Movie Maker trashing 44.1kHz audio?

[Clive Backham]

I'm using Movie Maker Version 2.1.4026.0, on XP Professional SP2.

Brief synopsis of problem:
- imported AVI from a DV camera via Firewire.
- added audio from a 44.1kHz WAV file.
- set the audio balance to be 100% from the WAV file.
- saved the movie to hard disk as DV-AVI (PAL), 30Mbps.
Result: audio full of unacceptable artifacts (background
ticking/raspyness, some ringing on slow piano tones).

Second attempt: as before, but used a 48kHz WAV for the audio track.
Result OK.

Hypothesis: Perhaps DV-AVI files require 48kHz audio, and Movie Maker's
sample rate conversion is (seriously) flawed. Only way to preserve
decent audio quality is to use 48kHz throughout.

Is this a reasonable conclusion, or am I missing something else:
perhaps some configuration issue in Movie Maker?

 

[decoder]

I'm using Movie Maker Version 2.1.4026.0, on XP Professional SP2.

Brief synopsis of problem:
- imported AVI from a DV camera via Firewire.
- added audio from a 44.1kHz WAV file.

WAV is MS Win Audio Visual file type, and the sample
rate you quote 44.1khz, indicates it is actually a cda, not a wav.
You ripped the track from a CD?

- set the audio balance to be 100% from the WAV file.
- saved the movie to hard disk as DV-AVI (PAL), 30Mbps.
Result: audio full of unacceptable artifacts (background
ticking/raspyness, some ringing on slow piano tones).

Second attempt: as before, but used a 48kHz WAV for the audio track.
Result OK.

Hypothesis: Perhaps DV-AVI files require 48kHz audio, and Movie Maker's
sample rate conversion is (seriously) flawed. Only way to preserve
decent audio quality is to use 48kHz throughout.

Is this a reasonable conclusion, or am I missing something else:
perhaps some configuration issue in Movie Maker?

You've summed it up, though it's not a "flaw",
simply that WMP is limted in many areas, and
it's compatibility with many file types is restricted.
Converting a 44.1khz cda track to MS WAV is easy
and there will be no discernable sonic differences.
It is simply a compatibility issue.

 

[Clive Backham]

You've summed it up, though it's not a "flaw",
simply that WMP is limted in many areas, and
it's compatibility with many file types is restricted.
Converting a 44.1khz cda track to MS WAV is easy
and there will be no discernable sonic differences.
It is simply a compatibility issue.

Thanks for the response. I do realise that converting 44.1 to 48kHz can
be done well (by programs such as Adobe Audition, etc). That's why I
was kind surprised that Movie Maker made such a dog's dinner of it. But
no problem: I'll just make sure any 44.1 audio gets converted first,
before pulling it into Movie Maker.

 

[Bucky]

Thanks for the response. I do realise that converting 44.1 to 48kHz can
be done well (by programs such as Adobe Audition, etc). That's why I
was kind surprised that Movie Maker made such a dog's dinner of it. But
no problem: I'll just make sure any 44.1 audio gets converted first,
before pulling it into Movie Maker.

Yes, Movie Maker audio resampling seriously sucks. You need to
pre-convert the audio before importing.

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

I found this to be a good interesting exchange of posts, and added the info
to my Problem Solving > Audio Issues page....

and I think it'll make a good subject for a newsletter...

thanks

 

[Guest]

finally, it seems like someone else is having somewhat of the same problem as
me...after i save my movie (DV-AVI) my audio clips sound terrible (before,
they were perfect)...the conversion process is way off....what did you find
out to solve the problem? i'm making my son a MAJOR project of his life and
i've worked months and months on this....help, please if you can

 

[Guest]

please tell me how to convert the audio files? tell me how as if i were a 1st
grader. (ha) and how do you know what the khz is for audio files?