No audio in VS X5 Pro

[babyleon]

I recently upgraded my video capabilities with the purchase of a Sony A7S camera. It can record higher quality video (a higher bitrate I believe it called), XAVC-S as opposed to AVCHD. I was unsure if my present video editor, VS X5 Pro, would be able to handle the new video format. I imported one of the new clips into the timeline and it worked! But there is no audio component to the video. Nothing. When I play the clip in Windows Media Viewer, there is audio. And there is audio when I import it into a trial version of Premiere Pro CC which I am evaluating. But no audio in VS. In comparing the audio properties of clips that I have successfully used in the past, I see the audio bitrate is higher in the new clips, 1537kbps, than in the old, 256kbps. Is there a limit to the audio bitrate VS X5 can handle? And, if so, is it the same in VS X7? Or is it likely some other problem altogether? Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Just for comparison, the video data rate in the new clip is 50204kbps. It the old clip it is 26440kbps.

I am hoping I can stick with VS for editing the video from my new camera...... but not if the audio is not included.

The file type from the new camera is .mp4. From the old camera it is .mts .

Thanks!

Wayne

[Ken Berry]

That format is not supported by any version of Video Studio. It is more at the professional end of the market, though Sony released the version with the S in it (XAVC-S) to be closer to the prosumer end of the scale. Wikipedia says this

Software that will support XAVC include Adobe Creative Suite 6, Avid, Final Cut Pro X, Grass Valley's EDIUS Pro 7, Quantel, Rovi MainConcept SDK, and Sony Vegas Pro 12.

The only way it could be edited in VS is by converting it: see for example http://www.hdmediaconverter.com/convert ... r-sharing/

[babyleon]

Thanks for the quick reply. That it is not supported in any version is a bummer for me. I was hoping for it in X7.... Having increased the potential quality of my footage now, I hate to not use it or convert it to something less. I will continue to use X5 then for older project updates but, though it is considerably more expensive, I think I will have to go to Premiere Pro CC for my new stuff. Thanks again Ken.

[babyleon]

I just wanted to add that I discovered Pro X7 can indeed handle the video and audio from my Sony A7s camera! At first, I had the same problem as in X5 - video but no audio. But I found that if I made some changes in the Settings, Project Properties menu, I could get both video and sound! So apparently X7 can indeed handle the new XAVC-S format. The video does not play smoothly at times but I believe this is more likely the effect of my GPU and perhaps the speed of the external drive on which these files are stored. They play the same way in Premiere Pro CC to which I am currently subscribing. PP CC is certainly more complex and I need to learn a lot more about it. Whther I will continue to use it or not is still in the air. But at least now I know I don't HAVE to leave VS!

Thanks for all the help on these kinds of things. This board is really amazing and the Admins are exceptional and incredibly dedicated to helping a dolt like me!

Cheers!

[Ken Berry]

Thanks for getting back to us on this: most interesting. It might help others if you gave us the information on exactly what changes to the Settings you have to make to get the format to play in VS in both video and audio...

[babyleon]

I was afraid you would ask.... I made a number of changes - which one or ones did the trick I could not say for sure. I was just playing around in the menues figuring that if X7 could handle 4K, it should somehow be able to handle XAVC-S.

Anyway, here are the changes I can document:

In project properties I set Project Format to AVCHD and Project Profiles to AVCHD 1920x1080 60i 18Mbps (though I am recording in 60p that is not a choice)

From there I went to "Edit" and in the Compression tab selected AVCREC, set the Video Data Rate to 50,000 kbps and set the Audio Bit Rate to 256kbps (the highest it goes).

For reasons I cannot begin to comprehend (along with the meaning of all these things), that did the trick - video and sound!

I do believe whatever my future choice or choices for an editing program, VS or PP or something else, I will have to upgrade my GPU to something with a faster processor and more on-board memory.

[Ken Berry]

I have no idea how I would get some of that footage for testing, but I would love to try. Do you think you could load a small sample, say 100 - 150 MB to one of the free cloud storage websites and let us know? That way we could play around with the format ourselves...

[babyleon]

I would be happy to do that but I am as yet clueless when it comes to cloud stuff. If you can give me any pointers I will give it a go.

[lata]

Hi

Windows have a sharing option called OneDrive, it is part of Windows Live.

https://onedrive.live.com

That is probably one of the safest options.
There are many sharing sites but some insist on installing other software/malware

All work in a similar way, upload a file, then create a link to share with others, you simply post the link here.

[babyleon]

Sorry this took so long Trevor....

Here is a link to a clip from my Sony A7S camera. I put it on OneDrive as you suggest but it looks kind of crappy when I view it there...

I believe it is in the XAVC-S format at 50mbs.

Let me know if this works for you to download and test.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=F ... 9C23%21115

Cheers!

Wayne

[Ken Berry]

Was that a clip directly taken from your camcorder and uploaded to One-Drive; or did you first process it through VS before you uploaded it to OneDrive? I ask because, in VS, it plays perfectly both in video and audio (though the audio seems to be simply background noise). However, the properties show it as being AVCHD (perhaps because VS is not set to recognise XAVC-S as a separate format??) -- moreover, with a frame rate of 59.94 frames per second (i.e NTSC) and a bitrate of 59998 kbps which is different from the 50 mbps you mentioned.

Moreover, the audio shows as LPCM which surprised me a bit, though I realise LPCM (which is in effect uncompressed audio) is one of the XAVC-S audio options. I would have expected AAC audio -- but can you recall whether you made any adjustments in the camera's menu?

[babyleon]

Hi Ken,

Yes, that clip was uploaded directly as copied from my camera SD card, no processing in VS.

The audio is indeed just background highway sound.

As far as I can recall, I made no changes to the formats in the camera so it should have been XAVC-S format. The details of the clip show a video Data Rate of 50269kbps and total bitrate of 51806kbps and an audio bitrate of 1537kbps and sample rate of 48kHz. Don't for a minute think I know anything about what this all means....

Though I have not gone back to try it again in X5, my original question here had to do with the absence of audio on clips from my A7S. That was also the case when I upgraded to X7. I thought some of those changes I made in X7 preferences were responsible for getting everything to work again but perhaps not?

[Ken Berry]

Thanks for the clarification, though I remain a bit confused. As you will see from my attached image, I get different Properties in terms of frame rate, bitrate and audio bitrate than the ones you give. (And just to make clear, my VS is set up in PAL format, yet the frame rate in the Properties box clearly indicates NTSC fully progressive mode...)

And getting back to why no audio in X5, I am even more mystified. If the original audio on your clips was LPCM, then that is the absolute rock standard of audio formats, equivalent in effect to .wav... And of course X5, and all previous and current versions of VS should have no trouble at all playing LPCM...

[whitemax]

maybe you can try to convert your xavc videos into another format then reload them again to see if that can help. XAVC codec will alwasy cause some lose audio problem when uploading your videos into some edit software or other stuff.

[redbird111]

I have the same problem with my VS X5 Pro, useful post for me.