noob: How to convert one sided stereo to mono on videos

[tonyoci]

Hi there, noob alert - please be warned.

I am in the process of converting all my old VCR home movies to DVD. I am using a Dazzle unit and have successfully imported all the video. However everything, not suprisingly, has come in as left sided stereo with the right side silent.

The Dazzle came with Pinnacle Studio 10 Quick Start and there seems to be no option when making a movie to change the audio to MONO. I also have access to Sony Vegas (which I find harder to use), that does allow switch to mono but when I output a movie it ended up with no sound at all.

So my questions are

1) Can pinnacle convert to mono
2) After I make a movie in Pinnacle is there a way to switch the audio to mono (hopefully without another 10 hours render).

Thanks so much

Tony
www.homemadehitshow.com

[redwudz]

It depends on the audio format. If it's WAV or PCM, easy enough to clone one channel to to other with an audio editor. I use the freeware Audacity for that. Just select the one track, copy and paste it to a new blank track, then make them into a stereo track.

Then you would need to mux it back with the video. I usually convert it to AC3 with ffmpeggui and add it in when I author to DVD with TMPGEnc DVD Author, but you can mux it in before with a program like TMPGEnc encoder, using 'File>MPEG Tools>Simple Multiplex', depending on the format.

This should all take just a few minutes, unless you need to re-encode the audio. Plenty of other ways to do this also.

[MOVIEGEEK]

A:
1.No
2.Use TMPGEnc to demux(File->MPEG Tools),convert the audio to mono(import to Audio Source->Settings),multiplex the video and audio(File->MPEG Tools).

[tonyoci]

Thanks guys though you're going a bit fast. I am familiar with audio only editing and I own Sound Forge and Audacity (free of course). I'm a bit lost on the rest though.

The audio was recorded with the file when I uploaded it so I don't know the form but I assume it's WAV or PCM.

Can you go REAL slow to describe the steps and tools from start to end.

Thanks a lot for being patient.

[tonyoci]

Hi again, can anyone help please ?

[grannyGeek]

Ok, I'll take a whack at it.
the problem is, I'm most familiar with Studio 9.35, and only used v 10 a couple of times.
So the command names might be a little bit wrong, but you should be able to figure out what I mean, I hope.
I don't think Studio supports true mono audio, but you should be able to make a "pseudo-stereo" by doubling your existing mono track.

Load your video capture in Studio.
Go to Make Avi. In the Settings tab, UN-select "Include Video".

Click to save the avi.
Make sure to leave file type as avi, but change the filename extension to WAV.

This should render the audio out to a wav file, then you can load that into Audacity.
Duplicate the track so that you can create a stereo track with two identical channels.
Save out as wav.

Back in studio, load your capture clip.
Mute the original audio track.
Load the new wav track onto the music or sound-effects track, and there you go.

Hope this helps.
post back how it goes.

[grannyGeek]

Also, which Dazzle device are you using?
Did you use Studio as your capture software?

I use a Dazzle DVC-90 USB2 device, and always get stereo audio
EXCEPT
When I purposely set the vcr to play the right track only because the left track had static pops.

Next time you capture, check your vcr settings menu to make sure you have the audio playback set to HiFi or Normal or whatever term your vcr uses for stereo playback.