P
Phil Kopp
At least a good workaround.
There have been a couple of threads recently about audio problems with MM2.
One is called "Audio Bleeps at Transitions", and the other is "Solved? Audio
@ Trans Problem". If you're just tuning in, you should read these so you'll
know what the issues are and how we got here.
For the most part the audio issues involve video clips that have transitions
applied such as a fade. These clips will play perfectly in MM2, but when
rendered to a DV-AVI file, will occasionally have clicks and pops and other
audio deterioration. When rendered to a .wmv file there seem to be no
problems. Of course, if a DVD or Video CD is your ultimate destination, then
you need the DV-AVI file to be as good as possible.
Anthony made the first part of the breakthrough and I want to give him a big
share of the credit for getting to a solution to this problem. He reasoned
correctly that if you render just the video portion of the clip, then the
transitions 'disappear' as far as MM2 is concerned. Your new edited clip now
appears to MM2 as if it came out of your camcorder. So Anthony's solution
was to separately render the video and audio and then combine the two into
the final clip. It worked.
At least it worked better. I still had the occasional 'click' or 'pop', but
it was a lot better than the original. What wasn't so good was the audio
quality. Since I have both the original audio file and the result from MM2
right in front of me, it's easy to compare. There was a definite
deterioration so more was needed.
While I was in the process of editing a project, cutting and pasting bits of
video and audio here and there, it came to me. Rather than 'render' the
audio portion to a wma file, just store it temporarily in the clipboard
until you are ready for it. It works and it works well.
Here are the steps - simplified.
Build your project. Add all the video clips, extra audio/music tracks,
transitions, everything. Save your work regularly, of course. When you get
it the way you want, select the entire 'Audio/Music' track and 'Cut' it into
the clipboard. You are left with a video only project. Save that as
'project_video' and 'Save a Movie File...' in DV-AVI format. Give this movie
a name, like 'project_video', to differentiate it from your 'project' file
with all the parts in the timeline.
When that finishes, start a new project and import the just completed
'project_video' clip. Drag it onto the timeline and then paste the audio
track (still sitting in your clipboard) into the Audio/Music track. Save
this as 'project_video_audio'. Now, once again 'Save a Movie File...' to
DV-AVI format and you will have your clip with all your transitions, the
audio with no clicks or pops or other garbage and it will sound just like it
did to begin with.
This is basically Anthony's solution except it 'stores' the audio/music
track in the clipboard rather than as a wma file avoiding the deterioration.
This works; for me at least! I edited about 20 minutes of video, lots of
transitions and several separate audio tracks into one final DV-AVI file. I
then used that file to build a DVD video and it plays and sounds just the
way I want it to.
One thing is apparent in this process. You end up with a lot of DV-AVI files
and they take a lot of space. To help keep my project organized, I opened
Notepad and kept notes of the project filenames, DV-AVI filenames and
combined filenames. My 21 minute video was built in 6 different parts to
make it more manageable, so I had a lot of DV-AVI and MSWMM files. I cannot
overstate how important it is to have lots of disk space and to keep it
defragged. I have four Maxtor 160G ATA133 disks paired into two RAID0
configurations. Each pair is a different drive and I read from one and write
to another. It is amazing how much space this 20 minute project has used -
well over 50Gs with source files, stills, audio clips, and DVD menu
backgrounds and all that. Save your allowance because you will need another
disk soon!
There are a couple of caveats. MM2 is not a 'precision' video editor. You
can't move along 'frame by frame' looking for a specific point in time. Same
with the audio, you can see generally where the loud and quiet spots are,
but for precise editing you need other tools. I mention this because I
noticed one oddity in this process. When the first 'video only' clip is made
into a DV-AVI file it doesn't end up exactly the same length as you started.
Seems to get a bit shorter. This means I had to adjust the audio clips I
pasted in from the clipboard a little bit. This was no issue for me since I
wasn't trying to edit these clips all that accurately. One or two seconds
either way at the beginning and ending of each section was all I needed. It
is something to be aware of if you're trying to be 'precise'.
One other thing I noticed was when playing back the combined DV-AVI files
(both audio and video in the file), my Media Player would 'skip' or 'glitch'
every now and then. At first I thought the problem was still with us, but
when I paused the player and moved the cursor back a few seconds and
replayed that portion of the clip, it played without any problem. I think
the issue is this: DV-AVI files are huge and the data rate is huge and this
puts a bit of stress on all but the fastest PCs. To test this, I rebooted,
turned off everything I didn't need running and played the clip again. In a
21 minute DV-AVI file (4.5G!) there was one glitch. When backed up a bit and
replayed, it was perfect. And the final result on the DVD is also perfect.
Whew!
Thanks again to Anthony for getting us on the right track, to PapaJohn, who
I assume might add this bit of lore to his MM2 site, and all the other
posters who have contributed. This internet thingy works pretty well
sometimes.
Happy Holidays!
There have been a couple of threads recently about audio problems with MM2.
One is called "Audio Bleeps at Transitions", and the other is "Solved? Audio
@ Trans Problem". If you're just tuning in, you should read these so you'll
know what the issues are and how we got here.
For the most part the audio issues involve video clips that have transitions
applied such as a fade. These clips will play perfectly in MM2, but when
rendered to a DV-AVI file, will occasionally have clicks and pops and other
audio deterioration. When rendered to a .wmv file there seem to be no
problems. Of course, if a DVD or Video CD is your ultimate destination, then
you need the DV-AVI file to be as good as possible.
Anthony made the first part of the breakthrough and I want to give him a big
share of the credit for getting to a solution to this problem. He reasoned
correctly that if you render just the video portion of the clip, then the
transitions 'disappear' as far as MM2 is concerned. Your new edited clip now
appears to MM2 as if it came out of your camcorder. So Anthony's solution
was to separately render the video and audio and then combine the two into
the final clip. It worked.
At least it worked better. I still had the occasional 'click' or 'pop', but
it was a lot better than the original. What wasn't so good was the audio
quality. Since I have both the original audio file and the result from MM2
right in front of me, it's easy to compare. There was a definite
deterioration so more was needed.
While I was in the process of editing a project, cutting and pasting bits of
video and audio here and there, it came to me. Rather than 'render' the
audio portion to a wma file, just store it temporarily in the clipboard
until you are ready for it. It works and it works well.
Here are the steps - simplified.
Build your project. Add all the video clips, extra audio/music tracks,
transitions, everything. Save your work regularly, of course. When you get
it the way you want, select the entire 'Audio/Music' track and 'Cut' it into
the clipboard. You are left with a video only project. Save that as
'project_video' and 'Save a Movie File...' in DV-AVI format. Give this movie
a name, like 'project_video', to differentiate it from your 'project' file
with all the parts in the timeline.
When that finishes, start a new project and import the just completed
'project_video' clip. Drag it onto the timeline and then paste the audio
track (still sitting in your clipboard) into the Audio/Music track. Save
this as 'project_video_audio'. Now, once again 'Save a Movie File...' to
DV-AVI format and you will have your clip with all your transitions, the
audio with no clicks or pops or other garbage and it will sound just like it
did to begin with.
This is basically Anthony's solution except it 'stores' the audio/music
track in the clipboard rather than as a wma file avoiding the deterioration.
This works; for me at least! I edited about 20 minutes of video, lots of
transitions and several separate audio tracks into one final DV-AVI file. I
then used that file to build a DVD video and it plays and sounds just the
way I want it to.
One thing is apparent in this process. You end up with a lot of DV-AVI files
and they take a lot of space. To help keep my project organized, I opened
Notepad and kept notes of the project filenames, DV-AVI filenames and
combined filenames. My 21 minute video was built in 6 different parts to
make it more manageable, so I had a lot of DV-AVI and MSWMM files. I cannot
overstate how important it is to have lots of disk space and to keep it
defragged. I have four Maxtor 160G ATA133 disks paired into two RAID0
configurations. Each pair is a different drive and I read from one and write
to another. It is amazing how much space this 20 minute project has used -
well over 50Gs with source files, stills, audio clips, and DVD menu
backgrounds and all that. Save your allowance because you will need another
disk soon!
There are a couple of caveats. MM2 is not a 'precision' video editor. You
can't move along 'frame by frame' looking for a specific point in time. Same
with the audio, you can see generally where the loud and quiet spots are,
but for precise editing you need other tools. I mention this because I
noticed one oddity in this process. When the first 'video only' clip is made
into a DV-AVI file it doesn't end up exactly the same length as you started.
Seems to get a bit shorter. This means I had to adjust the audio clips I
pasted in from the clipboard a little bit. This was no issue for me since I
wasn't trying to edit these clips all that accurately. One or two seconds
either way at the beginning and ending of each section was all I needed. It
is something to be aware of if you're trying to be 'precise'.
One other thing I noticed was when playing back the combined DV-AVI files
(both audio and video in the file), my Media Player would 'skip' or 'glitch'
every now and then. At first I thought the problem was still with us, but
when I paused the player and moved the cursor back a few seconds and
replayed that portion of the clip, it played without any problem. I think
the issue is this: DV-AVI files are huge and the data rate is huge and this
puts a bit of stress on all but the fastest PCs. To test this, I rebooted,
turned off everything I didn't need running and played the clip again. In a
21 minute DV-AVI file (4.5G!) there was one glitch. When backed up a bit and
replayed, it was perfect. And the final result on the DVD is also perfect.
Whew!
Thanks again to Anthony for getting us on the right track, to PapaJohn, who
I assume might add this bit of lore to his MM2 site, and all the other
posters who have contributed. This internet thingy works pretty well
sometimes.
Happy Holidays!