How to exchange the audio track in a .wmv movie file?

[Potti]

I am searching for a free tool to exchange the audio track in video files (of type wmv) without re-rendering.
I am using "Windows Live Movie Maker" to compose my videos but I want to make the audio louder. I found a tool "Audacity" that can read the audio track, so I'm able to normalize the audio level. But now I need to exchange the audio track in the wmv file with the new sound file. I could use "Windows Live Movie Maker" again, but it's cumbersome and it takes time.
So is there a free tool that allows me to simply exchange the audio track in my .wmv file?
I'm using windows 7 as operating system.

Thanks a lot in advance. Bye,
Michael

[johnmeyer]

TSMuxer? I just used it yesterday to replace the audio in a .TS file. You'll have to look at the doc to see if it supports WMV.

[_Al_]

I used to do that, there was an tool for that, not sure exactly it was a tool that had a word "editor" or "stream editor" in it, it might come with Windows Media Encoder.

[Potti]

Thank you for the suggestion; I will have a look at them.

Bye,
Michael

[Potti]

No, just tried it. It cannot read wmv files.

TSMuxer? I just used it yesterday to replace the audio in a .TS file. You'll have to look at the doc to see if it supports WMV.

[transporterfan]

I used to do that, there was an tool for that, not sure exactly it was a tool that had a word "editor" or "stream editor" in it, it might come with Windows Media Encoder.

Windows Media Encoder 9, perhaps? https://www.videohelp.com/software/Windows-Media-Encoder

There is also https://www.videohelp.com/software/WMVMuxer

Not used WMV for years. Good luck.

[Marsia Mariner]

AsfBin.

Or ffmpeg, if you're not afraid of the command-line interface.

The Windows Media Encoder tools MAY be a trouble on Windows 7 x64 and later, so I cannot recommend them.

I don't recommend WMVmuxer either, it's buggy as hell and hasn't been updated or fixed.

[Cornucopia]

It's very easy to use the WME tools in a W764+ environment, as long as you change the compatibility emulation to Xp32, or W2k32 or similar. Haven't seen any issues.

Scott

[Potti]

OK, thank you. I tried ffmpeg.exe version 3.2.2 with the following commands:

ffmpeg -i test.wmv -vcodec copy -an test_silent.wmv
ffmpeg -i test_silent.wmv -i test_louder.wav -vcodec copy -c:a copy test_louder.wmv

to first create a silent video and then put the new audio. It works but it seems to change the video.

Output of ffmpeg below. The properties of the original video are 8000 kBits/s and 25fps; the new has 1538 kBits/s and 15fps. Any ideas?

Thank you.

ffmpeg version 3.2.2 Copyright (c) 2000-2016 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 5.4.0 (GCC)
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-dxva2 --enable-libmfx --enable-nvenc --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenh264 --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-lzma --enable-decklink --enable-zlib
libavutil 55. 34.100 / 55. 34.100
libavcodec 57. 64.101 / 57. 64.101
libavformat 57. 56.100 / 57. 56.100
libavdevice 57. 1.100 / 57. 1.100
libavfilter 6. 65.100 / 6. 65.100
libswscale 4. 2.100 / 4. 2.100
libswresample 2. 3.100 / 2. 3.100
libpostproc 54. 1.100 / 54. 1.100
[wmv3 @ 000000000055d340] Extra data: 8 bits left, value: 0
Input #0, asf, from 'two.wmv':
Metadata:
WMFSDKNeeded : 0.0.0.0000
DeviceConformanceTemplate: M1
WMFSDKVersion : 12.0.7601.17514
IsVBR : 0
Duration: 00:00:02.23, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 9850 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Video: mjpeg, yuvj420p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 1920x1080, 90k tbr, 90k tbn, 90k tbc
Metadata:
comment : Movie/video screen capture
Stream #0:1: Video: wmv3 (Main) (WMV3 / 0x33564D57), yuv420p, 1920x1080, 8000 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 1k tbn, 1k tbc
Stream #0:2: Audio: wmapro (b[1][0][0] / 0x0162), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 384 kb/s
Output #0, asf, to 'two_silent.wmv':
Metadata:
WMFSDKNeeded : 0.0.0.0000
DeviceConformanceTemplate: M1
WMFSDKVersion : 12.0.7601.17514
IsVBR : 0
WM/EncodingSettings: Lavf57.56.100
Stream #0:0: Video: wmv3 (Main) (WMV3 / 0x33564D57), yuv420p, 1920x1080, q=2-31, 8000 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 1k tbn, 1k tbc
Stream mapping:
Stream #0:1 -> #0:0 (copy)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame= 55 fps=0.0 q=-1.0 Lsize= 2338kB time=00:00:02.16 bitrate=8864.2kbits/s speed=15.3x
video:2317kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 0.940209%

H:\louder\ffmpeg-3.2.2-win64-static\bin>ffmpeg -i two_silent.wmv -i two_louder.wav -vcodec copy -c:a copy two_louder.wmv 1>loud.txt
ffmpeg version 3.2.2 Copyright (c) 2000-2016 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 5.4.0 (GCC)
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-dxva2 --enable-libmfx --enable-nvenc --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenh264 --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-lzma --enable-decklink --enable-zlib
libavutil 55. 34.100 / 55. 34.100
libavcodec 57. 64.101 / 57. 64.101
libavformat 57. 56.100 / 57. 56.100
libavdevice 57. 1.100 / 57. 1.100
libavfilter 6. 65.100 / 6. 65.100
libswscale 4. 2.100 / 4. 2.100
libswresample 2. 3.100 / 2. 3.100
libpostproc 54. 1.100 / 54. 1.100
[wmv3 @ 00000000004b2d60] Extra data: 8 bits left, value: 0
Input #0, asf, from 'two_silent.wmv':
Metadata:
WMFSDKNeeded : 0.0.0.0000
DeviceConformanceTemplate: M1
WMFSDKVersion : 12.0.7601.17514
IsVBR : 0
encoder : Lavf57.56.100
Duration: 00:00:02.20, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 8707 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Video: wmv3 (Main) (WMV3 / 0x33564D57), yuv420p, 1920x1080, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 1k tbn, 1k tbc
Guessed Channel Layout for Input Stream #1.0 : stereo
Input #1, wav, from 'two_louder.wav':
Duration: 00:00:02.22, bitrate: 1536 kb/s
Stream #1:0: Audio: pcm_s16le ([1][0][0][0] / 0x0001), 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 1536 kb/s
Output #0, asf, to 'two_louder.wmv':
Metadata:
WMFSDKNeeded : 0.0.0.0000
DeviceConformanceTemplate: M1
WMFSDKVersion : 12.0.7601.17514
IsVBR : 0
WM/EncodingSettings: Lavf57.56.100
Stream #0:0: Video: wmv3 (Main) (WMV3 / 0x33564D57), yuv420p, 1920x1080, q=2-31, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 1k tbn, 1k tbc
Stream #0:1: Audio: pcm_s16le ([1][0][0][0] / 0x0001), 48000 Hz, stereo, 1536 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
Stream #1:0 -> #0:1 (copy)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame= 55 fps=0.0 q=-1.0 Lsize= 2948kB time=00:00:02.19 bitrate=10991.6kbits/s speed=16.8x
video:2317kB audio:416kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 7.878625%

################################################

AsfBin.

Or ffmpeg, if you're not afraid of the command-line interface.

The Windows Media Encoder tools MAY be a trouble on Windows 7 x64 and later, so I cannot recommend them.

I don't recommend WMVmuxer either, it's buggy as hell and hasn't been updated or fixed.

[Marsia Mariner]

Compare the combined filesize of the input streams with the expected filesize of the resulting output.
If there are no huge differences, then the error is not in ffmpeg, but in the user themselves.

Also, just to be on the safe side, you should examine "test_louder.wmv" with MediaInfo.

AFAIK, ffmpeg does NOT include a WMV3 or VC-1 encoder, therefore it's highly-improbable that it can do anything with these video formats except remuxing them (OR re-encoding them to a different format).

[Potti]

Thank you for the answer and sorry for the late reply. I checked the files with Media Info and here are the differences under the VIDEO section (original versus processed):

Format profile
"MP@HL" versus "Main"

Description of the codec
"Windows Media Video 9 - Professional" versus "wmv3"

Bit rate
Constant "8 000 kb/s" versus "8 318 kb/s"

Bits/(Pixel*Frame)
"0.154" versus "0.160"

Stream size
"530 MiB (96%)" versus "551 MiB (81%)"

The rest under VIDEO is all the same. Attached the full info as text file. Does this now mean that the video stream was touched by ffmpeg.

Compare the combined filesize of the input streams with the expected filesize of the resulting output.
If there are no huge differences, then the error is not in ffmpeg, but in the user themselves.

Also, just to be on the safe side, you should examine "test_louder.wmv" with MediaInfo.

AFAIK, ffmpeg does NOT include a WMV3 or VC-1 encoder, therefore it's highly-improbable that it can do anything with these video formats except remuxing them (OR re-encoding them to a different format).