MiniDV transfer audio distortion

[Brent Kamm]

Hello,
I am transferring my MiniDv tapes using a Panasonic DV-2000 deck into my laptop via Firewire. While the video looks fine, the audio is crappy. It has a distortion/metallic sound to it at certain points. The original video is fine, and when I originally used the RCA to my Sony stand alone DVD recorder it sounds perfectly fine.
Now that I am using Firewire, it is really bad. I also tried to go from my MiniDv deck to my Sony stand alone via firewire, and I am having the same issue. Can it be a faulty firewire cable? Is it some sort of digital audio signal that is not comparable? Or do you think my MiniDv deck has a bad port??

I am hoping its the cable, or some sort of setting in my laptop that I can change,
HELP!!!!!! :)


Thanks,
Brent

[Daniel Epstein]

Brent,
Probably not the cable but you can try a different one. Could be a setting like 32K instead of 48K on the deck or your import settings. A mismatch of those setting might be problematic. Some Decks don't play well with some kinds of recordings so you might have to do a two stage process. If the audio is clean from the RCA you might want to try and marry analog audio to digital video.

[Brent Kamm]

I see that the MiniDV deck lights up the LED that says "12 bit - Stereo 1". I am guessing that is what was used when the video was recorded. Is there a way to change Movie Maker to match that setting??

[Daniel Epstein]

Hey Brent,
Not sure if the setting on the deck is automatic based on what is on the tape. You probably have to dig around the menus and try switching it. I don't know Movie Maker but you should be able to check on the web.

[Seth Bloombaum]

Originally Posted by Brent Kamm

I see that the MiniDV deck lights up the LED that says "12 bit - Stereo 1".

As Daniel suggested "12 bit" indicates that you have a 12-bit / 32 KHz recording. If you have settings in the camcorder that allow 16-bit / 48 KHz you should use them for future recordings.

Not familiar with Movie Maker, but if there is a 12/32 setting you should use it for this recording.

If there isn't, it's possible MM can't properly handle this spec. Maybe there's an update for MM? While commonly available on camcorders back in the days of DV, this spec wasn't used much. Many NLEs will work with it... you could download a trial of something and see if a new capture does the trick for you.

Just to confirm, you're not using any other software outside of Movie Maker for the capture?

[Chris Barcellos]

If this is digital capture, try HDVSplit, which was the go to capture device in my days of MiniDV. I am assuming the original material is digital. All you are doing when you capture from digital tape source is capturing the digital stream. Seems to me that any digital capture creates identical digital information that is on the tape, and there shouldn't be any change due to capture process. Is it possible you playback device or player just can't play the captured stream ?

[Brent Kamm]

From reading the manual, it appears that the MiniDV deck plays the tape back as the rate in which it was recorded, which appears to be 12bit@32khz.. I do not use MiniDV cameras anymore (the camera broke years ago) ... so I had bough this MiniDV deck to transfer my vids.
I have tried MovieMaker and get the issue using the firewire. Funny thing is that when I go from the Deck to my Sony VDR stand alone recorder via RCA cables, the sound seems to be fine?!?!

PS: Ok.. just dropped both videos into Premiere Pro and noticed that the "tinny video" come up as "16bit/32khz" where as the good clip from my Sony VDR comes up as "16/48khz". It seems as if the Stand Alone DVD Recorder is capturing at 16/48 somehow ... but firewire is only capturing at 32khz.

[Daniel Epstein]

Firewire protocol does not change the signal coming from the source it just imports it. The DVD recorder is converting the analog signal from the RCA cable which is how it can end up as 48K. Your computer software would have to interpret the 32K correctly or convert it to clear up the sound issue.