No audio from MOV files, VS 2018 Ult. & Canon D6 mk2

[bestplaced]

I produced an HD video from this SLR which stores MOV files. Video component is no problem but splitting the mono audio off in VS, it generates a file in the timeline but won't play the audio. The audio is identified by VS as LPCM 48kHz 16 bits stereo. Any other audio files from alternative sources: MP3, Wav etc. work fine in VS so it's just the camera. The original MOV file plays its audio OK in VLC, DivX and Windows media player so there ain't no system issues. Could it be trying to play the silent stereo channel ? There is a workaround which is to convert the MOV to MP3 in VLC and import that into VS which then works quite happily. I haven't tried outputting a DVD file as yet.
A subsidiary VideoStudio editor issue is that the video and audio won't play simultaneously, only one or the other. Is this normal ?

[canuck]

I don't understand some of your post
What do you mean by " splitting the mono audio off in VS, it generates a file in the timeline but won't play the audio"? Exactly what are you doing in this case?
Since the audio was recorded as stereo where does the mono come from?

I also have a Canon D6 SLR and have no problems playing the mov files in VS

[bestplaced]

As I haven't used VS much, I'm just faithfully following the VS manual. Page 103:
"To split an audio track from a video clip
1 Select the video clip.
2 Right-click the video clip and select Split Audio.
• This generates a new audio track."

I'm doing this split because the MOV file was silent when imported and I was trying to determine why. The mono comes from plugging an external mono mic. into the camera. This camera is now a few years old, so have they changed the audio coding?
Just generated some MOV files with a Canon 5D mk2 and they don't play the audio either, in this case using the camera's internal mono mic. There are many volume controls in different menus in VS which I believe to have set up correctly.
If I use alternative video editing programs on these MOV files there's no problem with the audio so it's a compatibility issue with VS apparently.

[Davidk]

I understand why you may want to mute or replace the audio in a clip, but - since you have problems with the split audio - did you actually try to play the clip in the timeline without doing anything to the audio? And did you get the same 'no audio' result?

[Davidk]

Whoopps re-read the later posts, scratch my last entry.

Focussing on voice, sometimes MS cycles the sound settings to zero. No idea why, but I've seen it on several occasions and posted about it. And that's why there's now a little volume setting item as part of the test in the sound capture/voiceover panel using a local PC microphone to check and fix that. So, next checklist item was a voice capture. Have you tried a voice capture and reviewed the sound levels on test and in the voice track? Do they work OK?

[bestplaced]

Hi Davidk

Sorry, I didn't understand all of that. What is MS ? Is that the camera or the Video Studio. You have triggered my memory of 3rd party Canon camera updates which change the audio firmware. This is found on the Canon forums. Could be the way to go. I'll also load up an old backup version of VideoStudio from circa 2010 and see if that works, as it could be this Ultimate Edition which is buggy.
Just tried a Samsung WB650 camera which does MP4's rather than MOV's and everything worked fine. Video and Audio do play together in VideoStudio exactly as expected.

[Davidk]

MS is Microsoft, a reference to the windows Operating System (OS) all Video Studio versions run under. In the control panel/sound page for the OS, any version, are settings for the sound drivers/microphones/speakers/headsets (combo of both) detected and used by the system OS. Generally they have various level settings as default. but I have seen such settings set to zero. In that case, no sound from any attached microphone. Fixing that can get a bit tedious, and VS incorporated a fix several versions ago. See the following screenshot pic

Locate the film reel with the red dot in the timeline tool bar, click it, then from the options presented, click the microphone icon and you get to the adjust volume panel in the image above. In that image:
- the record button allows you to do a simple volume test of microphone sound. Click that button and say something (test 1 2 3 4 ), release the button and it immediately plays that test back to you. The slider bar above it allows you to set the level of sound you want and it operates directly into the OS sound driver settings. Move the slide bar (higher level to the right, or lower level to the left) and repeat this until you are happy, may also need to adjust the position of the microphone to your mouth - too far away and it's never going to be loud enough. Too close and you may have sibilance hiss included. Play with it until it's right. Personally, I set the slider for max volume (all the way to the right) and use the clip settings within project files in VS to make any volume level changes needed - you can always reduce the level later, making it louder gets a bit more complicated.
- when the volume test is OK, proceed to record your commentary/voiceover using the start and stop instructions in the bottom of that panel.

[bestplaced]

Hi Davidk, I tried the voiceover setting in VS which you point out and, after finding a mic and plugging it into the PC, it seems to work fine so no problems there.
I also got my old Pentax k-r SLR out and recorded an AVI movie file which worked fine in VS, no audio problems, so the issue is purely with Canon MOV files. Any other MOV files from elsewhere work fine. As there is a workaround, which is to recode the Canon files using VLC, it's not too urgent and I'll put in a problem report to Corel. If I was more expert I could probably open the MOV file in a text editor and work out what is going wrong in the header code, stuff that people had to do on a lot of programs years ago.
Thanks anyway.

[bestplaced]

Just as a postscript, I looked at this audio problem on the Canon forums, ie from a camera file perspective, and found the whole Canon file thing is a can of worms. Some users can't even view their video component of the MOV files, it being an obsolete Quicktime format.

The workaround is to use conversion programs from iSkysoft, Freemake Video, though they cost $$. In my case, since Nero works OK with my MOV's on this computer, I can use it to import them and export MP4's which Video Studio reads OK. Oddly the file size goes down by >60% with no loss of quality, so Canon's files seem not compressed at all.

Also tried my Total Recorder Video edition which fails to read them with the helpful(?) report
"Only MPEG-4 files with an AAC audio stream are supported.
The file's audio stream format is: Tag=1; 48000 Hz, 16 bit; 2 Ch"

[Davidk]

Insofar as MOV is "obsolete Quicktime format", do note
- that only the player is affected by Apples' decision to cease support for QT some years ago. The codec component is still "good" and you need it to work with MOV files in Video Studio.
- there is a tutorial on how those QT codecs affect VS (and several other editors) available on-line, and it specifically includes how to install them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lDOgqO_fVk&t

Just how a MOV codec would allow you to see the imagery but not play audio is beyond me, but you should review the tutorial and re-install the codecs in case one of them has become 'broken'.

Another option is to review the options for recording formats in your camera. If there are alternatives to MOV, (eg, AVI or MPEG) choose one of those and experiment to see there improvements.

[tletter]

The workaround is to use conversion programs from iSkysoft, Freemake Video, though they cost $$

HandBrake is free and may provide you with flexibility when converting your source files.

tletter
https://www.youtube.com/user/tletter

[lata]

Hi
I own a Canon 7D and have no problems with audio
Canon of course could have updated the codec they use

I do have the k-lite codec pack and QT codec installed

If installing QT as mentioned does not improve things, try re-naming the files to use .mp4 as it's extension instead of .mov
Works for some files

Otherwise can you provide a sample, upload to a sharing site providing the link on your reply
We can try your files, I will compare with my 7D files.