Intermittent sound on mini-DV capture

[adamj_ut]

I have been trying to capture video from my mini-DV camcorder via firewire, using Windows Movie Maker and Nero Vision 5. One of my tapes I can capture, no sound issues, works great. Other five tapes that have audio when played from the camcorder have no audio when captured onto the hard drive with either of these programs. Tapes are the same brand, I am totally perplexed with this. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[aedipuss]

try capturing with windv. miniDV audio only has 2 choices 12 bit or 16 bit pcm wav. capture as type II avi.

[JohnnyMalaria]

try capturing with windv. miniDV audio only has 2 choices 12 bit or 16 bit pcm wav. capture as type II avi.

DV spec supports 12-bit/32kHz (two stereo channels), 16-bit/32kHz (one stereo channel), 16-bit/48kHz (one stereo channel) and (rarely encountered) 16-bit/44.1kHz. Type 2 DV is more likely to create audio sync issues than solve them. The only time you should use Type 2 is when you are using archaic software that doesn't use DirectShow.

WinDV is unlikely to help in this case but is useful for troubleshooting. It uses the same underlying code as WMM for the capture. First thing to confirm is whether the audio plays correctly on the camcorder itself. If so, send the captured video file back to the camcorder (exactly as captured) and listen to the audio. If it sounds fine on the camcorder then the problem doesn't lie with the capturing but with the next step in your workflow (editing). If it sounds bad on playback to the camcorder then something is upsetting the capture process. Check for any other differences such as whether some tapes are SP and others LP.

Oh, and then there's that four-letter word (Nero).

[2Bdecided]

I found capturing as Type 1 (rather than Type 2) actually solved exactly this problem for me.

I suspect it depends on a few factors (audio mode, playback software, etc), but that's what worked for me.

Cheers,
David.

[adamj_ut]

I have actually been able to capture, but not in Windows. I also run Ubuntu Linux and was able to successfully capture my video using Kino. No sound issues. Worked great. But the programs in Windows will not recognize sound on some of my tapes.

[Gavino]

Do the tapes that give problems on Windows have 16-bit audio (or perhaps a mixture of 16-bit and 12-bit sections)?
I have had problems with this unless the tape is set rolling before starting capture.