Restoration videotape to DVD Problems with AVI and codecs

[fwbaumann]

Oh Lord, I'm in trouble. I'm 65 and kind of new to this. I bought Soundsoap (that refuses to work properly in any of my apps) to clean up the sound on some old videos I want to convert to DVD. I also bought Pinnacle 9 (with built in crashes), Ulead studio, videodub and Adobe Premiere. I would be satisfied if the $#@$ thing worked in any application. It crashes Pinnacle, loses sync in Ulead, won't load in Adobe or video dub. The standalone version won't save the changes to an AVI file. I have to say this, soundsoap is a miracle cleaner (It learns the noise and is much better that the usual noise removal, gates or equalization), but what good is it if a person cannot save a working file. Their tech support suggested separating the video and audio and then cleaning the wav file. Unfortunately the resulting wav file is clean, but the time scale is too differed to reinstall it with out time scaling. My finished video looks like a Hong Kong over dub.

I want to (and I'm not sure this is the right way) capture in uncompressed AVI, edit and then convert to dvd. I've been told this method results in the best final product. I can capture in YU2Y, but soundsoap only works with quicktime. I downloaded the huffuv codec but can not get it into Ulead Pinnacle, or quicktime. (It went into adobe)

The long and short of it is:
1. Is there a (cheap) loss less AVI codec for quicktime that will also work in other apps?
2. How do you get this or any codec into quicktime and my other apps? (Ulead and pinnacle)
3. Is there any way to get the YU2Y codec into quicktime? (This would be the easiest solution and I believe this would solve the save problem.) Note: soundsoap standalone only works with AVI files and XP.
4. Is YU2Y the best codec of the common (cheap) one's to use?
5. All I want to do is take some old crummy (but very sentimental) videotape that are over 20 years old, clean the sound/video and convert them to DVD and give them to my grandkids. These videos require extensive restoration and this is why I chose uncompressed AVI to do the editing. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Fred

[sacajaweeda]

The huffYUV codec will work in VirtualDub. I don't use Pinacle or Ulead so I can't be of any help to you with those apps. You can use VirtualDub for all your cuts, edits and filters, then extract the WAV for cleaning with your audio program. That's the standard method so you weren't being steered wrong. Are you using Quicktime and Soundsoap a PC, or are you using a Mac to edit with those apps? Also what is your source "videotape"? Is it VHS? 8mm? Your post goes in about a million directions there. A little more info would be good.

[fwbaumann]

Thanks for the reply:

I use the Windows XP platform for Soundsoap. The problem is that over a long duration clip the audio wav file is stretched and when reinserted it needs not only movement, but also a time correction. Time stretching adds quantizing noise and defeats the purpose of noise cleaning. In a 20 minute segment the wave file was almost 20 seconds longer than the video file. Ya, I know I can razor the clip to shorter durations but this is a clunky way to go. Also, if Soundsoap is used within some programs it adds about 500 frames of silence at the beginning and truncates 500 frames at the end of a clip. (Also the control features such as listening to the noise and presets are not available. How in the world can you use a noise feature if you cannot hear what you are doing?) Soundsoap advertises that it will do AVI files and apparently it still has bugs in the save process. A lossless quicktime codec that also fits into my apps might fix the problem.

Right now I need to figure out how to get a lossless codec into Pinnacle Studio 9 or Ulead 8. Also, what happens if I have a Huffuy clip (captured in Virtual dub) and import it into Studio 9 or Ulead? It probably will play and edit, but without the codec installed will I really screw up the quality when I add filters and convert to DVD?

Fred

[Megahurts]

fwbaumann

I'm not familiar with Soundsoap but am with Adobe Priemer.

Since you're getting a streched wav file from Soundsoap, load the video file and wav file on the timeline in premier. Right click on the audio timeline and select speed. For New Rate I would try 102% since your streched audio is about 1 sec per min.

Save as DVD compliant MPEG.

Hope this helps,

Chas

[fwbaumann]

Thanks for the suggestion your method will work, however, compressing/streaching a wav file will introduce quantizing noise. This will restore sync, but defeat the purpose of soundsoap. I've got to get a uncompressed codec for quick time. Maybe this will help the crippled program.

[pijetro]

fbaumann wrote:

Their tech support suggested separating the video and audio and then cleaning the wav file

Actually, they're correct..
Personally, i save the .Wav out separately. I then use Cool Edit Pro (Adobe Audition nowadays), and it's fantastic..
The only obvious answer to your sync problems, is if you're trying to create a DVD, and your original wave is only 41khz, and not 48khz..

Sometimes authouring programs do a terrible job at sampling for higher values.
Any decent .wav editor should be able to clean up, and resample for 48khz, and do it correctly...

[fwbaumann]

Thanks for the 48k sample rate tip. You are right that I used 41k as a sample rate...That change is an easy fix. I really don't like the idea of seperating the video from audio. I have too many small clips, in addition Ulead and Studio cheapies don't have sufficient audio tracks for reinsertrtion.
Thanks,
Fred

[sacajaweeda]

I really don't like the idea of seperating the video from audio.

Here's the rub....

You are wanting to restore old video. You want to use the highest bitrate possible in order to get the best quality you can. You will have to seperate the audio and video streams to get the WAV file you want to edit/clean/filter/whatever, and you're going to have to convert that WAV file to a more efficient format after you're done anyways, as PCM (WAV) audio is extremely wasteful. If you have to have the WAV audio, you are sacrificing a great deal of bitrate (quality) on your video...