you are doing it on-the-fly, i.e. during capture. If you are using the DV capture plugin, then you are not transcoding on the fly, and your PC merely writes the DV data to an AVI file. If you are using Ulead's MPEG capture plugin, then you are transcoding on-the-fly, though from the specs you have provided, you should be OK.

The AUDIO_TS folder will ALWAYS be empty for a normal DVD -- the empty folder gets created for maximum compatibility only, in case a program or device looks for it.

My recommendation would be to capture as DV, do all your editing in that format, and then output to an MPEG2 file to include in a new, empty project that is used to burn the DVD. Take a look at the top post in this forum for the procedure that seems to be the most reliable for trouble-free creation of DVDs.

Before you run out and get new hardware, I'd try the recommended procedure mentioned above, outputting to a VIDEO_TS folder and playing that on your PC to see if you can hear the same audio distortions.

[heinz-oz]

AC 97 based on board sound card was the culprit in my case. Have you got access to a separate soundcard? Stay clear of VIA chipped cards or CREATIVE ones, use too much PCI bandwidth and hug resources. Still ok to try and see if there is a difference.

Could give that a try or take the plunge and buy a card. Santa Cruz / Turtle Beach are the recommended ones for MSP.

Thanks - got any idea on what i should pay given your in Melbourne too?

I can't recall what I have paid for mine, I think it was around A$ 180.-. That was years ago though. Prices / models will surely have changed since. Any good quality card, as long as it is not VIA chipped, should be ok. Stay clear of the Creative Soundblaster cards though. There are problems with those also.

I will try to find the details on my card tonight and let you know. I think it is based on Turtle Beach technology. I got it from a wholesaler in the Eastern Suburbs.

[MichaelW]

You will always have to transcode if you are using DV source material, and outputting to a DVD, because the compression methods are very different. The question is whether you are doing it on-the-fly, i.e. during capture. If you are using the DV capture plugin, then you are not transcoding on the fly, and your PC merely writes the DV data to an AVI file. If you are using Ulead's MPEG capture plugin, then you are transcoding on-the-fly, though from the specs you have provided, you should be OK.

The AUDIO_TS folder will ALWAYS be empty for a normal DVD -- the empty folder gets created for maximum compatibility only, in case a program or device looks for it.

My recommendation would be to capture as DV, do all your editing in that format, and then output to an MPEG2 file to include in a new, empty project that is used to burn the DVD. Take a look at the top post in this forum for the procedure that seems to be the most reliable for trouble-free creation of DVDs.

Before you run out and get new hardware, I'd try the recommended procedure mentioned above, outputting to a VIDEO_TS folder and playing that on your PC to see if you can hear the same audio distortions.

Thanks will play. Are you saying that I should capture in AVI or DV? These are 2 different capture options (along with MPEG) available in Videostudio 9. If it's not an AVI what format is the file - looks like an MPEG already but I didn;t use the MPEG capture option but rather DV.

I captured 25min of DV into a 1.6gig file (which doesn't look like an AVI).

Thanks for your thoughts just very frustrated.

[THoff]

DV uses AVI as a container. The AVI file contents (both audio and video) can be compressed using the codec of your choice, and in the case of DV capture, it's the Microsoft DV codec.

If you captured 25 minutes of video into a 1.6GB file, then it definitely wasn't being saved in DV format, since MiniDV / DV25 (the format we are talking about) gobbles up 25Mbps, or ~13GB/hour, so the file you captured would have been about 6GB in size.

Try capturing using the DV format, even though the files will be large. Check the audio to make sure there is no problem with noise or static, then use Share -> Create Video File to create a PAL DVD compatible MPEG2 file, and then check that for audio problems, too.

[MichaelW]

DV uses AVI as a container. The AVI file contents (both audio and video) can be compressed using the codec of your choice, and in the case of DV capture, it's the Microsoft DV codec.

If you captured 25 minutes of video into a 1.6GB file, then it definitely wasn't being saved in DV format, since MiniDV / DV25 (the format we are talking about) gobbles up 25Mbps, or ~13GB/hour, so the file you captured would have been about 6GB in size.

Try capturing using the DV format, even though the files will be large. Check the audio to make sure there is no problem with noise or static, then use Share -> Create Video File to create a PAL DVD compatible MPEG2 file, and then check that for audio problems, too.

Thanks will do. I was sure I captured as DV but might have captured as DVD. Is that the problem? What is the DVD capture option used for and what format?

[heinz-oz]

And. don't forget, use DVD-RW/+RW disks while trying it out. Can get costly otherwise.

I have 6 or 7 DVD's there with my first attempt to preserve VHS tape to DVD. Everything was fine until after I burned the thing. Clicking/popping noises in the sound track (was a concert after all) made it impossible to watch.

New sound card fixed it.

In the very early days, I was still burning to SVCD, not DVD, I had the sound lagging behind the picture, out of sync. Tried umpteen different settings for rendering and burning, allways out of sync, sometimes more, sometimes less, I had 16 versions of this 40 minute video, all crap. Finally, some helpful soul suggested to try a different DVD player. What do you know, all bloody 16 versions played all right on another player, go figure.

[THoff]

Let's get away from the idea that the soundcard somehow has anything to do with the audio captured from a DV device -- DV is purely digital, gets manipulated in a digital form on the PC, and is then output to digital media. He doesn't need to replace his onboard AC97 audio.

[MichaelW]

Let's get away from the idea that the soundcard somehow has anything to do with the audio captured from a DV device -- DV is purely digital, gets manipulated in a digital form on the PC, and is then output to digital media. He doesn't need to replace his onboard AC97 audio.

When should you use the DVD capture option? This is what I used.