VideoStudio 8, no sound when recording to DVD

[bear]

I have used WinFAst TV2000XP to capture video from an analog video camera. I have edited it and checked it OK, but when I burn to DVD (PAL) all I get is a video file and no audio. It all works fine to the PC prior to burning but I cant get audio on disk. I have tried saving a separate audio file without success. Any help appreciated.

Bear

[THoff]

How do you determine that there is no audio on the disk? Are you playing the disk on your PC, or a standalone DVD player?

[Ken Berry]

I have that exact card and have no problems with it. I'd be interested to know first how you know you have audio when it is captured by the computer? What do you play it back on to know there is audio? Can you give us the properties of a captured file?

Second, how exactly do you connect your VHS camera to the card? I use the composite RCA out plugs and connect them to the adapter plug that comes with the card which accepts the composite cables at one end (red and white for stereo audio plus yellow for video) and has a plug at the other end that goes into the computer and which looks like an S-video plug but in reality also has an audio channel. (As you may know, the normal S-video plug does not carry an audio signal.) There is also an S-video female plug on the adapter plug in case your camera has S-video out, but as I have just said, you still need to connect the audio composite cables in order to transfer audio to the computer.

Finally, I might just comment that for VHS captures, I prefer the capture program which comes with the card to that of Video Studio (I now use VS9 but previously used VS8 successfully enough with the card). IMHO it gives finer control and the results are excellent. I then just open those captured files in VS9 for editing.

[bear]

Ken,

With the TV2000 XP series 3, I use the composite cable provided and join my AV cable provided with the camcorder. Being new at this, I say I have audio on the PC because I can hear the complete video soundtrack.

It took me a while when caputring the video and sound to actually get the sound to work when I replaid it on the PC. I have not tried to again at this stage. The DVD does not have a sound file on the disk, or play sound on a stand alone DVD player.

[Ken Berry]

The DVD itself will never have a separate sound file. Although the structure of DVDs will show a Video_TS file and an Audio_TS file, the latter is almost always empty (except in audio DVDs). On a video DVD, the audio is incorporated into the Video_TS folder.

You don't say in which part of the world you are. If you are in an NTSC country and have used MPEG audio, then it might be that your stand-alone player cannot handle that format (which sometimes happens in NTSC countries). Try LPCM (large file) unless you have the Dolby AC-3 plug-in for VS 8.

[Ted Hyatt]

My sound isn't playing on DVDs where I've transferred from analog tape to digital tape & into VS.
However, it doesn't play on an older (~3 years?) standalone DVD player, but will play on a recent player (which is a cheaper model.)
Some kind of formating problem?
What is LPCM audio vs MPEG audio?

[Ken Berry]

You don't say in which part of the world you are, but if you are in an NTSC country and have used MPEG audio, it is highly possible that an older player will not play the audio because MPEG audio is not part of the NTSC DVD format. More modern and cheaper players tend to be more forgiving and will play most formats.

LPCM (and to an extent Dolby) are the standard between PAL and NTSC audio formats. But LPCM produces rather large files (though of good quality) which tends to reduce the amount of video you can fit on a disc. MPEG audio is a much more compressed format, around the same size as Dolby AC-3.

[Ted Hyatt]

I am in the U.S. / NTSC.
My video's audio properties are LPCM. Is there another option which is more recognized in older players?
I can't believe a Sony player which is only 4-years old, and has "PCM audio", won't play a current standard. Are DVD standards changing that fast? Is my DVD going to be of any use many years from now?

[Ken Berry]

As I said, in my most recent post, most modern and cheaper players tend to be more forgiving than their older counterparts, and will play most formats without any trouble. This was really shorthand for saying that there is a widely held belief out there, backed by practical experience, that many of the more expensive, brand name DVD players, and particularly older ones of that variety, and very, very picky about what they will play and how they will do it. Remember that the older ones were produced mainly to play commercial DVDs, and these are produced quite differently from home DVDs (they are stamped, not burned).

Some of these older players will not play home made DVDsat all. Some might not like certain brands or certain colour dyes on the discs. Other might have trouble if the DVD was burned too fast. I for instance never burn faster than 4x on -R discs, even though I have faster discs. The general rule with burning DVDs is 'the slower the better' as it gives the laser a longer chance to effectively burn in the tracks.

Other older players (and indeed some new, high-end brand name ones) may play home-made DVDs erratically, starting and skipping, playings bits of the audio or (in your case) not at all.

What I am saying is that there is no simply answer -- just the generality about older players being more choosy and new, no name, cheapies seemingly being able to play anything you throw at them.