Exporting audio with Adobe Premiere

[walter4h]

Hi, guys:
I read on this site that audio and video streams should be separated with Virtual Dub, then encoded separately into DVD-compliant formats (m2v and ac3) and then imported into an authoring package. (some authoring software can perform wav->ac3 conversion). I was unable to make VDub accept any of my avi files, it keeps giving a msg that file must be in VFW format.
I capture with Adobe Premiere 6.0, which allows to export audio or video separately. Should I expect any problems if I do it with Premiere?
Thx wh

[nadir]

Hi!

I make dvd's from avi's and for file convertion ( multiplexing/demultiplexing) I prefere TMPEGEnc.
You can demultiplex an avi file to m2v and mp2 with this tool.
There's a good guide here for this tool.

Enjoy!

Nadir[/url]

[erayboul]

The guide on Compression at http://dvd-hq.info indicates that you should not use TMPGenc for encoding audio. You will have no problems exporting the audio from the timeline. This audio should be 16-bit, 48kHz. This audio can be used as one of your elementary streams, the other being the m2v video. If you are in the NTSC area, a DVD is required to have either LPCM (the 16-bit, 48 kHz), or AC-3 (it can have additional streams). In PAL, you can also use MPEG-1 Layer II audio (MP2). Unless your audio has to be of the highest quality, I would recommend transcoding it to AC-3. You will then have much more area on the disk for video. Some members of this forum will talk about BeSweet for making AC-3. I'm not familiar with that. I've used Surcode's Dolby Digital V-Plug for Adobe Premiere. I'm thinking about adding the AC-3 plug-in to my copy of TMPGenc DVD Author.

[Sugar]

This is what you should do:
- export audio and video separately, with Premiere
- compress video with TMPEGEnc
- do not compress audio but make sure the sampling rate is 48Khz. If it is not change the sampling from presumably 32kHz to 48kHz with SSRC
- then author the .m2v and .wav file with your authoring software.

You do not need to convert to AC3 to make the file compliant but has mentioned above, you need to make sure that the sampling rate is 48kHz. I you want to convert to AC3 you can use Besweet and the AC3 converter.

[walter4h]

I did have a look at one thread where one forum member said that even when exporting video alone Premiere somehow also exports an empty .wav file, which overwrites the one exported singularly as audio. But by the end the tread has shifted and no details of that problem have been provided. That is why I wanted to follow up.
Many thanks for your help: wh

[walter4h]

Guys: when I started doing it on the actual video file, I figured I need more help. This is my first time with this procedure and it is a bit confounding.
So I captured my video file, did the necessary editing. Now I have two streams in my Premiere project window - video and audio. (At this point the edited file has not been exported/rendered yet.)
When I tried to export just the audio from that edited (yet unrendered) file, Premiere allowed only the .avi extension, I found it confusing. Shouldn't it be .wav?
I then decided to export/render the edited file with the idea that I would then start a new project import the file, unlink audio and video, delete video and export audio. And then import it again, unlink, delete audio and export video.
However, each exporting procedure means rendering, which takes time (I have P4 1.7GHz 768MB SDRAM)
When the process of "exporting movie" (video + audio) started, Premiere gave msg: "Est.remain: about 2 hrs" (the video is just over 40 min).
This is a bit too cumbersome. Maybe it should be done in some other way?
(by the way, I am in Canada, NTSC area and I will be using Sonic ReelDVD, which has its own AC3 encoder)

Thx: wh

[Sugar]

Negative. I did it many times with Premiere 6.5 and Premiere Pro.
The export function can be set to export video only or audio only and gives you access to all sorts of settings.

Just make sure you use the proper export function and experiment it yourself.

[walter4h]

Thanks, Sugar:
But I still cannot figure out whether or not I should change the extension of the audio file from .avi to .wav
When I exported the audio stream, Premiere assigned extension .avi to it. At that point no option of changing it was offered. When I had a look at the properties of that file, under the "General" tab it said "Video Clip", under "Summary" tab it gave me a bit rate (1536 kbs), "audio sample size (16 bit) and "audio format" (PCM).
When I looked at the properties of the original video file, it had 3 sections in the "Summary" tab - "Image" (720x480), "Audio" (the same settings as the audio file), "Video" (fps, bps)
So those are clearly files of different types.
Can I safely change the extension of the exported audio file to *.wav and use it as an audio asset in the authoring prg?
Thx wh

[Sugar]

I am not familiar with Premiere 6.0 but When you go in file>export>movie, you should clik on export settings and deselect the export video box.
The file extension should automatically be changed to .wav and you should not have to change it manually.

[walter4h]

Thanks, Sugar:
My main computer has been busy for the last 15 hrs encoding avi file, as soon as it's done, I'll try it.
Incidentally, there is a similar thread in Newbie Conversion section.
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=204647
Regards wh

[pijetro]

All your problems have to do with the underlying fact that your captured file is a Type1, and not a Type 2 .AVI file.. That's why Vdub doesn't except your .AVI, and could be the reason that you can't seem to export the audio only (although that seems strange)...

If you captured Type 2 DV .avi, with the proper codec installed, Vdub should be able to play it...
How dare you blame VDUB

Good luck!!!!!

BTW, did you try to unlink the audio and video? You'll find that option at the bottom of the timeline...

[pijetro]

Just to save you some time, you should read and understand this.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/tech/stream/vidcap/dvavi.mspx

[walter4h]

Thanks for the advice:
Yes, VDub gave me a clear msg that it can only handle VFW files. But I have no choice but to work with the preset settings in Premiere 6.0. I selected NTSC 720x480 and I had to take whatever comes under that setting. I guess I will have to play with it a bit more, maybe try a few more 3rd party apps.
Incidentally, a nice little app at
http://agrgic.tripod.com/avi2wav/
produced a total garbage when I tried to use it for audio extraction. A file which was labelled ".wav" extracted from a movie 43 min long was only 180K and no player could play it.
Regards: wh

[learner1]

Well, I had same problem earlier of virtualdub refusing
to open AVI files from Premiere.
Someone from this forum earlier gave me a
suggestion of downloading and installing the panasonic
codec from the tool section. That fixed the problem
of virtualdub not able to read the AVI file from
Premiere. Give that a try. It only took minutes.

[migf1]

[snip]
But I still cannot figure out whether or not I should change the extension of the audio file from .avi to .wav

Do it... It'll export just a wav file.

[pijetro]

If you've already captured in a Type1 .AVI, then I'm not quite sure the Panasonic Codec will help you...

There's a tool on the left hand side, that will make your Type1 file into a Type2 .AVI..Can't remember the name...

[walter4h]

Thanks for your help, guys:
As I spent more time with this, I think I have pinpointed the problem.
In Premiere's projects settings under "Capture" I have the following options:
<Quick Time Capture>, <DV/IEEE 1394 Capture>, <Video for Windows>
Since I have Canopus 1394 video capture card, I selected DV/IEEE 1394 capture. But this is apparently the reason why I was unable to make VDub take my AVI files, it kept giving me a msg - "Must be VFW file".
But when I select "Video for Windows" it gives a msg "Unable to connect to capture driver".
So far I manage with this capture format, albeit in a roundabout way.
For example, to obtain audio in a WAV format, I first export it through Premiere in "Export Audio" option, it gives me AVI file. Then I extract audio from that file with a nice little utility AVI2WAV
(available at http://agrgic.tripod.com/avi2wav/ )
it gives me what seems to be a WAV file ready to be encoded into AC3.
Incidentally, if I try to extract audio with AVI2WAV directly from an AVI file, the one which was exported using "Export Movie" option, then I get a total garbage, a tiny file, of which is only about 1/2 second can be played.
I have to withdraw my statement about AVI2WAV app in a previous post. It does produce proper WAV files from those AVIs which have been obtained by exporting a timeline in "Export Audio" option.
My apologis to the author of AVI2WAV and to everyone who was mislead by this statement.
With regards to Panasonic codec, I'll istall it. I was colled off recently when trying to install every codec I could get my hands on - Premiere started acting up, video was freezing during capture. And so I had no choice but to start removing those codecs one by one and see if the problem with capture is corrected.
But I have not yet tried Panasonic.

Txh: wh