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Audio problem on set-top DVD playback
Just finished a project and authored it to DVD. It is people being interviewed with music in the background. When playing the DVD back on a set-top player the music starts fine but the voices of the people being interviewed is very low. On my exported MPEG2 the audio plays back fine on my computer system. The DVD also plays back okay on a computer using.
The original video clips that I’m editing were captured by someone else on a PC as standard DV AVI files. I’m editing with FCP on a Mac. Everything edits fine but no matter how I export the video and audio whenever it goes to DVD it does the same thing. I suspect it has something to do with the AVI files and FCP. Has anyone experienced anything like this before?
Regards
Mark Smith
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7 Replies
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Try re-encoding the AC3 audio with DB -31 and no compression as opposed to Film Standard compression.
Noah
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Hi Noah,
I’ve tried your suggestion but am still having the problem. The music in the background sounds fine yet the audio from the people talking is very low occasionally pumping up for a fraction of a second.
Regards
Mark Smith
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I’d take another look at the source- try playing it back on the same hardware if you can. It’s either mixing or its an encoding error. I’m assuming you are using AC3 at 192KBps stereo…
Noah
Check out my book: RED: The Ultimate Guide to Using the Revolutionary Camera! Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio.
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Hi Noah,
Yes, those are the settings I’m using. Interestingly a colleague tried the disc on a Sony DVD player and it sounded okay. I’m sure your original suggestion set me on the right path.
In the end I encoded it using MPEG Layer 2 and it was okay. That will suffice for this project. If I get more time I’ll have a play around and see if I can figure it out as I don’t want to get caught out like this again.
Thanks for your help.
Regards
Mark Smith
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I thought I’d got around the problem but I’m still getting it. No matter what I seem to do the voice audio is always squashed right down. I’m sure that this is definetley to do with dynamic range compression. I’ve tried changing the AC3 setting in Compressor to -27 and no compression but it doesn’t seem to make any difference. I’ve tried encoding it without the background music but it doesn’t make any difference. Does anyone have any other solutions?
Regards
Mark Smith
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First -27 adds more lowering of the dialog then -31. -31, as stated by Noah, is what you always want, it turns this off.
TVs and some DVD players have “special” audio schemes, what is your TV set to. To evaluate quality anything that “helps” audio needs to be disabled. If you do and then you get an acceptable playback you know it not the encoding. The issue, if you even want to consider it as an issue, is in the mixing and mastering. Personally I would consider it a non-issue because the fix would be mastering of the audio by a professional. I get out of my league real quickly with audio but true mastering is expensive.
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Hi guys,
I’ve found the problem and it looks like it was a phase type issue with the microphone that the audio was recorded on. Re-capturing all the footage myself flagged up this problem and I was easily able to get around it.
Thanks for all your suggestions.
Mark Smith
Leeds Media Services
http://www.leedsmediaservices.co.uk
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