HELP!!! Old Family Movies At RISK!!!

[cgfnp]

Please help! I've used my VHS and Sonic MyDVD and VideOH by arcsoft hardware to put my VHS movies from 20+ yrs ago on my hard drive, and stupidly threw them away. Now, some of the movies have no sound and some have a loud static from some reason that wasn't there before (actually played right on my computer before something happened). I'll be happy to send an example to anyone who may know what to do. I'm SOOO sick about this. Please help me!!!

[guns1inger]

If you have thrown away the original tapes and your digital files are corrupt then you are pretty much screwed.

Before losing all hope, open the files with g-spot to confirm you have the right codecs to read them.

before something happened

What has happened since you captured them ?
Have you installed any codec packs ?
Have you had any hardware issues ?
Have you had to reinstall windows ?

[Marvingj]

Place a Video Sample so we can take a look at it.........

[cgfnp]

If you have thrown away the original tapes and your digital files are corrupt then you are pretty much screwed.

Before losing all hope, open the files with g-spot to confirm you have the right codecs to read them.

before something happened

What has happened since you captured them ?
Have you installed any codec packs ?
Have you had any hardware issues ?
Have you had to reinstall windows ?

I'll try that tonight.

The first time I noticed the sound problem was when a movie was recording from my VHS player into my computer and my 3 yr old daughter actually opened a movie while Sonic MyDVD was running in Windows Media player and the sound occurred then, and now every movie has that sound. I have no idea what she did. GRIPES!!!

The only thing I've tried was to use Windows XP's system restore, which didn't fix it.

I've installed (a long time ago) some codec packs I found on limewire.

Something that is strange about it is that I have a copy of the files on a separate USB hard drive and they do exactly the same thing.

[cgfnp]

Place a Video Sample so we can take a look at it.........

Here's one part of a clip with the weird static. Some have no sound at all.

sample.mpg

[Noahtuck]

Place a Video Sample so we can take a look at it.........

Here's one part of a clip with the weird static. Some have no sound at all.

sample.mpg

The DL link is not working for me.

And if you have the same files backed up on another disc and they all do the same thing i'd almost think something with your audio codec on your PC got messed up ?
Maybe not the files themselves.

Also do what guns1inger suggested, open them in G-spot and see what it say's for audio on the vids & your pc.

[cgfnp]

Place a Video Sample so we can take a look at it.........

Here's one part of a clip with the weird static. Some have no sound at all.

sample.mpg

The DL link is not working for me.

And if you have the same files backed up on another disc and they all do the same thing i'd almost think something with your audio codec on your PC got messed up ?
Maybe not the files themselves.

Also do what guns1inger suggested, open them in G-spot and see what it say's for audio on the vids & your pc.

I tried GSpot and it says I already have all the codecs required. I wonder if they could've got screwed up. Any ideas on fixing them? Maybe uninstalling Windows Media Player or something???

[cgfnp]

second attempt at uploading a file.

sample%202.mpg

[CrayonEater]

If you installed codecs - or any other executable code - you probably got virused. Same for any P2P network - most of that stuff is malware. However, I don't suggest trying any malware removal just yet, unless you've made multiple backups of your movies.

Neither one of your samples came out for me. I'll PM you with my email addy but Yahoo limits file sizes to 10 megabytes. If your samples are larger, you might be better off uploading them to something like rapidshare and give all of us the link.

[schematic2]

The noise in present on both channels. I think you are out of luck....

[Marvingj]

For what I see, it looks hopeless sorry to say.. You can try Besweet for audio not saying it will work be its better than nothing. Sorry Bud....

[jameshgross]

A lesson to us all. NEVER destroy original source material till thoughly testing the transferred files.

[Noahtuck]

Oh yeah.. that's bad!!



First mistake, throwing away the original source material, i have alway's kept my original footage stored away safe.

Second mistake, letting little kid's play on your PC, espc. when transfering something to it.

Third mistake, installing anything you got from kazaa, limewire, ect. the FIRST largest source of CRAP and a breeding & spreading ground for viruses!!!!!!!!

Did you listen to these before you threw away the original tapes & they were fine, then this popped up later ?
Or did you just assume they were okay ?

You might be able to clean them up some in with a good audio editor but don't hope for perfection by any means.

[thecoalman]

A lesson to us all. NEVER destroy original source material till thoughly testing the transferred files.

I'd simply say never destoy original material period.

To the OP, not sure why that would happen. Something must have happened to them to corrupt the file. My only suggestion is that you have a codec or other problem and it's possible that it's being carried over to your sample. In other words the files may be fine. I'd suggest trying your original files on another computer before you do anything.

Even if they still exhibit the same problem I wouldn't write them off as a complete loss, you can eleiminate some of that using a audio editor. A professional will be able to even do a better job. Keep them for the future, filters only get better as time goes by... I'm not saying to expect a miracle but you never know. It really depends on how much of the original audio is present.

[Scooter_NJ]

Ummm...twit?

[cgfnp]

Ummm...twit?

You better hope you're never in my ER with chest pain...

[cgfnp]

A lesson to us all. NEVER destroy original source material till thoughly testing the transferred files.

I'd simply say never destoy original material period.

To the OP, not sure why that would happen. Something must have happened to them to corrupt the file. My only suggestion is that you have a codec or other problem and it's possible that it's being carried over to your sample. In other words the files may be fine. I'd suggest trying your original files on another computer before you do anything.

Even if they still exhibit the same problem I wouldn't write them off as a complete loss, you can eleiminate some of that using a audio editor. A professional will be able to even do a better job. Keep them for the future, filters only get better as time goes by... I'm not saying to expect a miracle but you never know. It really depends on how much of the original audio is present.

Yes, I know the getting rid of the VHS tapes was a mistake. I only did so after I confirmed the files were okay and put them on two separate hard drives.

UPDATE: I just used my VideOH and MyDVD again to transfer a new movie and it came out with the same audio problem. All my other movies I take with my digital camera and transfer to my computer via their own USB are fine without this problem. So even a twit can figure out that it has to do only with this piece of crap I bought to transfer the files. I just have to figure out why they were fine at one point and now the sound has changed.

[cgfnp]

Oh yeah.. that's bad!!



First mistake, throwing away the original source material, i have alway's kept my original footage stored away safe.

Second mistake, letting little kid's play on your PC, espc. when transfering something to it.

Third mistake, installing anything you got from kazaa, limewire, ect. the FIRST largest source of CRAP and a breeding & spreading ground for viruses!!!!!!!!

Did you listen to these before you threw away the original tapes & they were fine, then this popped up later ?
Or did you just assume they were okay ?

You might be able to clean them up some in with a good audio editor but don't hope for perfection by any means.

Yes, I am aware of my mistakes. I'm only sorry for the first and third. Although I have bitdefender running which helps sort through the crap on limewire. These were fine before I threw the tapes away and backup up on an external hard drive and suddenly they were bad on both hard drives. One problem I forgot to mention is I got a lemon of an external hard drive. It makes weird noises and frequently causes the whole computer to instantly shut off and reboot.

UPDATE: I've fixed one of the problems. I uninstalled all my plugins, media players, MyDVD, and everything else that has to do with movie playing, and that fixed all the movies that had the static. I rolled WMP back to 9. The video doesn't play, but the sound is now perfect. Video won't play due to codec, easy fix. Now, just have to figure out why 2 or 3 have lost their sound completely. That's a toughy and the most disturbing.

[cgfnp]

A lesson to us all. NEVER destroy original source material till thoughly testing the transferred files.

Probably better to say NEVER destroy them in any case. I tested them before I threw them away and they were fine. Suddenly something changed and now sound is ******* up. I'd been better off to stick them in a box in the attack. I only threw them away because I've heard VHS only last around 10 years; although they were around 20 yrs old and still working.

[cgfnp]

For what I see, it looks hopeless sorry to say.. You can try Besweet for audio not saying it will work be its better than nothing. Sorry Bud....

Thank you. Besweet is over my head. I'd have an easier time intubating a fat guy (which is incredibly hard) than getting that to work.

[cgfnp]

If you installed codecs - or any other executable code - you probably got virused. Same for any P2P network - most of that stuff is malware. However, I don't suggest trying any malware removal just yet, unless you've made multiple backups of your movies.

Neither one of your samples came out for me. I'll PM you with my email addy but Yahoo limits file sizes to 10 megabytes. If your samples are larger, you might be better off uploading them to something like rapidshare and give all of us the link.

Thanks for the effort. Since I uninstalled my video editing software, I can't shorten the clips right now. I'll try later. Do you like PowerDVD? I need something that's easy and quick that isn't as shaky as MyDVD. That thing has caused more problems than I'm comfortable with.

[somebodeez]

I always keep my originals - period.
I figure who knows? Someday a better method might come along that would give greater results. One never knows...

cgfnp, I don't have anything to offer that hasn't already been suggested but I just wanted to wish you luck. I hope you're able to save at least some of these precious files.

[Marvingj]

Besweet is not over your head, just takes a little time..its a learning curve.. Heres a guide for you the link is.... http://dvdguide.ennik.com/

[oldandinthe way]

Installed PowerDVD7, now some of my DVDs no longer have sound and have a strange loud noise.

No problem with WMP9, no problem playing on standalone DVD player. - probably screwed up codecs.

Suggest you try burning your videos to DVD and trying them on a standalone player. Its hard to believe you have succeeded in screwing up a large number of files on your hard disk. If this test works, you can back up your videos and then troubleshoot your system.

[Noahtuck]

Well i'm glad you were able to get most of them to work correctly but that is strange that they would affect them to the point it would stay in them even when we listen to it but then vanish when you have changed thing's on your pc.
Unless it carried over into the actual file when you trimmed a small clip to upload so then the problem was actually transfered at that point but not actually present in the original files.

Well... isn't number two what got you into this mess to begin with 8)

PC's are not plug and play toy's like a TV or a VCR or a Video Game, they are complex machines that are vulnerable to 1000's of problems.

If you choose to let little kids (a 3 year old) who in no way can understand the concept of what a pc is or can do then i guess you better learn to deal with the problems that will happen with your pc


A buddy of mine used to bring me his PC almost once a month for a year because it would all of a sudden start doing weird things, program's not working, PC crashing, totally messing up....
I kept telling him, keep your little kids away from it, they are doing thing's, changing thing's,deleating thing's they should not be, ect. ect.
He was alway's 100% sure his little kid's never went near his PC

Well one day he bring's it over because of some program problem's & his floppy drive would not work... so while he was sitting right there i took his floppy out first and as i pulled it out i heard jangeling.... i opened it up and about $2.00 in pennies, dime's & nickel's fell out

Back in the day when 120mhz was was top of the line My kid's were 8 & 9 when they were allowed on the PC for the first time, and even then it was not any of my main pc's, they both got their own 75mhz to start on & learn, then there was no worry of losing such important information.

[Jeremiah58]

cgfnp,

The audio from your mpeg sample can be repaired and restored.
Those static and loud clicks can be removed.
Awhile back, I saw a man at work, a pro, who did magic things to filter out background noise from digital audio.
You just have to find a right person or a lab to repair your files.
I believe that it could be done with common audio tools like Adobe Audition, or maybe even with GoldWave.

[handyguy]

"I'd simply say never destoy original material period. "

True.

VHS also starts to turn to fuzz around year 15 according to Sony.

[cgfnp]

I always keep my originals - period.
I figure who knows? Someday a better method might come along that would give greater results. One never knows...

cgfnp, I don't have anything to offer that hasn't already been suggested but I just wanted to wish you luck. I hope you're able to save at least some of these precious files.

Thanks...

[cgfnp]

Besweet is not over your head, just takes a little time..its a learning curve.. Heres a guide for you the link is.... http://dvdguide.ennik.com/

I'll give it a try if I find the time. Thanks for the help...

[cgfnp]

Installed PowerDVD7, now some of my DVDs no longer have sound and have a strange loud noise.

No problem with WMP9, no problem playing on standalone DVD player. - probably screwed up codecs.

Suggest you try burning your videos to DVD and trying them on a standalone player. Its hard to believe you have succeeded in screwing up a large number of files on your hard disk. If this test works, you can back up your videos and then troubleshoot your system.

Makes sense. Thanks for the advice. I'll try that. Since uninstalling all the audio stuff fixed the static, I can only hopefully assume that the ones that are completely without sound are that way because my computer isn't displaying the info accurately.