Audio only capture creates enormous files

Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

Audio only capture creates enormous files

Posted by John Aufderheide on July 1, 2008 at 4:18 pm

Hello,

I am capturing only the audio from DV tapes from a Sony dsr-20. In the clip settings, i turned off the video because I only wanted the audio. The file size was ridiculous. For a 20 minute capture, the file size was over 4 gigs. I open the files in Quicktime player and there is only audio there, no video. (I thought that maybe FC was still capturing the video and hiding it somewhere.)

Any ideas what is happening and any ideas how to capture only audio with reasonable files sizes?

Thanks,

John

Don Greening replied 17 years, 10 months ago 2 Members · 3 Replies
3 Replies

Don Greening
July 1, 2008 at 6:08 pm

[John Aufderheide] “For a 20 minute capture, the file size was over 4 gigs. “

4 Gbytes for 20 min. of DV NTSC is about bang on for files that contain both audio AND video tracks. Things to check:

– After logging a clip but before batch capture make sure the logged clip name in the Browser has a “speaker” icon and not a video icon.

– Make sure your log and capture viewer window says “audio capture only – video preview disabled”.

20 min. of .aif audio should only amount to a couple hundred megabytes.

If everything checks out and it’s still a problem then trash the FCP preference files and try another audio only capture.

And please post back with your results, because the solution doesn’t just help you, it helps to solve similar issues for others.

– Don
John Aufderheide
July 3, 2008 at 7:22 pm

Thanks for the reply.

The icon is a speaker for the captured file and the viewer window says “audio capture only – video preview disabled”.

I tried trashing the preferences and still the same. I only trashed the plist pref. Do I need to trash any other file besides that?

Any other ideas?

By the way i am using a MBP 2 gig RAM and 10.4.11 and FC 6.0.3

Thanks
Don Greening
July 4, 2008 at 5:04 am

[John Aufderheide] ” tried trashing the preferences and still the same. I only trashed the plist pref. Do I need to trash any other file besides that? “

Yes, there are other preference files, but you can get a free program to trash all the FCP preference files for you. You’ll find it here:

https://fcprescue.andersholck.com/

Other than the unusually large audio file sizes does the audio actually sound okay? Your computer may be giving you a false file size reading. This is just a guess, but if it’s been awhile since you’ve done any system maintenance the false file size idea might be something to consider. Personally I’ve never heard of this problem before.

Let me know.

– Don

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