Adding audio to WMV?

[Terry Pinnell]

I've worked mainly with MPEG until recently but need to make some WMV
files. I converted an AVI to WMV with SUPER. What is the recommended
way to add a music track to that while preserving max video quality
please?

I could of course have converted the original AVI with MovieMaker
instead of SUPER, and added the audio track there before encoding to
WMV. But I'm guessing (any hard data from anyone?) that SUPER produces
a higher quality video, if only because it seems to take about 10
times as long on the couple of tests I've done.

 

[Steve King]

I've worked mainly with MPEG until recently but need to make some WMV
files. I converted an AVI to WMV with SUPER. What is the recommended
way to add a music track to that while preserving max video quality
please?

I could of course have converted the original AVI with MovieMaker
instead of SUPER, and added the audio track there before encoding to
WMV. But I'm guessing (any hard data from anyone?) that SUPER produces
a higher quality video, if only because it seems to take about 10
times as long on the couple of tests I've done.

Why didn't you add audio to the AVI before converting (downgrading) it?

Steve King

 

[John Inzer]

I've worked mainly with MPEG until recently but need to make some WMV
files. I converted an AVI to WMV with SUPER. What is the recommended
way to add a music track to that while preserving max video quality
please?

I could of course have converted the original AVI with MovieMaker
instead of SUPER, and added the audio track there before encoding to
WMV. But I'm guessing (any hard data from anyone?) that SUPER produces
a higher quality video, if only because it seems to take about 10
times as long on the couple of tests I've done. ===============================
crossposting removed<

I'm thinking Movie Maker would be fine for
your project and if you need better quality
try using a custom profile:

Movie Maker 2 - Saving
Movies - Custom WMV Profiles
http://tinyurl.com/s2vgu

More info:

Creating Custom Profiles
for Windows Movie Maker 2
http://tinyurl.com/cuny7

Even more info
Windows Movie Maker
Custom Export Formats
http://tinyurl.com/dnylc

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Why didn't you add audio to the AVI before converting (downgrading) it?

Steve King

Because I didn't anticipate needing any music. Now I do.

If the situation arises again, what method are you recommending for
adding the audio at that stage to the AVI, without degrading the
video?

 

[Frank]

I've worked mainly with MPEG until recently but need to make some WMV
files. I converted an AVI to WMV with SUPER. What is the recommended
way to add a music track to that while preserving max video quality
please?

I could of course have converted the original AVI with MovieMaker
instead of SUPER, and added the audio track there before encoding to
WMV. But I'm guessing (any hard data from anyone?) that SUPER produces
a higher quality video, if only because it seems to take about 10
times as long on the couple of tests I've done.

Terry, although some simple things can be done with existing Windows
Media files non-destructively, such as trimming start and end points,
it wasn't really designed as an editable format. We don't use programs
like Super and we don't add music tracks later. Windows Media is for
final distribution.

The only proper way to create a Windows Media file - .wma, .wmv,
whatever - is to create your assets in the highest possible quality
and then use the free WME (Windows Media Encoder) program to do the
encoding.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

In your case, create as best-looking and best-sounding an uncompressed
..avi file as possible and then feed that into WME for encoding,
choosing the encoding parameters (data rate, codecs, etc.) as
appropriate for your application (Web server pseudo streaming, real
streaming from a Windows Media Server, on-demand playback, live
streaming, local playback from a hard disk drive or optical media,
etc.).

 

[Terry Pinnell]

I'm thinking Movie Maker would be fine for
your project and if you need better quality
try using a custom profile:

Movie Maker 2 - Saving
Movies - Custom WMV Profiles
http://tinyurl.com/s2vgu

More info:

Creating Custom Profiles
for Windows Movie Maker 2
http://tinyurl.com/cuny7

Even more info
Windows Movie Maker
Custom Export Formats
http://tinyurl.com/dnylc

Thanks John. But in that MS article 'Creating Custom Profiles for
Windows Movie Maker 2' at
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/expert/customprofile.mspx
I see no mention of how to increase the *dimensions* of the WMV
output, which is an important factor for me. Is that not possible
please?

 

[Steve King]

Because I didn't anticipate needing any music. Now I do.

If the situation arises again, what method are you recommending for
adding the audio at that stage to the AVI, without degrading the
video?

Terry, I'd go back to the original AVI file. Load it into Windows Movie
Maker. Add your audio track. Then, encode it to WMV using the highest data
rate you can for the purpose you have in mind. I'm not familiar with Super,
but I suspect that the quality gain, if any, is marginal. Of course, I may
not know what I'm talking about re: Super.

Steve King

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Terry, although some simple things can be done with existing Windows
Media files non-destructively, such as trimming start and end points,
it wasn't really designed as an editable format. We don't use programs
like Super and we don't add music tracks later. Windows Media is for
final distribution.

The only proper way to create a Windows Media file - .wma, .wmv,
whatever - is to create your assets in the highest possible quality
and then use the free WME (Windows Media Encoder) program to do the
encoding.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

In your case, create as best-looking and best-sounding an uncompressed
.avi file as possible and then feed that into WME for encoding,
choosing the encoding parameters (data rate, codecs, etc.) as
appropriate for your application (Web server pseudo streaming, real
streaming from a Windows Media Server, on-demand playback, live
streaming, local playback from a hard disk drive or optical media,
etc.).

Thanks Frank. I'll take another look, but last time I tried WME I
recall finding it rather intimidating. I'd typically use Womble MPEG
Video Wizard (DVD), or MemoriesOnTV for my editing, both of which have
reasonably friendly interfaces.

I appreciate that it's best to have audio and video all at hand at the
outset. But, in this non-critical application (discussing a WMV in a
newsgroup), I just wanted to add sound to the existing WMV, if
possible. However, from John's reply, it's beginning to look as if my
best bet would be to go back and re-render in MM2 with audio added.

 

[Jim]

Of course, I may
not know what I'm talking about re: Super.

The 2 good things about SUPER are
1-Its free
2-It tries to do a lot.

But in terms of quality or speed it is not as good as other stand alone
encoders from my experience.
It's fine for a Youtube convert or such, but if you are converting to wmv,
why not use the program designed for it?
Get the windows media encoder mentioned by Frank and reencode from scratch.

 

[John Inzer]

Thanks John. But in that MS article 'Creating Custom Profiles for
Windows Movie Maker 2' at
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/expert/customprofile.mspx
I see no mention of how to increase the *dimensions* of the WMV
output, which is an important factor for me. Is that not possible
please?

===================================
Maybe the following link will offer some ideas:

Movie Maker 2 -
Quality Settings in Custom Profiles
http://tinyurl.com/258h32
(PapaJohn's Newsletter # 95)

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk