How to add another audio track to a MOV video file for macs

[VidHunter]

Hi,

My question is how do you add an audio file to replace the existing audio for a MOV video file? The original audio for the MOV file has two languages mixed together, which sounds weird. I used audacity to isolate the language I want into a MP3 audio file. I want to use the MP3 audio file that I made to replace the mixed audio originally on the MOV video file.

Thank you for you time.

[albloom]

Try this:

Open the MP3 in QuickTime
Open the original movie in QuickTime
Check (Movie Properties) that the lengths of the original
.. video and new audio are the same. If not, you are
.. likely to see progresively worse audio-video sync.
In the original movie, hi-lite the audio track in Movie
.. Properties and press the delete button (upper left)
In the replacement sound track window, go to Edit and
.. select all, then copy.
In the original (now video only) movie, go to Edit and
.. add to movie.

Who knows? Might work.

[VidHunter]

Thanks for the tip, but unfortunately I don't have quicktime pro to try the trick out. You need quicktime pro to use the "Add to movie" button.

[Cornucopia]

Step 1 in that list should be "Get QT Pro". You ought to get it, it's worth the $29.

Otherwise, it should be possible in MPEGStreamclip (don't know the steps, but it's not that diff).

Scott

[VidHunter]

ill give streamclip a try. If Quicktime Pro is so good, I might give it try later. I was playing around a bit and found out that FFmpeg can add audio too, but it creates new problems.

When I use FFmpeg to add audio, I have to convert the video too. I converted the movie to .avi with the added audio and the video came out great, but the audio is out of sync. I tried .mov next and the audio would sync up great, but the video quality went down compared to avi. I havn't tried other types yet since Im not too familiar with them. If I use FFmpeg to add new audio track, is there a way to help sync up the audio with video?

[tomlee59]

I don't know what generation Mac/OS you have, but if you are still able to run Classic apps, you can try QT MoviePlayer 2.5.1. It was/is free, and has many features that later required Pro. If you only need to swap out audio tracks, 2.5.1 may be able to do that. I haven't tried doing this operation on a modern Mac, so I don't know if it will simply crash and burn. But it's an easy thing to try.

If you have trouble finding a download link (I doubt that Apple still makes it available, or if it does, it's probably buried in some SDK somewhere hard to find), let me know. I may be able to scrounge something up.

[VidHunter]

Thanks for suggestion tomlee59. I have an imac G5 running Tiger, so I don't know if I can do the QT trick, but I remember there was some mac shareware that lets you run OS 9x or something. However, I finally got FFmpeg to add the audio for me without losing any video quality or having any sync problem. It works great now. There might be other ways, but FFmepg sure makes my life a whole lot easier. Thanks for all the help.

[tomlee59]

Glad you got things to work. Enjoy!