dv tape capture (audio issue)

[Antonie Koen]

Apologies for the long story. Was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction?

I have the following issues. I am capturing old dv tapes for a client (labeled 2004 to 2006) and out of the 8 tapes only 2 are giving me issues.

The 2 problem tapes seems to play fine in camera and when I open the captured avi files in Windows Media Player, everything works perfectly.

But as soon as I bring it into a video editor, I have issues. I have tried Sony Vegas Pro 8, Sony Vegas Movie Studio 11, Pinnacle Studio 14 and Windows Movie Maker without success. All the video shows up but in Vegas Pro 8 for instance, 90% of the audio is missing.

If I use a video converter to convert the captured video to another format for editing, it's like the audio is in slow motion and stretched and I tried various converters also.

Please note that the camera I am capturing the video with is not the same one which recorded the original video. Could this be a LP (long play) issue? Why did the other tapes capture fine with the exception of these 2?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Jim Andrada]

How did you capture the tapes? Is the video OK even when the sound is missing?

A little more detail about the process/software you used to capture the tape would be helpful

[Antonie Koen]

@Jim - thanks for responding.

The footage was captured via firewire (desktop pc) from a Panasonic GS230 camcorder using Window Movie Maker (XP). Different brands of tapes. The 2 tapes giving hassles are TDK ones but I have captured other TDK tapes from the same job without issue.

When I place the footage on the timeline, there is only 9 minutes of audio for 60 min of video. All the video seems fine on the timeline. As I mentioned before, when I play the footage in Windows Media Player all seems well.

When I brought the footage into Vegas Pro 8 for the first time, it tried to create a proxy for audio and I got a warning about audio consisting of multiple formats (?) and couldn't create a proxy..

[Jeff Pulera]

Some older DV camcorders offered the option of recording 12-bit, 32k audio rather than the more standard 16-bit 48k, perhaps that is the issue? Your NLE should offer a 32k DV mode when starting a new project.

Thanks

[Antonie Koen]

Originally Posted by Jeff Pulera

Some older DV camcorders offered the option of recording 12-bit, 32k audio rather than the more standard 16-bit 48k, perhaps that is the issue? Your NLE should offer a 32k DV mode when starting a new project.

Thanks

Hi Jeff. I went into my NLE (Vegas Pro 8) and it seems that the original media is in fact 12 bit. You seem to be on the right track. However my Vegas Pro 8 only has 8,16 and 24 bit options. The camera that was used for filming is over 10 years old. I'm trying to get the original camera from the client but I am not too hopeful since she reported issues with the tape drive.

The other alternative I guess would be to try other devices for capture.

[Daniel Epstein]

Try converting the audio track to 48K using a separate audio program and then remarry to the video. Or do a separate capture for the audio from the analog outputs. Audacity on windows could help you

[Antonie Koen]

Originally Posted by Daniel Epstein

Try converting the audio track to 48K using a separate audio program and then remarry to the video. Or do a separate capture for the audio from the analog outputs. Audacity on windows could help you

Thanks for the advice Daniel. Capturing the audio from the analog outputs seems to be the way to go.

[Daniel Epstein]

Your welcome. Funny how analog can still be useful