audio distortion when capturing mini dv

[morr1s2]

I am having problems transferring my captured footage with my minidv cam. I have tried several programs, (adobe premiere 6.5. WinDV, Windows movie factory, Ulead) etc. With all of them I end up with cracky, and digitized sounding audio. It also makes occasional screech sounds like the sound you hear if you rewind when capturing. I changed the firewire port I was using also. It seems to be with every minidv tape I use. I am wondering if its a problem with my camera. It's a panasonic pvdv8522

[bugster]

There is probably nothing wrong with the capture. In fact it is actually simply a digital data transfer from your DV tape to the PC, the data is then placed in an avi file wrapper. My guess is that your camera is set up to record audio at 32khz. (Many cameras seem to have this as the default setting for no good reason). Change the setting to 48khz, may also be called high quality or something similiar. You will then find this problem does not occur on any new recordings.

Obviously this does not help with existing footage. I know this problem has been discussed before, so a search might help. Or maybe someone else can remember the solution, because I am afraid I can't, sorry

[morr1s2]

My camera is set to 16 bit audio. I've tried doing a search, but I haven't found a solution. I am going to try to borrow a camera and see if I have the same problem transferring from a different camera.

[thecoalman]

Have you tried burning a test disc? I get an occasional pop/click while capturing. These clicks and pops are not present on the file so in my case it's system related. Perhaps the same thing is happening to you.

[morr1s2]

I can't recall if I did a test disc last time I had the problem. I will have to try that. I just tried a brand new panasonic GS400 right out of the box and the same pops/clicks in the same spots. I might try a new firewire cable also.

[morr1s2]

I tried transferring with a Sony PD100 DVcam figuring the first two were panasonic and the tape was Sony but still had the beeps/screehes. Also tried changing my sound card. I burned a test DVD and the noises were on the final DVD. I am wondering if it's in my system somewhere, but I have a pretty fast computer with good memory. I defragged my drives and saving to an empty 320gb sata drive. It is driving me crazy.

[Cornucopia]

Take your camera to a friends and cap on their system. If it works ok, it must be your system settings. If it doesn't work there, it probably is a wrong setting in the camera.

Scott

[morr1s2]

I guess trying it on someone elses machine is the only thing left. I just tried a different firewire cable and that didn't work either. I don't think it's a program setting either because I've tried several captue programs, and it can't be a camera issue because I've tried three cameras. I've tried the firewire port on my case and two ports on my firewire card.

[morr1s2]

I played it in another system and it played fine so it must be in my system somwhere.

[danplnsk]

If you haven't figured it out by now try this:
These noises result many times because of unmatched frequency.
1. Check the audio properties of one of the clips.
2. Match the number with your editing program.
I.e. if your capture is 32000 kHz make the same in premiere.
If 48000 khz do the same.

[morr1s2]

I still haven't figured this out. I thought it was in my machine because I got it to play fine at work. But I played it on a Sony DV VCR and not through a camcorder. I brought a external 400 gig hard drive home and tried importing through my wifes laptop so a completely different machine and I had the same problem. Now I am really confused. The audio settings match up 16bit 48000.

[Wile_E]

What's strange is you shouldn't be getting ANY clicks/pops. DV is just a file transfer directly from tape to hard drive. Maybe your system can't keep up with the transfer, and is dropping frames/audio. Does WinDV show dropped frames? What are your system specs?

[troyvcd1]

The problem is those cheap POS sony minidv tapes. They are total crap and caused me to totally disassemble my camcorder and try everything else only to find it was the cheap sony minidv tapes. I switch to the hi-end sony minidv tapes and all my audio problems disappeared. The sony tapes cost more but since I dont wanna switch brands I am stuck with them.

[chaseru]

I have a somewhat similar issue to what the original poster described. I transferred 2 minidv tapes to the HD using MS MovieMaker. I joined and edited the two files using the latest version of virtualdub. I then frameserved to TMPGEnc with MP2 audio compression.

The MP2 audio file exhibits a high pitched noises; less at the beginning of the file and more at the end so that at the end of the tape you basically here the noises and not the underlying original sound.

If I play the original dvavi file on the HD with virtualdub I get the same noises. However if I play the dvavi file using Media Player I don't get the noises, only the correct original sound. Even though Media Player plays the original file fine, the noises show up if the MP2 is file played through Media Player. It seems that Virtual Dub isn't decoding the dvavi sound correctly, which also causes the noises to show up in the MP2 file.

I'm not sure if VirtualDub is using a different DV codec than MS application and this is causing the problem.

Thoughts?

[justinluck]

I just want to let you know that non-matching audio shouldn't be a problem. I accidentally recorded with 12-bit audio because my GS19 had been defaulted to this setting. But even when I transferred the video to DVD, the audio sounded crisp and clear.

[morr1s2]

I am not dropping frames, and I am doubting it's in my system since I had the same noises in the same spots using my wife's laptop. I do seem to consistently have this problem. The tape I am working on now is my wedding video and someone else shot it on a 3chip camera. He made me a videotape also. I am importing the sound from the videotape and syncing it up with the minidv footage in premiere. It is very tedious. I am starting to wonder if maybe it is the sony tapes. I usually buy sony tapes and the person I hired to do my wedding raw footage gave me sony tapes. The glitches always show up in the same spot. Sometimes there are so many in a row that it will render whole sections useless.

My system specs are updated under system details.