No Audio On Most Chapters

[mobilemusic1]

My PC got a virus and I had to reinstall VideoStudio 11 afterwards.

For the first time since, I've burned a multi-chapter DVD and when I play it there is no audio on Chapters 2-4 but it sounds fine on the menu music and the first chapter. Each chapter is an AVI and plays fine in VS and then in the menu preview.

I've reinstalled the software a couple of times and tried a different DVD+R but still no audio on half of the disc.

[Ron P.]

First you're jumping straight into the burn module (Share>Create Disc) from your project. This uses your project file, which is a VSP in the burn module. Not really a problem, but it can be. When problems surface, one thing we recommend trying is to first create a video file from your project, which is Share>Create Video File>DVD.... VS will render a new DVD Compliant MPEG-2 video file. Next clear the timeline, (File>New Project), then go directly to Share>Create Disc to open the burn module. Now in the burn module choose to insert a video file, and insert the newly created DVD Compliant MPEG-2.

AVI (Audio Video Interleaved), is just a container, nothing more. It can have any one of about 800 different codecs. Some can be very difficult to successfully edit due to the compression, and file size. Uncompressed AVI yields a whopping 65 gig per hour of video. That would be a huge file to work with. DV is a compressed version, while the file sizes are still somewhat large (13 gig per hour), they are much easier to work with. Most digital-8 and mini-DV camcorders use DV. There are some like DivX or it's free counterpart Xvid, that are highly compressed, and were originally meant for distribution only.

Now with that said, when you attempt to burn your DVD, the program and your PC must first convert all the video files to MPEG-2, it must create video files of all your menus, then it also must put the MPEG-2 files into VOB containers, create BUP files, and oh, also burn the disc. That's really putting your computer to task, very demanding. So the workflow I described above, creating a video file first, alleviates a lot of this. There's an option in the burn module, Project Settings, that you need to make sure is checked, Do not convert Compliant MPEG-2 files. That way VS will not have to recode your clips, it will just have to create the video for your menus, then burn the disc.

You might also open you project up and see what audio you have for your problematic chapters. VS at times will choke on some mp3 audio files, especially if the Lame codec was used. If so, convert them to WAV files, and use those in your project.