Audio distortion when exporting WMVHD from HDV timeline

[Harm Millaard]

Set audio to -12 or -6 dB max.

[Payner44]

I normally do as you suggest when I have a voice over track in use. I should have mentioned earlier that exporting the timeline as MPEG 2 for DVD does not distort the audio…same goes for encoding in the DivX HD format. Only WMVHD exibits this behaviour. So, your suggestion is simply a work around? Or is this how you must conform in order to use WMVHD?

[Tim Kolb]

I’m not sure i understand…if you normally set peak to -6 or -12, why did you set this audio to peak at zero? This allows for absolutely no headroom for transients.

There are different standards for setting levels for digital audio…one I keep hearing is -20dB or -18dB…I personally think that leaves a lot of unused audo bits. I set for -12dB.

TimK,
Director,
Kolb Productions,

Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net

[Payner44]

I’m new to this HDV stuff and need to dig in further about audio settings. However, I appreciate the suggestion and will give it a try.

[Steven L. gotz]

I watch a lot of television after my wife goes to bed. I do a lot of editing after my wife goes to bed.

So, I am sensitive to changes in volume levels. I don’t want to use headphones and I don’t want to wake her up.

I decided after some research, that if I settled on a peak of -6dB with the occasional transient up to -3dB, I would be able to switch from a professionally mastered DVD to one of my DVDs and not have a big change in levels. And if I changed to most TV stations, the same thing applies.

Not very scientific, but it works for me. Average peaks of -6dB.

Steven
https://www.stevengotz.com

[Payner44]

Just tried a WMVHD export with the timeline audio set to -6db and the resulting file was fine…thanks!!