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Audio does not playback on DVD players
Hi everyone,
I recently completed a video for the American Heart association and I’m running into a huge problem with DVD playback.
I shot my video using a Sony HDR-FX7 in DV format which is 720by480 widescreen format. I did not shoot in HD 1080i but everything still looks great.
However, when I export my edited video onto DVD I run into the following issue and I don’t know if you folks have seen this before or not.
1.) My music tracks and audio tracks that were shot with the shotgun Mic play in DVD playback on standard players. However, my interview tracks which were recorded with a xlr to mini handheld microphone vanish. The audio is present but it is completely unintelligble and it almost sounds like the audio file was corrupt.
HOWEVER, when played back on PC, Xbox 360, PS3, the audio is present, loud, and sounds very good.
I have tried exporting in multiple formats, AVI, MPEG2, MPEG2-DVD, nothing is working to get it right on the DVD players.
2.) I have tried mixing the entire audio track together into one track and still nothing. Audio is present in Encore and Windows 7 DVD maker, audio always plays on PC. However, once it goes onto a DVD player it doesn’t work!
3.) I have tried many different types of players and all have turned out the same result. I also got the same problem with a previous project when someone was connected to a wireless microphone and then XLR to Mini to my camera.
Is it the camera? Are the settings messed up on the camera? I don’t know what to do. This is probably the wrong forum and I apologize but I don’t know where to place this thread.
Thanks if you can help.
Wilmar
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9 Replies
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If u hear it in the edit and it’s fine there then you are losing something in the export. Are you working with any audio filters? What are your export settings.
-JBJon Barrie
aJBprods
http://www.jonbarrie.net -
Right now I’m using Adobe Encore CS3. When I do the export settings I have so far used Adobe Media Encoder and exported to MPEG 2 DVD as I want it to play on DVD players.
Here is the kicker though, I thought it would be the export setings too but there was another test I ran by accident which points to a different problem.
I had given some Mini-DV tapes to a collegue of mine to export onto DVD. She used mini dv-DVD deck and captured all of my footage and exported straight to DVD. Once the camera got plugged into the external mic lavalier. The audio would disappear on DVD but when you played it on PC it would be present!
She used completely different export settings that were not adobe related or even anything related to Windows.
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When you have two seperate mics going into the camera, if you record each on its own discreet channel (wireless on left, shotgun on right for instance), it’s often a good idea during editing to mix these to both channels (stereo). Otherwise, if the viewer is watching on a TV with mono sound, they may only hear one channel and not the other.
Next issue – from what I’m reading, you may be new at DVD authoring. The DVD MUST be “authored” in a program such as Encore. You mentioned trying several export formats for your DVD. You can’t simply burn files to a DVD disc, even if it is “MPEG-2 for DVD”. Doing so, the video MIGHT play on a computer or PS3, because it recognizes the video files, but such is not the case in an actual DVD player.
If you open your DVD in Windows, do you see a “VIDEO_TS” folder, containing .vob files? This is what the DVD file structure looks like. If you have .mpg files or .wmv files or anything else in there…it’s not a DVD video.
Maybe I’m off track here, but I had to ask.
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
Yes there’s a folder that says VIDEO_TS and inside the folder are VOB files. On the outside are the encore files that I used to build the DVD with a start action and end action.
The audio channels are already mixed together in Premiere Pro, when it was recorded it was recorded in Stereo, no mono tracks. I even tried mixing down ALL of the tracks together into one master audio file, but that didn’t work either.
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Hi Wilmar,
What I was trying to ask earlier was, HOW are you burning this project? I am confused by your reply about the contents of the DVD –
“On the outside are the encore files that I used to build the DVD with a start action and end action. ”
It sounds like you are using Encore to burn files to the hard drive, then taking the entire “project” folder and burning to DVD as “data” perhaps. There should ONLY be a VIDEO_TS folder on the DVD and not any other project folder or files.
As mentioned earlier, it’s not enough to have the video files on disc to call it a “DVD”. If one were to take the VIDEO_TS folder and burn to disc using NERO for instance, and it was burned as a “DATA DVD”, that will NOT work in a DVD player. It must be burned as “DVD VIDEO”, then the disc is set up to be DVD VIDEO Compliant.
DVD media by itself does not make for a “DVD”, it must be formatted and burned to be compliant, otherwise it’s just data, which I believe is the issue since you say it only plays on computers and PS3, which WILL see the raw data files and try to play them. A DVD player can not do this properly using a “data” DVD.
I hope this is making sense, and from the issues you mention, I think this is the case. You haven’t said if you’ve made successful DVDs before or if this is new for you.
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
I apologize for the confusion, I haven’t been taking the time to properly write out my thoughts.
1.) I am actually a little bit familiar with authoring. I use Encore most of the time to do my DVD’s. I have used it to produce my demo reels onto DVD, and the reels always have audio working properly. I use Premiere Pro-Export to Encore-burn DVD.
Lately however, with my windows 7 update. My LG burner/lightscribe drive no longer works properly with Windows 7. So I’ve had to use the secondary drive underneath. Now I have to manually set the settings in Encore. Export as MPEG 2 DVD, import video, import audio, link to the timeline, etc. burn DVD.
2.) I’ve used video DVD with nero and windows DVD maker and still ran into the same problem. However, just for kicks I created a DVD of my demo reel and the audio played perfectly on DVD players 360, PC, PS3 and basically all formats. This was also using my secondary drive making sure nothing was wrong with my secondary drive.
Here’s my theory on what’s happening.
I believe that the audio track that was recorded with an external mic through my channel was in reality recorded in MONO. HOWEVER! Premiere Pro didn’t recognize the audio as Mono and therefore imported it as Stereo. I looked at the audio mix in the HDR FX7 settings and it looked like it was set to channel 1. I changed it to MIX but haven’t tested any external mic yet.
If I am right, by setting it to mix it should record both channels and be TRUE stereo. Premiere Pro didn’t recognize it as mono and therefore let me edit my whole piece thinking everything was recorded in stereo. Hence why DVD players, and PC speakers only recognize it as a mono track.
Because the demo reel exported properly I’ve ruled out that the problem isn’t with how I author, premiere pro export settings, encore burn settings, or my DVD player, this leads me to believe that the camera is the culprit as it ONLY happens when the external mic is plugged in. Further evidence that leads me to this conclusion is that when the Mic is NOT plugged in and I’m using just the shotgun mic; the audio plays perfectly.
I have to run some tests but I do think this is the problem. If you have any further theories or insights, please let me know I would greatly appreciate it.
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Years ago, an associate brought his Premiere project to me to do some finish work on. I immediately noticed on my edit suite that he had spots in the program where one channel of audio was completely dead. I noticed this because I have stereo speakers on my desk, located left and right of me.
I brought this to his attention and found that he was using only the small, built-in MONO speaker on his 14″ Sony edit monitor and that is how he completely missed the issue on his end. There may have been an RCA Y-adapter in the mix as well 😉
I believe that’s where my confusion has come from with your issue, is that you’re blaming the camera for the DVD sound issue, when in fact you have to edit first, so something is off in either the editing or DVD authoring process. The camera is a couple of steps removed the end result. The DVD can only play back what you gave it from the NLE.
Jeff
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I totally understand the confusion, I am confused as well. The reason I believe it is the camera is because this has not only happened on my machine.
This has happened on two separate different machines shot on different dates. All issues happened ONLY when using the external mic on the camera.
There was a project that I handed over to someone else, they burned a DVD for me and I did not touch the footage at all. The audio was STILL gone and in this case the microphone was connected via mini-XLR to a wireless lavalier.
The speaker icons in Premiere are in Stereo and Encore when I click on the Build Project button, says that there are no errors. It prevents me from burning if there are. I could attach screenshots of my premiere pro project and Encore settings if it will illuminate what’s going on.
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Dear Jeff,
First off I want to thank you for consistently replying to my posts. After reading what you said I gave my project and camera another look over.
I noticed that my camera was set to record 12bit audio and on playback the channel was on 1.
My settings in Premiere Pro are set to ONLY accept 16bit audio and everything I have pretty much worked with is set to 16 bit. Is it possible that when I plugged into the mic, it recorded everything in 12bit and therefore this is the source of my frustration!?
I’m tempted to edit the original source audio in Soundbooth and convert them to 16 bit, but I’m afraid of losing yet another DVD if this fails.
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