Bad audio with MPEG or AVI

[Gary Kleiner]

Are you rendering to a new track, then playing back both the original and the new one?

Gary Kleiner

Learn Vegas and DVD Architect

http://www.VegasTrainingAndTools.com

[Jimdevo]

No I am rendering my timeline to the hard drive as a MPEG1 or AVI. Should I render it to a new track?

[Gary Kleiner]

[jimdevo] “Should I render it to a new track?”

No, not to address this particular problem.

Gary Kleiner

Learn Vegas and DVD Architect

http://www.VegasTrainingAndTools.com

[Seth Bloombaum]

When I render my video to MPEG1 or even an AVI the audio sounds over modulated and there is distortion. However, it sounds great on the timeline…

Perhaps you’re already aware of this, but your post doesn’t make it clear. Sounding great on the timeline is not enough. It also needs to not exceed 0db on the master meters in the mixer panel. Most people would say not to exceed somewhere between -3db and -0.3, to provide some margin of safety.

[Jimdevo]

So what’s happening is the audio of the rendered file sounds bad when played outside of Vegas. But when the rendered file is played in Vegas, it sounds great. What I mean by “sounds bad” is it sounds distorted or scratchy. Very bad quality from the original.The audio meters do not exceed 0db. I am experienced at Mpeg2, but I’m trying to put this video on the web in either Mpeg or AVI and can’t believe it’s supposed to sound this bad. When put in DVDA as an mpeg2 it sounds great. Has no one had audio problems with an mpeg1? Or is the audio quality that far off from the original sound. It just seems like it’s being over compressed or something.
Thanks
Jim

[Seth Bloombaum]

Well, that’s odd. Seems to indicate a problem with whatever player you’re using outside of Vegas. Is it possible that the EQ has been set up in Windows Media Player… I’d try zeroing that EQ, but that’s really just a wild guess.

I do think you should try this file on other computers.

Nothing wrong with MPEG1 audio. Not great, but OK. Not a good choice for web distribution, though, as it won’t stream or progressive download, and all the true streaming formats look better than it does for a given data rate. (that would be windows media, quicktime, and realmedia). MPEG1 doesn’t get much use anymore except as the VCD standard, which remains very popular in Europe and Asia. Not for web.

Are you using a standard rendering template? If you’ve modified the audio encoding it’s possible that an external player doesn’t have the right audio codec, or correct playback for a particular audio bitrate. If you’re set on MPEG1 for some reason, I’d try another render using a standard rendering template.

[Jimdevo]

Hey thanks for the help. Sure enough it was Windows Media Player. That explains why the file played well in Vegas. Thanks!