Help...Tapes recorded in stereo, capturing from a mono-only player

[sgdavis]

Please help...I have a number of 8mm tapes which were recorded using a stereo camcorder. I am capturing these tapes to digital files, but I only have a camcorder capable of recording/playing mono audio. Therefore, my captures return audio in the left channel only. Is there any way, either in the capturing or rendering process, to get the audio to play through both speakers? Or must I capture with a stereo player only? I am using WinDV to capture DV-AVI through a Canopus ADVC-55 converter box then encoding to FFMpeg with Handbrake. Any help would be appreciated.

~Steve

[redwudz]

You could drop the video into VirtualDub and save out the audio as a WAV with full processing and open that in Audacity. You can duplicate the one channel to two there. You can even modify the two new channels to make them sound more like stereo. Reverb, maybe filters.

Then save it out to your preferred audio format and mux it back with your video. I use VD for that again. If you plan to author the video to DVD, then AC3 might be a good choice for your output audio format.

Many other ways to do this, but this generally works for me. Others may have better suggestions.

And welcome to our forum.

[sgdavis]

Thanks for the reply redwudz, I may have to go ahead and try that. The only problem is that I have about 40+ tapes and that sounds like alot of work. A few questions, if I may: Am I correct in my assumption that there is no way to accomplish the same effect during the capturing or encoding processes? Does it make any difference if I select "Mono" instead of "Stereo" when I am rendering in HandBrake? Does all mono recorded video always play through the left channel only?

Maybe I should just purchase a stereo camcorder to finish these captures, it just seems wrong to have all of this stereo video and only be able to hear it in mono.

Thanks,

~Steve

[victoriabears]

I would have thought it was worth getting a player/camcorder that can play in stereo, many on ebay is there not?

[sgdavis]

Yes Victoria, you're probably right about that, I just don't have the available funds at the moment and there doesn't seem to be many "stereo" 8mm camcorders available, even on ebay.

What about using an RCA Y-Adapter that would take the left channel audio and split it into a left and right channel. I know this would not be true "stereo" sound, but would this work? Would there be any downsides to this approach?

~Steve

[victoriabears]

yes it would ,it really depends how valuable the material is and if stereo would add to that value for you. The time spent farting about (technical expression) may be worth the camcorder purchase, even down the line. Just looked at Ebay and the prices they go for do surprise me, hi-8 will also play 8mm I think, that's what most of them are.

[tinker]

If the camera records in stereo and output in mono, than both chanels are combined. You Y-Adapter will be a best bet. Nothing will be lost, not realy stereo any more, but you will record to both sides.