12bit vs 16bit audio plus Windows Movie Maker

[srauch]

I've been playing with a variety of tools to create SCVDs of my home video. (*HUGE* thanks to VCDHelp.com for all the information which has made things a breeze!!)

I started using WMM last week to capture DV from my Digital8 Camcorder. I then used WMM to break the video into smaller clips which I save out as DV.

While there appeared to be no loss in the video quality, I found that the audio in the individual clips had a metallic sound to them. Seems the large file initially captured by WMM had an audio rate of 32khz while the clipped portions had a sampling rate of 48khz.

I also found that my camcorder was set to record in 12bit (presumably 32khz), but also has an option for 16bit (presumably 48khz).

I have a number of questions:

1) Does WMM correctly capture both 16bit/48khz and 12bit/32khz audio DV streams? (i.e. without re-sampling them)

2) When doing something aside from a capture, can WMM only output 16bit/48khz streams? (thereby re-sampling all 12bit/32khz stream...)

3) Is 12bit recording on a camcorder primarily useful if you want to mix in another sound track - like background music - or does it have some other advantage?

4) Is there any reason to *not* switch to 16bit for recording on my camcorder? I mean, if I did want to add a background track or do anything else 12bit audio might allow on other equipment, there are cheaply available software tools that allow me to do the same thing with 16bit audio on a PC, right?

-Sam

[racer-x]

I dont use WMM, so I cant answer any of those questions.

I only use 16 bit audio mode on my camcorder. I can easily add any music or background track in my video editor. As far as I'm concerned, if you edit video on PC, then there is no reason to use 12 bit audio. 16 bit is 48 KHZ, witch is DVD compliant audio. Besides, it's always better to downsample than it is to upsample.

[BJ_M]

the 12 bit on DV is for 4 channel audio , which DV supports ..

16bit can be a sampling rate of anything -- 44.1 , 48 or even 96khz ..

its two different things ..

[redwudz]

I will give it a shot:
1) It's a data transfer not a capture. WMM should work OK, but DVIO or WinDv are more popular. 12 bit is apparently set up so you can add another channel, though as racer-x says, you are better off doing that afterwards. I don't believe there is any resampling.
2) Don't know, sorry.
3) Yes, it's for adding commentary, etc.
4) I wouldn't use 12 bit because of the lower quality. The big question is if all of your video is 12 bit, can you improve the quality enough to satisfy you? Don't know-maybe your can process it with an audio program to clean it up.