Sound problems in video edited with Windows Movie Maker 2

[Mark UTTING]

After I use Windows Movie Maker (2.1.4.0260)
to download video from my Sony PC105E PAL camcorder,
I get a 12Gb .avi file with beautifully clear sound.

However, when I edit clips from that file with WMM2,
the sound becomes distorted in the EDITOR video,
with a metallic ringing sound (like clipping or something),
even though the preview of the original video in WMM2
has clear sound.

I'm pretty sure that the problem is that my camcorder
recorded the sound at 32KHz (the factory default I think)
and WMM2 cannot translate this correctly to 48KHz.

GSpot reports that Directshow can play the original
..avi file correctly, which is probably why the preview
of the original .avi file sounds fine.

WMM seems to use the "Microsoft PCM Converter"
audio codec to convert the sound from 32KHz to 48KHz,
so I think it is this codec that causes the problems.
(That codec is the only one that is listed as being
capable of sample rate conversions, and when I disable
it, I get no sound at all in the edited video, while
the preview of the original is still fine).

Questions:

1. Is this a known problem with WMM2?
(That it cannot edit .avi files with audio
sample rates lower than 48KHz?)

2. Is there anywhere I get another audio codec that
will do a better job of converting the sample rate?

3. If there is no better conversion codec, does anyone
know how I could split the audio out of the .avi
file so that I can manually convert it to 48KHz with
a separate program?

Thanks for any help!
Mark

 

[da_test]

After I use Windows Movie Maker (2.1.4.0260)
to download video from my Sony PC105E PAL camcorder,
I get a 12Gb .avi file with beautifully clear sound.

However, when I edit clips from that file with WMM2,
the sound becomes distorted in the EDITOR video,
with a metallic ringing sound (like clipping or something),
even though the preview of the original video in WMM2
has clear sound.

I'm pretty sure that the problem is that my camcorder
recorded the sound at 32KHz (the factory default I think)
and WMM2 cannot translate this correctly to 48KHz.

GSpot reports that Directshow can play the original
.avi file correctly, which is probably why the preview
of the original .avi file sounds fine.

WMM seems to use the "Microsoft PCM Converter"
audio codec to convert the sound from 32KHz to 48KHz,
so I think it is this codec that causes the problems.
(That codec is the only one that is listed as being
capable of sample rate conversions, and when I disable
it, I get no sound at all in the edited video, while
the preview of the original is still fine).

Questions:

1. Is this a known problem with WMM2?
(That it cannot edit .avi files with audio
sample rates lower than 48KHz?)

2. Is there anywhere I get another audio codec that
will do a better job of converting the sample rate?

3. If there is no better conversion codec, does anyone
know how I could split the audio out of the .avi
file so that I can manually convert it to 48KHz with
a separate program?

Thanks for any help!
Mark

regarding saving the audio separately, download
Virtualdub, open the avi, and choose from the top menu
Audio/direct stream copy, file/save WAV.

Dave

 

[George Ellis]

Da_test has it. Virtualdub. Google/Dogpile will find it. You can also
find a link to it from the tools section of Videohelp.com.

 

[Guest]

-----Original Message-----
Da_test has it. Virtualdub. Google/Dogpile will find it. You can also
find a link to it from the tools section of Videohelp.com.

Yes, I managed to get VirtualDub to do the sample rate
conversion eventually -- that fixed the sound problem.

But it took me a while to find that before I could
use VirtualDub, I had to:
1) convert the files from DV Type 1 to DV Type 2
(dvdate did this nicely)
2) install the Panasonic VFW DV codec so that
VirtualDub can handle the "dvsd" video format.
(see http://users.tpg.com.au/mtam/install_panvfwdv.htm)

Now it works!
I hope this helps other Sony Camcorder owners
who fall into the trap/accident of using their
12-bit 4-channel sound option, then find that
Windows Movie Maker does not handle it correctly.

Thanks.
Mark.