Windows Media can't play sound on AVI-to-mpeg trims

[kiatty]

Hello all,

I am using Videostudio 9.0 trial version.

I noticed that it will not edit or trim AVI format videos.

So I took an AVI video clip and converted it to MPEG with Nero 6's "export to mpeg" feature.

Now Videostudio will trim the video just fine, and plays the sound while the video is in the timeline.

But there are two inexplicable things here:

1 - The newly trimmed video has no sound if I try to play it with Windows Media Player (version 10 upgrade)

2 - But if I place the newly trimmed video on the timeline again, and do a "split audio", then do a "save sound file", that audio is saved as a wav, which Windows Media Player plays just fine. So I know that the trimmed video segment contains working sound even though Windows Media doesn't play the sound while it is attached to the video.

3 - The newly trimmed video, which Windows Media Player doesn't play the sounds on, plays with sound and video just fine if I play it with Divx movie player or PowerDVD.

4 - This trimmed video also plays with sound just fine if I place it on VideoStudio's editing timeline and play/preview it there.

So how is it that the newly trimmed video doesn't produce sound when I use Windows Media Player to view it, since further investigation reveals that this newly trimmed segment does indeed contain sound?

My video players have no problems playing all other forms of video and sound.

It must have something to do with what Nero 6 does to the AVI file as it converts it to an Mpeg that Videostudio can then trim. Or perhaps what exactly VS does with such a converted file when it trims it.

But that doesn't explain how Divx and PowerDvd plays the segment just fine, or how video studio will play it, video and sound together, when placed on the editing timeline, while Windows Media cannot. The sound certainly is in the video, and WM plays it just fine when the video portion is removed.

Heaven forbid there should be a sound format going on here that Windows Media Player version 10 doesn't recognize....(!?)

As I write this, I'm currently burning that segment to dvd to see if my regular dvd player under my TV will play it ok. I'll post the results in about an hour.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

Dave

[THoff]

Sure UVS will edit or trim AVI videos. If you can't open them, you are likely missing a codec. Try using "Add Video", select the file, and then click on the "Info" button to view the file properties.

If you aren't getting any sound during playback in WMP, you are probably using AC3 (Dolby Digital) audio without having a DirectShow filter for that format installed. You can download one here.

[kiatty]

Sure UVS will edit or trim AVI videos. If you can't open them, you are likely missing a codec. Try using "Add Video", select the file, and then click on the "Info" button to view the file properties.

If you aren't getting any sound during playback in WMP, you are probably using AC3 (Dolby Digital) audio without having a DirectShow filter for that format installed. You can download one here.

Yes indeed!

I downloaded and installed the codec, and didn't even have to restart the computer, now WMP plays the trimmed file segments just fine. Thanks alot!

UVS 9.0 sure is a refreshing change from version 7.0 which I've used for a year now. Version 7 would let me trim a video about 3 times, then it would crash everytime after that, and not even uninstalling and reinstalling would correct it. It took actually reformatting my hard drive completely and thus having to reinstall my other programs too. Although I'm gonna purchase 9.0 soon, I would still like to know what exactly the problem was with version 7. I'm thinking there was some hidden temp file or something created around the third time trimming that I could have deleted every 3 trims or so and thus not have to format and restore the hard disc.

Again, thanks for your help.

[jchunter]

Dave,
There was a memory leak in VS7 that produced the symptoms that you describe while editing. It would gradually acquire all the available real memory and then choke. It was fixed in the 8.01 update. VS9 seems to be clean, wrt memory leaks.
John