General question on older version of VideoStudio

ghoofie · Post by **ghoofie** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 1:54 am

Might I ask a general question that will at least help point me on what to check for ? I got a new camcorder that stores video in MPG on it's hard drive. I can play these MPG's in Windows Media, VL-C player, etc. And there is audio. When I load any of the MPG's into Video studio, there is no audio, only video. Are there settings in Video Studio to grab the audio too ? Or do I need to be looking through my camcorder manual ? I am looking at both...just asking in case some knows until I might find it out. It's VS Version 9...old SE version. Thanks in advance.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 2:01 am

The problem is that with those older versions, and especially the SE version you have, is that they did not come with Dolby audio, and that is undoubtedly what you camera uses. The SE version is a cut down version distributed free as a teaser or to accompany a piece of hardware of some kind or other. But since it was free, and since Dolby charges a licence fee for each time it is included in a program, no company is going to pay such a fee and then give the program away free. So they did not include Dolby.

There is not much you can do. There used to be a Dolby module available for sale, but that has long since gone off the market. There is also a free filter on videohelp.com which should at least allow you to import the Dolby file, but you can only export it on a DVD as either LPCM or mpeg layer 2 audio.

Or else you upgrade and buy a full version of the more recent version of VS which comes with Dolby, indeed up to Dolby 5.1.

ghoofie · Post by **ghoofie** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 7:52 am

Thanks !! Yep..my camcorder is putting out dolby alright.
I found a temporary fix for it that worked for short time.
After transfering the movie file from my camcorder to my computer, I used Microsoft Movie Maker and output the movie to a WMA file. Then I loaded
the wma file into VS and voila...it has audio now...hurray.

VS 9 SE has served it's purpose for me for quite some time, not doing much editing. But I might be doing more now , so it's time to upgrade to
some new software.

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 1:26 pm

Hi Ken/ghoofie

Interestingly the AC 3 filter from Video Help appears to be able to encode to AC3.
Its a new version dated Aug 2009. (ac3filter_1_63b.exe)

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/AC3_Filter#features

ghoofie
Maybe you could try this option and post back as to whether the filter does code Digital Dolby.