Audio problems when using video editing software

[luckydoll]

Whenever I load my videos that I take on my digital camera into an editing software program (Windows Movie Maker and trakAxPC) the sound of my voice goes from normal to this twangy, annoying sound. At first I thought it was my camera, so I bought a new camera, but the new camera's videos do the same thing. The new camera has HD video recording capacity.

- The raw video's audio sounds normal in Windows Media Player, Real Player, Quick Time & VLC Media Player.
- The raw video's audio sounds normal in Windows Movie Maker preview, but not in the editing section or after it's been saved.
- The raw video's audio does not sound normal in the trakAxPC preview.
- I have Windows XP.
- I have two cameras, a Pentax with MOV files and a Pentax with AVI files, videos from both have the same issue now.
- the videos used to be just fine from the Pentax with MOV files camera. I would put them on my computer, use Advanced X Video Converter to convert (sound quality remained good) then used WMM to edit. Then one day about a year ago, the same converted vids would not load into WMM. WMM said I had to download some codecs, so I did that and got it to work again, but I was never able to get the video or audio quality back with Advanced X Video Converter so I went with a different converter. About this time is when the audio started sounding twangy.
- I bought a new camera with AVI files so I wouldn't have to convert, but the audio problem in editing software still remains.
- I just removed ffdshow from my computer today, but that didn't help.
- I'm assuming this is a codec problem, but I'm not that tech savvy, so I'm not sure.
- I tried using the newest video clip I have on a different computer (in Windows Movie Maker & trakAxPC, also XP) and the audio turned out twangy in the editing part only (fine in the viewing section).
- WMM and traxAxPC help sections don't have anything about this other than codec issues...
- I have used the pic/video software that came with the camera and the audio is also twangy.

So all my videos sound totally normal if I don't edit them in any way shape or form. And this only applies to videos that I take with my cameras. And if I load my unedited videos to Youtube, they are just fine.

Any ideas?

Thanks for any help ~ and let me know if I need to add more info or anything. (^-^)

Oh and the raw audio specs are:
1 Channel (mono)
data rate: 64 kbps
sample size: 8 bits
sample rate: 8.000 khz
format: uncompressed PCM
BPM: 132.572

and the video specs are:
Frame rate: 30 frames/sec
data rate: 0 kbps
sample size: 24 bits
width/height: 1280/720
format: mjpg

[zoobie]

data rate: 64 kbps
sample size: 8 bits
sample rate: 8.000 khz

these are really low. see if there's a setting in your cam(s) menu for high quality audio

[luckydoll]

these are really low. see if there's a setting in your cam(s) menu for high quality audio

Thanks for the suggestion, I contacted Pentax today and they said that the audio settings cannot be changed. I'm disappointed to think they would have a camera with HD video but then have substandard audio.

Here is the new camera I have:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/1001/10012504pentaxoptioh90.asp

It says "The H90 can shoot 720p HD movies and is optimized to work with Eye-Fi wireless SD cards."
I don't have an eye-fi card nor do I know what that is. Will getting one help?

Are there any programs that can boost the audio?


EDIT: I downloaded Pinnacle Studio 14 and the audio is great, so maybe it's the editing software... Pinnacle is a 2GB file on my computer, does anyone know of a good HD editing program that's smaller?