Problems Audio capturing from miniDV tape

[Fred777]

Hello dear Forum,
while capturing Video and Audio Footage from some old miniDV tapes a big problem accured
It works well at first and suddenly it does not record any more sound
but the sound is still audible from the speakers of the Camera
I use Premiere and my Camera is a Sony HDR HC9

The tapes were recorded with a different Camera
They are not HD but the Camera can usually handle it
like it did with many more Videos of the same kind

I am not sure but I probably think that I have recordet stuff sometimes in 12bit and sometimes in 16bit because I remember that it was possible to change this with my old camera

I tried many things already but now ran out of ideas

Can somebody please help me?
Its old footage of Burma from 2002
Would be awesome to have it in the computer

Thank You in advance for every advice!!!

[aedipuss]

use windv to capture DVavi tapes. start the video playing and then click the capture button. you'll need to stop the cam at each audio change and restart to change the captured audio type.

[Fred777]

Hello dear aedipuss
thank You for Your quick reply
I tried windv and it is exactlty the same problem at exactly the same timecode
this is when I switched of the camera and changed some setting

when I fast forweard behind the spot and capture from there its no sound ether
but I can hear that there is sound on tape because from the camera speakers which play it

but there is one thing that I noticed now
at the part of tape it was recording audio the Camera display didnt show something
after the point it stops recording sound there is shown "16b"
So I think that means 16 Bit Sound and its special because the camera could be switchen between normal 12 Bit and 16 Bit

So I think that somehow the 16 Bit sound is not recorded or maybe not digitally recognised
how could I fix this???
Please help!

[smrpix]

Yes, do what aedipuss said. 16 bit and 12 bit are both "legal" for DV but you cannot capture across changes. You will have to babysit the capture.

[aedipuss]

you may have to move the tape to a 16 bit part, turn the power off, then back on and then play the tape to get the cam to switch to different audio types. 16 bit 48khz stereo is the normal DVavi audio, 12 bit is not used much and could with proper equipment contain 4 channels.

[SixFiftyThree]

If the problem is changes between 16 bit and 12 bit over the course of the tape, then indeed WinDV and similar software such as DVIO will stop transferring audio, and transfer needs to be restarted from the point where the audio change occurs.

ScenalyzerLive however does not have this problem. For this reason (and many others) it is my choice for DV transfer. It's still just as lightweight as WinDV or other basic software, but has better functionality and many more features. At the very least, the audio changes will be a non-issue. No babysitting required.

If the audio track on the tape is corrupted though, no software will solve that. This has happened to me before, where the audio will still play through the camcorder but when transferred it drops in and out or is totally silent in some portions. And I mean constantly, during the same scene, sometimes accompanied by visual errors. I of course tested this thoroughly to ensure it could only be the tape causing this error. The only solution for that is to capture from the analog audio output of the camcorder, and sync it to the digital video.

Also, just to touch on another topic, if you are at all interested in the datestamp of your videos, know that sometimes capture software will have trouble registering it. But it is always there, if not entirely then at least partly. Use DVDate to extract it after transfer if it wasn't already picked up.