Sound issue when capturing Hi8 through MiniDV camcorder

[Ad_astra]

Hi, I just captured a ton of Hi8 footage using the DV out function of a MiniDV camcorder. Sounded ok on TV, but when I used headphones to listen to a couple of AVIs, it turned out that all sound was coming from one channel. I tested the Hi8 source and it was stereo. When looking up properties of the captured AVIs it says it is AAC stereo 32bit.

What I discovered is that in the DV out menu, the MiniDV camcorder had source “1” or “2” selected, not stereo. The manual doesn’t have a lot on it, but it appears this has to do with mixing sound from two sources. When I subsequently captured with stereo selected, the sound was normal (both channels).

Hard to tell if any audio was lost or if everything was simply dumped on one side. Question is, if it still says Stereo in the properties, is there a way to separate it into two channels and do a batch job of that? Having to re-capture the whole thing would be a bummer.

Thanks!

[Alwyn]

Out of interest, what model is the camcorder?

I'm surprised the captured audio is AAC. How'd you capture the tapes?

[Ad_astra]

Alwyn,

The tapes were played on a Sony TR910 Hi8 camcorder connected via SVHS and two audio cables to a Sony TRV11 MiniDV camcorder. The latter was in a DV out mode and was outputting via FireWire to the computer with WinDV.

I just re-checked AVI properties. In fact, it doesn’t say AAC. It just indicates the bitrate (1024kbps), channels (2, stereo) and sample rate (32000khz). So, it looks like it is still stereo, it just happens to come out of one earpiece. Question is, how do I separate the audio into two channels.

[Alwyn]

Hmm, a tricky one. I think it would be best if you attached a sample DV file here so the audiophiles can examine it. The forum takes 500MB, but probably best to keep it down to around 100MB, which would be about 20 seconds worth. Pick an area with good sound.

[aramkolt]

If I had to guess, the issue probably is between the Hi8 camera and the MiniDV camera, most likely the input cable you are using to the TRV11 either not making good contact, or not having the correct pinout.

The RCA outputs you can hook to whatever from the TR910 to verify that both are outputting correctly and just disconnect one at a time and see if the speaker plugged into a TV switches.

[timtape]

It could have been a faulty audio cable, faulty camera audio socket or plug not pushed fully home. I think the trv11 has a headphone socket to check while digitizing. With many modern TV monitors it could be working on only one channel and it's not that obvious.

[Ad_astra]

The problem is not a malfunction but a setting in the MiniDV camcorder. There are three options - Stereo, ST1 and ST2. When I captured all of the hi8 tapes, it was set to either ST1 or ST2, but not stereo. When I later tested the capture with stereo selected, everything was normal.

Again, since the audio still shows up as 2-channel stereo in the properties of the AVI, I’m wondering if I can fix this somehow to make it come through both headphones/speakers rather than one. Would hate to have to recapture all of the tapes again just to get the sound right.

[Alwyn]

Attach a sample.