Trouble with the audio on some tapes I want to capture

[steveportigal]

Warning - I'm a newbie, so I may not give all the appropriate info or express it clearly. Thanks for your patience.

I'm using Premiere 6.0 on my Sony VAIO. I've got a Canon Optura 100MC DV camera. I'm connecting using firewire.

I have successfully captured and edited video that I've shot with that camera, set to 16-bit audio.

I'm now trying to work with DV shot on other cameras. In one case, I have no information about how it was shot, but it is in LP mode. In the other case, it was shot using a Sharp VL-SD20U, in SP, but I suspect in 12-bit audio.

Premiere is not happy with either of those tapes. The audio stutters terribly. I have played with the Audio Settings under Capture Settings, and changing from 16-bit is greyed out. I can change the frequency, however, but that makes no difference. (why the heck is the 16-bit
setting control grayed out????)

I decided to switch to an app called DVGate Motion, which is Sony's bundled DV app. The LP (unknown camera) tape was viewable quite well, no problem with audio. It indicated that the audio was ST1 & ST2. The Sharp-recorded tape was also much improved, but would occasionally flicker between (ST1 & ST2) and Stereo.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Is there a way to configure Premiere so I *can* access the 12-bit vs. 16-bit thing? Might that address this problem?

If not, can I set Premiere to ST1 & ST2 somehow? Will that work?

Or, how else can I capture the audio and video on these tapes so I can work with them in Premiere...

Thanks so much for any help,

Steve

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

Steve,

Are you able to play and hear-nicely the video clips in some application other than Premiere?

Cheers,
Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[steveportigal]

Yes. If I use an app called DVGate Motion, which is Sony's bundled DV app. The LP (unknown camera) tape was viewable quite well, no problem with audio. It indicated that the audio was ST1 & ST2. The Sharp-recorded tape was also much improved, but would occasionally flicker between (ST1 & ST2) and Stereo.

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

What about an app other than Sony's ware (sorry I missed that in the first post)? Can you play your clips using Quicktime or RealPlayer?

Does the Sony software allow you to export 16-bit sound?

Cheers,
Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[steveportigal]

Actually, I don't have any clips. I'm struggling to capture the clps to my PC. Since the sound is messed up when I play the TAPE in Premiere, I didn't bother to capture them in Premiere. I found that I could view the clips in that Sony app, but I didn't actually capture in that, because I'm hoping I can do the capturing in Premiere.

I just don't know how.

For example, why are the advanced options in the audio capture window in Premiere grayed out...

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

Hi Steve,

...when you play the tape in Premiere...?

Sorry, I don't understand -- is the tape messed up? When you play it from your camera to your TV, do you hear clean, crisp sound as expected? If not, then either the tape is messed up, the camera is messed up, or the camera can't handle the tape. Not a Premiere problem.

If the tape plays fine when connected to a TV, then try different ways of capturing it to your hard drive. Try Sony's app, or the app that came with your video capture card. If you cannot, then the problem is with the camera/computer interface -- not Premiere.

If you can capture it to your hard drive, then try watching the video file using a variety of apps, such as Quicktime, or RealPlayer or Media Player. If you cannot see it under any of these other applications, then it is very likely some sort of capture problem -- not Premiere. If none of the capture apps allows for a clean capture, then just pick one and start experimenting with settings until either it does, or you've exhausted all your options.

If you can make one work and produce viewable video, then note the settings.

Can you import that viewable video into Premiere and have it function as well? If not, then -- and only then -- are you experiencing a Premiere problem.

Make sure your capture software is the latest version, as well as your drivers for your capture card/video card.

I know you want to be able to do it all with Premiere, but this sort of troubleshooting might help you find at least one path that'll work: "Or, how else can I capture the audio and video on these tapes so I can work with them in Premiere..."

Cheers,
Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[steveportigal]

Edward - I appreciate your logical approach to this, breaking it down between tape probs, camera probs, interface probs, and Premiere probs.

So, here's my update:

I updated Premiere to 6.02, I think I had neglected to do that. Yikes.

I explored how I might update the drivers for my video card - it is the Texas Instruments OHCI compliment IEEE 1394 host controller and the driver is at version
5.1.2535.0 --- I couldn't figure out WHERE one would determine the latest version, etc. I looked at download.com, texasinstruments.com, and microsoft.com. I found some sites that have "all the drivers you'd want" but they all go back to WinME.

So, a new question to insert here is "how can I make sure I've got the latest drivers"

I decided to try capturing in Premiere again. It worked - sort of! I've got the clips on my HD. When I play them in Media Player, I see video and hear sound. When I play them in Premiere, I only see video, no audio. Obviously, I AM capturing audio, because it's there in the .avi file. It just isn't there when I play the clip in Premiere. Interestingly, when I drag the play head (scrubbing????) in the Timeline I can hear the audio, but not when I "preview"

FWIW, when I watch the clips in Premiere, I only see a new frame every second or so. But the .avi files are fine in Media Player.

(I realize there are a LOT of interactions between systems here, so hopefully I've identified some Premiere-specific ones - thanks for the help so far)

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

Steve,

Good, this is promising.

I seem to recall there being some sort of hassle regarding TI firewire cards -- that it is better to drive them with Microsoft drivers than with the TI drivers, but that's something you can hunt down for extra credit.

So, you know you have AVI files, right? And that they seem to have the sound with 'em, and synced all the way to the end of the file?

Then try importing those files into some other video editor, such as your Sony software, or maybe see if you can download a free version of something. Heck, chances are, there's a shovelware copy of MGI VideoWave floating around on your hard drive. See if you can import into one of those and then edit.

If you can do that, then see if you can export from one of those to a 16-bit sound Quicktime file.

Here's another thing to try. Import one of those "good" files into Premiere and then immediately attempt to export it to, say, some Quicktime 16-bit sound format. No edits, no cuts, no fades, no nuttin' -- just a re-export of the same data. How does that work?

And yeah, you're right about the interactions. It can make troubleshooting a real pain-in-the-neck ().

Cheers,
Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[steveportigal]

What's even weirder is that I can simply reopen Premiere and the clips (which were in a project) from before play fine.

Now back when I started this thread I had two tapes with different symptoms. I have focused on one tape. And it appears that problem is solved? It's captured, audio, video, etc.

The other tape (from my other camera, ironically) is still a bit of a mystery, but I'll be playing with that probably next week and will post again. Now at least I have some things to try, work arounds, and so on and I am very appreciative of that...

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

Well good!

Anything to reduce entropy in the world...

Cheers,
Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door