Another deafening silence!

Captain Kirk · #1 (**permalink**) 12-28-2005, 10:37 PM

Another plea regards no sound!

I am attempting to save the movie clips from my Sony DCR-IP7E, using Movieshaker, onto the hard-drive of my desktop. I have done this many times before without any problem but have been rather busy over the past 12 months and had not got around to downloading from the Video Recorder.

When I now attempt to download the backlog of movie clips, despite no apparent difference to the previous, successful, efforts, I cannot capture the sound - I have spent a very frustrating afternoon (all afternoon!) attempting, in vain, to see what 'simple' error I have made that is causing this. I think that I have tracked down every 'Check this box to turn sound on/off' gotcha within Movieshaker, still without luck.

Sound emanates from the Camcorder during playback and is repeated from my PC speakers during PC demanded playback from the Camcorder. After 'capture' however - not a squeak!

My PC is reasonable spec, though certainly not cutting edge: 512 DDR, 512 MB Graphics, 1.8 MHz, 7200 HDD, 40 GB in the partition dedicated to Movieshaker, connected via Firewire - to reiterate, it has worked previously.

I am beginning to think that there may be a more insidious fault/software glitch, though I cannot put my finger on what system/configuration changes I have made in the interim that would appear to have created this problem. Has anyone else encountered similar? In desperation - I will be lynched if I spend much more time at my PC trying to figure this out....!

Many thanks in anticipation.

Crusty · #2 (**permalink**) 12-29-2005, 05:19 AM

First, check the PC's audio mixer, that little speaker looking icon in the taskbar. Unmute all audio sources, a check box is under each volume slider, then position the sliders to midpoint. Check the video for sound again.

Have you verified the captured video doesn't have a sound track? This program, MediaInfo (http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en), will tell a lot about the captured video and your PC.

If it says there's a sound track, look at what sort of compression it uses. Since the Sony DCR-IP7E uses MPEG2 video compression, the audio may be using MPEG1 Level 2 compression and your PC needs the right codec to decode this. MediaInfo will examine your PC for installed codecs, click 'View' then 'Your System'. Click the 'Audio' bullet and then see if your system has the codec.

If it does have the right codec, try re-installing Directx9c from Microsoft's website. Sometimes other applications will mess up the audio 'pins' when they are installed.

Captain Kirk · #3 (**permalink**) 12-29-2005, 09:30 AM

Crusty - thank you for your swift response. I have followed your advice and feel that I may be creeping up on a solution! The PC audio mixer is fine and I have analysed the downloads with MediaInfo.

Having captured the video and then saved it in 2 different formats, there does indeed appear to be an audio stream, accoring to MediaInfo.

Saved as an MPEG1 at 30 fps, the Audio is 'MPEG Audio 1 Layer 2' (128KBps, 48 Hz, 2 channels)

Saved as DV-AVI at 25 fps, the Audio is 'PCM' (1536KBps, 48 Hz, 2 channels).

All of which is Chinese to me!!!

So am I right in deducing that the audio is there, my PC just can't play it? Presumably, a 'codec' is a sort of driver for the audio? Where would I find these 'codecs'? Sorry if this seems a bit Noddy to you but I am pushing the envelope!

Thanks again.

Andy Lockwood · #4 (**permalink**) 12-29-2005, 10:09 AM

Just a thought here, have you tried opening the captured files in Windows Media Player? See if you have sound there.

Captain Kirk · #5 (**permalink**) 12-29-2005, 11:59 AM

Yes, I have tried to play in Windows Media Player and Windows Moviemaker - still giving me the nostalgia of silent movies!

Andy Lockwood · #6 (**permalink**) 12-29-2005, 12:25 PM

Refer back to paragraphs 3 and 4 of Crustys' post I guess then.

Captain Kirk · #7 (**permalink**) 12-29-2005, 01:40 PM

Affirm to that - I have downloaded Directx9 with no success but am not sure if I installed it correctly - it asks for a location and I put it with all my other Program files - not sure if it shouldn't be located elsewhere. Grateful for any tips on this and some info ref 'codecs', i.e. what, why, how?!

Crusty · #8 (**permalink**) 12-29-2005, 01:48 PM

Hmm... this isn't looking good. Sounds like a Movieshaker problem. You might need to reinstall it from your camera's disk. Reading other sources about Movieshaker, apparently it comes preinstalled on some PCs and when used with a Sony DCR-IP7E, it needs additional bits only found on the camera's version.

Also, reading sources on the internet indicates the native MPEG-2 format of the camera gets transcoded to DV-AVI for editing by Movieshaker. If you can find the original file downloaded from your camera on your hard drive (I have no clue what suffix it uses), you should be able to copy and rename the copy's suffix to .mpg and then play that in Windows Media Player. If that has audio, then it's definitely a MovieShaker bug.

Crusty · #9 (**permalink**) 12-29-2005, 02:05 PM

One other possiblilty is the camera may have the audio bits setting wrong. Digital cameras can often record in 12 or 16 bit audio formats, so if yours has a selection option for this, try setting to the opposite and then download the movie again.

Captain Kirk · #10 (**permalink**) 12-29-2005, 03:43 PM

Thanks for the assistance thus far chaps - I have already tried reloading Movieshaker (twice) from the CD that came with the camera. I will look into the camera settings next. Meanwhile, could anyone expand upon what 'codecs' are and where I might get the ones I need for 'MPEG Audio 1 Layer 2' and 'PCM'.

Many thanks.