Audio Issue when encoding AVI File to MP4

[dany66]

Im trying to convert an AVI file to MP4 however the audio is always low pitched and sounds slightly crackly.

The camcorder I used is a Sony DCR-TRV130E and I have imported the footage from a mini dv tape via firewire to a 2009 macbook pro running windows 7 32bit.

The AVI file plays back perfectly with no issues at all but when converting it to an MP4 using handbrake the audio messes up and sounds low pitched and crackly.

I have a few mini DV tapes and almost all of them have the same problem when converting the AVI file to MP4.

All of the audio settings on handbrake are on default. I have tried changing them but previously but nothing has worked.


I'm not sure what to do here as I am a newbie to importing mini DV footage any help would be appreciated

[ProWo]

Could you post a mediainfo report (text mode) from your avi here?
Maybe you can simply remux the avi to mp4, without recoding.

[dany66]

Here is the mediainfo report

Complete name : D:\TAPES\Mini DV Tapes\7.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
Commercial name : DVCAM
Format profile : OpenDML
File size : 8.62 GiB
Duration : 42 min 44 s
Overall bit rate mode : Constant
Overall bit rate : 28.9 Mb/s
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS

Video
ID : 0
Format : DV
Commercial name : DVCAM
Duration : 42 min 44 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 24.4 Mb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Bottom Field First
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 2.357
Time code of first frame : 00:00:00:01
Time code source : Subcode time code
Stream size : 8.60 GiB (100%)

Audio #1
ID : 0-0
Format : PCM
Format settings : Big / Signed
Muxing mode : DV
Muxing mode, more info : Muxed in Video #1
Duration : 42 min 44 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 768 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 32.0 kHz
Bit depth : 12 bits
Stream size : 235 MiB (3%)

Audio #2
ID : 0-1
Format : PCM
Format settings : Big / Signed
Muxing mode : DV
Muxing mode, more info : Muxed in Video #1
Duration : 42 min 44 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 768 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 32.0 kHz
Bit depth : 12 bits
Stream size : 235 MiB (3%)

[ProWo]

Pcm audio is incompatible with the mp4 container.
It must therefore be recoded. A lossless option for mp4 would be flac.
Other lossy options are ac3 or eac3.

[El Heggunte]

Pcm audio is incompatible with the mp4 container.

Actually it is compatible. The problem is in the open-source software (read: ffmpeg), which is unable to deal with that.

[dany66]

Pcm audio is incompatible with the mp4 container.
It must therefore be recoded. A lossless option for mp4 would be flac.
Other lossy options are ac3 or eac3.

I tried to encode with the AC3 codec but the audio still sounds the same

[dany66]

Pcm audio is incompatible with the mp4 container.

Actually it is compatible. The problem is in the open-source software (read: ffmpeg), which is unable to deal with that.

So should I use FFMPEG to encode the AVI files?

I also thought id mention there are 14 avi files alltogether and 2 of them did have perfect audio when encoding to mp4 however the rest do not.

And on one of the MP4 files the audio is bad in the first half of the video then it works perfectly once the scene changes in the next half of the video.

[cholla]

If you can use a .mkv instead of an .mp4 you could give mkvtoolnix a try.
Just open your .avi file & select "Start Multiplexing".
The process is very fast.
It may or may not fix the problem.

[ProWo]

You could extract a problematic audiostream, upload it to a hoster and post the download link here.
So we can take a look and find a solution.
To extract the stream you can use clever FFmpeg-GUI.
Load your avi, click main page, click extract streams, select only the wanted audiostream and deselect all others, the click extract.
You'll find the wav file in your target folder.

[dany66]

I have attatched the audio streams from the AVI file. I have reduced the first audio file to roughly 30 seconds to reduce file size

The second one is 3 seconds long

[dany66]

If you can use a .mkv instead of an .mp4 you could give mkvtoolnix a try.
Just open your .avi file & select "Start Multiplexing".
The process is very fast.
It may or may not fix the problem.

I tried using this but it dosent allow me to insert my AVI file

[davexnet]

I have attatched the audio streams from the AVI file. I have reduced the first audio file to roughly 30 seconds to reduce file size

The second one is 3 seconds long

The audio is 41 seconds. If the video section was only 30 seconds, it's a possibility the sample rate is wrong.
Is this correct? I can't tell with this music
(resampled to 44100 samples per second - now it's 30 seconds)

Done in Audacity
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/audio_track_dropdown_menu.html

[cholla]

Sorry mkvtoolnix did not work for you.
I do not have many .avi files.
I tested mkvtoolnix with two & both loaded.

I opened the "7_1_pcm_s16le.wav" you posted with mkvtoolnix.
This is the .mka file it created.
That means mkvtoolnix will work with the audio in the .wav format you posted.

Looking at the MediaInfo in post #3.
Yours shows this:
Video
ID : 0
Format : DV
The .AIV I tested with shows these:
#1 AVI
Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
#2 AVI
Video
ID : 0
Format : Cinepak

I believe the DV format may be the problem.

[ProWo]

I have attatched the audio streams from the AVI file. I have reduced the first audio file to roughly 30 seconds to reduce file size

The second one is 3 seconds long

Your samples are not really helpful.
Open your avi with avidemux and cut out a 30 second piece in the middle that you think sounds good and post it here as an attachment.

[davexnet]

Perhaps look at the file with DVDate, see if it produces any useful info.
If it's type 1, convert it to type 2 - Then MKVToolnix should handle it properly

https://www.videohelp.com/software/DVdate

[cholla]

I created a .dv file per instructions I found at forum.videohelp.com.
I looked at it with DVDate .
It created a Type 2.
This opened fine in MKVToolnix.

This may be the difference:

DVCAM is a professional-grade video recording format and trademark of Sony that was introduced in 1996:

Features: DVCAM uses a 15 µm track pitch, which is 50% wider than the DV format. This allows for frame-accurate editing and reduces recording time by one third. DVCAM also uses locked audio to prevent audio synchronization drift.

[Alwyn]

Open your avi with avidemux and cut out a 30 second piece in the middle that you think sounds good and post it here as an attachment.

Seconded. Snippet instructions on my website here (after "installation").

[dany66]

Perhaps look at the file with DVDate, see if it produces any useful info.
If it's type 1, convert it to type 2 - Then MKVToolnix should handle it properly

https://www.videohelp.com/software/DVdate

I tried this and it worked. I converted all of the AVI files with low pitch audio to type 2 with DVDate and now they all play fine when encode to MP4 with handbrake

Thanks to everyone else for helping out and trying to fix the issue