Problem with choppy audio after uploading to Google Drive or Youtube

[dg415]

Hi all,

Forgive me if this has been asked before, but I've searched exhaustively for days trying to find a solution and am at a complete loss for what to do to solve this problem.

I have a problem with video files produced by my security camera software, iSpy. When I open the files locally on my computer in media player software such as Windows Media Player or VLC player, the video and audio plays fine. However, if I upload the videos to Youtube or Google Drive and attempt to play them in my web browser, the audio is extremely choppy and seems to be cut out every half second or so.

This problem only happens with video files produced by iSpy. When I upload videos recorded with my cell phone, they do not experience any audio stuttering or chopping.

I tried reprocessing the videos with the software AviDemux, and I noticed that when I preview them in the software, I experience the same audio choppiness. However, when saving the output from AviDemux, and opening the saved files in a media player, they still play fine. However when I upload those files to Youtube or Google Drive, the audio is rendered choppy in the web browser player, just as it is in AviDemux's video previewer.

Here is a link to one of the offending video files on my Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RAOe2TW4qYsyNc8QHxJershGRmDhxOzl/view

If you try to play this video in your web browser (I've reproduced this on Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer on both my home and work computers, running different versions of Windows), the audio will be choppy. However, if you download the file and open it in Windows Media Player or VLC, the audio plays back fine.

What is causing this choppiness and how can I make it stop? Is there a configuration setting I need to tweak in iSpy? Is it a setting in AVIDemux when I process the files? Do I need to use a different software to perform some kind of processing to the file to prevent this?

I am not really an expert on audio or video encoding, but I am a software engineer and fairly tech-savvy. I'd appreciate it if anyone can point me in the right direction, as this problem has been frustrating me for a while now and I have no idea what to do to solve it.

[johns0]

Check the type of audio being produced by ispy,if it's out of specs maybe youtube has issues with.

[dg415]

Check the type of audio being produced by ispy,if it's out of specs maybe youtube has issues with.

Hi johns0,

iSpy is configured to capture audio from my webcam's microphone at a bitrate of 48000. According to the file properties in Windows, the video file's Audio bitrate is 69kbps with 1 mono channel and a audio sample rate of 22 kHz. Is this the problem? I am not sure how to change this in iSpy.

[dg415]

I still can't figure out how to change the output bitrate on iSpy, but I tried reprocessing the audio using AviDemux by selecting "AAC (lav)" from "Audio Output", clicking "Configure" and selecting a bitrate of "128" from the drop down menu. I saved the file, but when I right click and view its properties in Windows it says it has a bitrate of 47kbps (it previously had 69). When I uploaded this to Google Drive I ended up with the same choppiness. How can I solve this problem? Anyone know?

[october262]

I still can't figure out how to change the output bitrate on iSpy, but I tried reprocessing the audio using AviDemux by selecting "AAC (lav)" from "Audio Output", clicking "Configure" and selecting a bitrate of "128" from the drop down menu. I saved the file, but when I right click and view its properties in Windows it says it has a bitrate of 47kbps (it previously had 69). When I uploaded this to Google Drive I ended up with the same choppiness. How can I solve this problem? Anyone know?

did you try reading the user guide ?? - https://www.ispyconnect.com/userguide.aspx

[dg415]

I still can't figure out how to change the output bitrate on iSpy, but I tried reprocessing the audio using AviDemux by selecting "AAC (lav)" from "Audio Output", clicking "Configure" and selecting a bitrate of "128" from the drop down menu. I saved the file, but when I right click and view its properties in Windows it says it has a bitrate of 47kbps (it previously had 69). When I uploaded this to Google Drive I ended up with the same choppiness. How can I solve this problem? Anyone know?

did you try reading the user guide ?? - https://www.ispyconnect.com/userguide.aspx

Hi october262,

I did look through the user guide but couldn't seem to find any information on how to change the output file's audio bitrate. The closest page I could find to this topic is here: https://www.ispyconnect.com/userguide-recording.aspx but again there is no mention of the output audio bitrate. The microphone settings page likewise doesn't provide any information (https://www.ispyconnect.com/userguide-microphone-settings.aspx)

I'm also curious why AviDemux can't reprocess it. Is there a different tool I need to use for this?

[dg415]

So just a quick update, I did some more poking around and I figured out how to change the audio bitrate of my video files to 128kbps.

* I used QWinFF (FFMPEG GUI wrapper) to change it to 128kbps. I set the sample rate to 44 kHz. 1 mono channel as usual.

* I inspected the file's properties and confirmed that it shows the correct audio bitrate and sample rates.

* I played the file on my computer - audio was fine.

* I uploaded it to Google Drive and after processing, the audio is still choppy in the video playback in-browser, although it seems slightly less choppy (the chops seem to be spaced out more.)

It doesn't seem like changing the audio bitrate solved the problem, unless there's a specific bitrate I need to set it to or I also have to mess with the video bitrate?

Youtube/Google's specs say to use 128kbps AAC for audio and I did. Not sure how to fix.

[dg415]

As a quick update, I also tried adjusting the video's bitrate in QWinFF to 80, but the result was the same after uploading the file to Google

[jagabo]

I think the audio problem is caused by the video -- variable frame rate at ~9.8 fps average. When I reencode to constant frame rate AviDemux has no problem playing the resulting video (muxed with the original audio). Try forcing your encoder to constant frame rate.

[poisondeathray]

Interesting that it plays from the browser (firefox, chrome) ok when the file is local. Drop it on a tab, or open it directly with a browser

[dg415]

I think the audio problem is caused by the video -- variable frame rate at ~9.8 fps average. When I reencode to constant frame rate AviDemux has no problem playing the resulting video (muxed with the original audio). Try forcing your encoder to constant frame rate.

Hi jagabo,

How did you change it from a variable to a fixed framerate in AviDemux? I'm looking for this option in the video settings but I can't find it.

Interesting that it plays from the browser (firefox, chrome) ok when the file is local. Drop it on a tab, or open it directly with a browser

Yes, the problem occurs after it has been processed by Google. Playback seems to be fine on local media players, whether it is the built in media player in your web browser, windows media player, vlc, etc. The audio chopping occurs after it has been processed by Google's servers, such as when you upload to Youtube or Google Drive (in the latter case, the file is unchanged, but is only choppy when previewing in Google's web based video previewer).

The choppiness can also be reproduced by playing back the file in AviDemux. I am guessing it is because AviDemux is using a similar method to process the file that Google is using.

[jagabo]

How did you change it from a variable to a fixed framerate in AviDemux? I'm looking for this option in the video settings but I can't find it.

I didn't use AviDemux. I used AviSynth and the x264 command line encoder. Them muxed the new video and original audio with Mp4Muxer.

[dg415]

How did you change it from a variable to a fixed framerate in AviDemux? I'm looking for this option in the video settings but I can't find it.

I didn't use AviDemux. I used AviSynth and the x264 command line encoder. Them muxed the new video and original audio with Mp4Muxer.

Hi jagabo,

Thanks for the info. Sorry to keep badgering you, but could you provide a few more details on this process? I'm not that familiar with audio or video encoding (although I am comfortable running command line programs). Can you describe step by step how you did this?

[sneaker]

The audio timecodes are very irregular (variable). I would consider the file broken.
As a workaround try:

ffmpeg -i "input.mp4" -vn -c:a copy "temp.aac"
ffmpeg -i "input.mp4" -i "temp.aac" -map 0:v -map 1:a -c copy "output.mp4"

Since the audio is mostly static I cannot really say if the result is sync to the video, though.

[jagabo]

Thanks for the info. Sorry to keep badgering you, but could you provide a few more details on this process?

I can give you this information later if you still want it. But I verified that sneaker's method in post #14 works as far as AviDemux is concerned. That's faster, avoids any quality loss, and is easily automated via a batch file.

Note that directly remuxing the original mp4 into a new mp4 with ffmpeg doesn't work:

ffmpeg -i source.mp4 -codec copy new.mp4

The new file has the same choppy audio as the original in AviDemux.

[dg415]

The audio timecodes are very irregular (variable). I would consider the file broken.
As a workaround try:

ffmpeg -i "input.mp4" -vn -c:a copy "temp.aac"
ffmpeg -i "input.mp4" -i "temp.aac" -map 0:v -map 1:a -c copy "output.mp4"

Since the audio is mostly static I cannot really say if the result is sync to the video, though.

Thanks for the info. Sorry to keep badgering you, but could you provide a few more details on this process?

I can give you this information later if you still want it. But I verified that sneaker's method in post #14 works as far as AviDemux is concerned. That's faster, avoids any quality loss, and is easily automated via a batch file.

Note that directly remuxing the original mp4 into a new mp4 with ffmpeg doesn't work:

ffmpeg -i source.mp4 -codec copy new.mp4

The new file has the same choppy audio as the original in AviDemux.

Hi sneaker, jagabo. Sorry for the late reply. Thank you very much for the details. I used sneaker's method with ffmpeg extracting the audio track and re-combining it with the video using the options he specified. It looks like that did the trick. I appreciate your help!

I really hope anyone else experiencing this problem will be able to find this forum post and solve their problem using this method. I googled this issue previously and there was a whole plethora of unhelpful "solutions" cluttering the search results. This right here is the fix for anyone else having this problem! Hope this gets shoved up to the top of the search results when Googling this choppy audio problem with Google's servers!