OT: Importing mini DV Audio question

[Rob Elliott]

Hi all,

Just a couple of questions on completing my task of transferring mini DV to the SX DAW.

First of, the transfer to SX (via my DV Cam and firewire) was super easy. MS’s Wizard walks you through each step and you can preview what sections of film you want to load into your project folder.

This all went very smooth and importing the video into SX went well (onto a Video track). When importing into SX, a dialog checkbox allows the you to ‘extract audio’ from this video import. There is where I am having a problem. I get the video just fine (with thumbnails) and it plays back beautifully (in a smaller window or even full screen – with lesser playback quality), but I get a message about the audio that says:

“These audio streams could not be imported: Audio stream 1 of file (and then it list the location of the video file.)”

I am using Direct Show video player and I have made sure that the “extract audio” box is checked when importing.

I am sure that it is something small. I would sure appreciate some guidance.


PS: As this scoring to pictures is new to me, could someone give me a short tutorial on what sample rates I need to set on my DAW and 2 giga puters. Right now I am running everything at 44.1Khz, but I think I read somewhere else here about Film clips will be provided in 48 Khz. Can I continue to work in 44 K and then master mix everything in 48K when I hand back over to the Director or will I need to set this up to 48K to be ‘in sync’ with his mini DV’s supplied to me??

Again – many thanks for any help. Sorry, with what must be \'basic\' questioning to many here.

Rob

[Bruce A. Richardson]

Not sure what the problem is with the audio stream.

Definitely work at 48k.

[Marsdy]

What Bruce said.

Audio in Mini DV is at 48k. This might be why it\'s not playing in Cubase if Cubase is set to 44.1k. Logic is the only app I\'ve come across that can play multiple sample rates in the same song. Try setting Cubase to 48k.

[Rob Elliott]

Originally posted by Marsdy:
What Bruce said.

Audio in Mini DV is at 48k. This might be why it\'s not playing in Cubase if Cubase is set to 44.1k. Logic is the only app I\'ve come across that can play multiple sample rates in the same song. Try setting Cubase to 48k. <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Hi Bruce and Marsdy,

First off - Thanks Bruce for recommending this solution. It got me some major \'brownie points\' with the \'boss\'. Great to have a mini DV around the holidays.

Dave,

I changed Cubase to 48K and still get the message about not being able to import audio.

When I import the Video file it gives me the following data (and it also plays the video on the video track just fine. I just can\'t extract Audio)

640 x 480 (2.4 Mb) -


I shot a quick 20second video test. I was sure to have the DV set to 16 bit (and not 12 bit sound).

Again, I am sure that \'extract audio\' is checked.

Any ideas?? Many thanks.


Rob

[Marsdy]

Rob

Then I\'m a bit stuck I\'m afraid.

The size of your DV movie is a little odd. NTSC DV is 720 x 480 pixels I think so I\'m wondering if something odd has happened when you captured the movie. Also the DV data rate is 3.6mb a sec.

One suggestion would be to open the video in a video app outside of Cubase and extract the audio there, then import that audio into Cubase separately (making sure both the movie and the audio have the same start time of course!) I do this in Apple Quick Time Pro on the Mac all the time and it might be worth trying that (QT Pro is available for Windows I think if you\'re not on a Mac.)

[Rob Elliott]

Originally posted by Marsdy:
Rob

Then I\'m a bit stuck I\'m afraid.

The size of your DV movie is a little odd. NTSC DV is 720 x 480 pixels I think so I\'m wondering if something odd has happened when you captured the movie. Also the DV data rate is 3.6mb a sec.

One suggestion would be to open the video in a video app outside of Cubase and extract the audio there, then import that audio into Cubase separately (making sure both the movie and the audio have the same start time of course!) I do this in Apple Quick Time Pro on the Mac all the time and it might be worth trying that (QT Pro is available for Windows I think if you\'re not on a Mac.) <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Hey thanks for the \'work-around\'. I should have mentioned that when I go through the capture \'wizard\' to capture the video it give me two options

1. (recommended) Best Quality for playback on my Computer

2. Digital Device Format (DV-AVI)- this format is 720 x 480.

When I try to capture at this Digital format I get no \'pixels\' shown on the import dialog box. It shows that the file is 64 MB (for a 15 sec test) but NO pixels. I did a search on that within windows and it mentions something about codecs.

Again, though when I captured on the first format listed above, it imports video just fine and show pixels on the import dialog box - just can\'t extract audio.

Any hints in there???

Rob

[Marsdy]

Rob

I\'m stumped I\'m afraid. It could be that Cubase doesn\'t like the video format your app is exporting (the 640 x 480 one), for example, it probably wouldn\'t like an mpeg encoded movie at all. Most audio apps don\'t in my experience.

The Digital Device Format (DV-AVI) format sounds like a safer bet to me except it sounds like your machine is missing the codec to support such files. One way round this is to convert these files into something Cubase is happy with, possibly an AVI file compressed with the Indeo 5 codec. Can you open the Digital Device Format files in the Windows Video Editing app with the audio working? If yes, try exporting the video again from there in another format.

[Rob Elliott]

Originally posted by Marsdy:
Rob

I\'m stumped I\'m afraid. It could be that Cubase doesn\'t like the video format your app is exporting (the 640 x 480 one), for example, it probably wouldn\'t like an mpeg encoded movie at all. Most audio apps don\'t in my experience.

The Digital Device Format (DV-AVI) format sounds like a safer bet to me except it sounds like your machine is missing the codec to support such files. One way round this is to convert these files into something Cubase is happy with, possibly an AVI file compressed with the Indeo 5 codec. Can you open the Digital Device Format files in the Windows Video Editing app with the audio working? If yes, try exporting the video again from there in another format. <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Hi Again Dave,

I know it is getting late over across the pond. I opened up Windows Movie Maker to check out my test file. And just maybe I found something that can lead us.

It says the following about the DV file:

video:

720 x 480
29.95 fps (everything looks fine there but I just can\'t import this format into SX. I know that many have imported this format into SX???

Audio:

says it has a sample rate of 32Khz

but remember with this format (and not the one Windows recommends that I could also import video just fine on) I could not import even the video (no pixels). It shows that the file is 63 MB just no pixels.

what is up with the sample rate on the audio in DV format??

Also, I could not see an option within Window Movie Maker (Direct Show) to export to another format. I\'ll try to capture again and look for other options.

Many thanks again.

Rob

[Rob Elliott]

I went back to the Windows video capture ultility:

1. (recommended) Best Quality for playback on my Computer

2. Digital Device Format (DV-AVI)- this format is 720 x 480.

And again, when I try to capture at this Digital format (AVI) I get no \'pixels\' shown on the import dialog box and not video import into Cubase. It shows that the file is 64 MB (for a 15 sec test) but NO pixels.

When I import using the \'first\' format listed above I get perfect video import but no \'audio\' import. Oh how I wish I could could have them both images/icons/confused.gif

Rob

Has anyone used Quicktime\'s capture utility and playback for SX 2.01?????

[Marsdy]

Rob,

I think 32khz is the sample rate for DV when the camcorder has recorded in long play mode or whatever it\'s called. It might be worth a look at the settings on your camcorder.

And then have a look at the export options in Windows Movie Maker. I\'ll have a look myself in the morning to see if there\'s something that looks like it might be Cubase friendly.

[Rob Elliott]

Hey Dave,

Thanks alot. Have a good rest.

I tried to go through all of Windows Movie Maker to locate an \'export\' function and could not find one.

At first blush it\'s wizard is pretty slick walking throught the \'capturing\' process. I know this is going to end up being a switch or something small to make this work.

The .wmv files are small (and I am able to import their video BUT no audio into SX). They would be easy on my DAW.

The .avi captures are much larger (but I cannot import video into Cubase). For that matter, I cannot even extract audio from these avi files.

I look forward to possibly hearing from you in the morning.

Thanks again.

Rob

[B]

Rob,
Have a read here

http://forum.cubase.net/forum/Forum2/HTML/055601.html (\"http://forum.cubase.net/forum/Forum2/HTML/055601.html\")
The post from Christian about half way down.
As he says, get virtualdub, it\'s very useful.

BTW when Cubase says 0 pixels it usually means the vid file is encoded with a codec that Cubase can\'t use.

Hope this helps

Brian

[Joanne Babunovic]

Rob,

Sorry to hear you are having these issues.
I forwarded your thread to Scott Mead in L.A. He does lots of work with Cubase and video and maybe can help. Hopefully you will hear from him. I gave him your robelliott music address.

[Rob Elliott]

Hi B,

Thanks for the link. Yes, I found that late last night and downloaded Virtual. This free download seems like it might do it but the support written tutorial is somewhat vague on the HOW. I\'ll dig into it today.

Joanne,

I appreciate the lead to Scott. It sounds like SX may offer these challenges to others. Perhaps Scott has found a good workaround. Thanks again.

Rob

[Marsdy]

Rob

I looked in Windows Movie Maker and Media Player to see if there are any export options were you could choose another codec to use and I couldn\'t find anything either.

It looks to me like you need another app that can export the video with a codec Cubase is happy with. Unfortunately I have no idea what that would be since I do this sort of thing on a Mac.

Quick Time Pro for Windows would export an AVI with the Cinepak codec only I think so you\'d need to make sure Cubase likes that codec otherwise that\'s not going to work either.

In case you\'re wondering, a codec is a format or protocol of video compression and de-compression. Without a codec video files are absolutely huge. There are all sorts of competing codecs from different companies.

[Rob Elliott]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the Quicktime reference. I downloaded the app (www.quicktime.com) and I HAVE SUCCESSFULLY IMPORTED AND AVI FILE INTO CUBASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The sound is right there on a seperate audio track. I quess Cubase just doesn\'t recognize the Windows Direct Show Player.

What is odd, though, is that I \'captured\' the video (18 sec) with the Windows utility (saving as a DV-AVI file.) Who cares I have Video AND Audio \'locked\' into the SX project window.

Again, many thanks.


Apparently there are some serious bugs in the latest version of SX (2.01) on extracting audio. If anyone is having these problems try the Quicktime app - it worked here.

Rob