Trying to correct audio volume and edit video

[Boon Oediv]

Hi all. I've got a bit of a project I'm grappling with. I know very little about working with video, audio, etc., but I do have a little tech knowledge (I'm pretty rusty, though).


Here's what's going on:

There's a college lecture series on YouTube that I want to watch, but some of the videos have a number of problems:
- The audio volume is waaay too low. Even with your speakers cranked to the max, you can barely hear what the lecturer is saying.
- Videos end before their reported running time. For example, the first video in the series is 39:56 long according to YouTube, but the video will repeatedly stop cold at 38:14. (Apparently, this is because the video stream{?} is shorter than the audio, at least as far as I can tell...)
- The visuals are out of sync with the audio. This bugs me, but it isn't as big of an issue, since all the videos consist of is a handful of static powerpoint slides; there's no live action, animation, or anything like that.

So, I decided to see if I could fix these issues. I browsed to the first video in the series, fired up a YouTube downloader (YouTube Video and Audio Downloader 0.4.5, by InBasic), and grabbed a copy using the "WEBM Medium - OGG 128K - 31.8 MB" download option. I then spent the next day or two struggling to understand codecs and container formats, reading all sorts of tutorials and explanations about sound and video, and trying like mad to get whatever free software I could find to work without bugging out or needing to create huge temp files (I've only got around 15 GB of free disk space). I've sorta figured some stuff out, but I feel like I'm running in circles mostly. So that's why I'm here: I'm sure you folks have plenty of experience with these issues and can point me in the right direction.


Recap of things I'm trying to do (working on an old Windows Vista machine with 1GB RAM and ~15GB of free disk space):

1. fix audio volume - raise it to as audible a level as possible, but not so loud that it explodes my eardrums (there's some occasional loud background noise)
2. fix the video running time to match the full length of the audio track
3. edit the video to sync the image on screen with the content of the audio (i.e., when the lecturer is talking about X, then make sure the slide about X is on screen)
4. (OPTIONAL) - I'd like to add subtitles if the process isn't too difficult, but it's not absolutely necessary


Programs and tools I've been trying to use thus far:

Audacity
VirtualDub with DShowInputDriver plugin
AviSynth+ with ffms2 plugin
ffmpeg
ffdshow
LAV Filters


And here are links to the videos I'm interested in:

(Playlist) - Trinity College in Dublin - Microprocessor Systems

(First Video) - Microprocessor Systems - Lecture 1



I think that covers everything. Any advice you can give is much appreciated.

[Cornucopia]

For a start, some hard news -
1. Add more RAM! You sorely need it.
2. Add more HDD space! Unless those clips are VERY short, you'll need it.
3. Use an NLE for this (Cyberlink PowerProducer or Vegas Movie Studio are actual good starters. Avoid VideoPad and Magix.) If you absolutely need free and you are willing to live within its constraints, Lightworks might be an option.

This ought to be a piece of cake for using a standard NLE (with Audacity added in if necessary). Those other things excel at video conversion and/or processing. NONE of them would be workable as a flexible and speedy editor.

Scott

[Boon Oediv]

Crud, yeah, I forgot to mention that money is definitely an issue. (Believe me, if I had the cash, I'd have a better machine.) Thanks for the tip, I'll check Lightworks out.