How to get audio from my Canon HFS21 footage

gandjcarr wrote on 12/21/2013, 10:18 AM

Hi Olivier,

What do you mean that "they play fine in windows and in VLC" when you say windows, do you mean Movie Maker or something else. And what is VLC? In MEP 2014 have you detached the audio track from the video, created a wave form and do you see a audio wave form? Is the audio track muted? Simple but important questions.

George

osmeest wrote on 12/21/2013, 10:52 AM

Thanks for your answer.

By "Play fine in Windows" I mean I open the .mts file from the Windows Explorer and the video which opens (Windows Media player?) plays the video just fine with the sound. VLC is Videolan. It's an application well known for being able to read almost any A/V format.

In MEP2014, I imported the clips with the record button as explained in the Import video tutorial. After a moment of importing, the clips are all on the timeline but if I hit the play button, I only get video but no sound.

If I try to display audio and video on two tracks, the audio track is empty.

This all gives the impression that MEP2014 did not recognize the codec used by the camcorder for the sound (AC3).

Hope it gives clues,

Olivier

johnebaker wrote on 12/21/2013, 2:10 PM

Hi

. . . . I imported the clips with the record button . . .

That is an unecessary step, MEP will import mts files directly - you do not have to record them, and this is where I think the problem lies.

Assuming the mts files are on a memory card you only need to copy them from the card to the correct folder on your PC and then bring them onto the timeline direct from the Media tab.

Activation of any necessary codecs will result in a popup asking you to activate online.

If / when you purchase the full product buy the Premium version then all required codec are included - you will still have to activate them however there is no extra charge.

HTH

John

osmeest wrote on 12/21/2013, 5:05 PM

Hi John,

Unfortunately, I tried the direct copy to HDD way before discovering the record button in the tutorial. With the same results unfortunately. The only difference is that the direct copy is faster than the record button.

Since the record button is the advised method in the tutorial, I then thought that I had done it wrong. To discover later than the record button does not work better.

I hope I can get it to work in the trial version because... hey... that's exactly the purpose of this trial. I want to ensure that the software behaves correctly with my equipment (camcorder, PC, video card) and that it fits in my workflow. I'm definitely not going to pay for this software if it does not work properly in the trial period.

Thanks & best regards,

Olivier

johnebaker wrote on 12/22/2013, 5:25 AM

Hi Olivier

Can you upload a short ~ 10 sec clip from the camera, to somewhere like DropBox and post the link to it, for us to test with MEP 2014 .

. . . . Since the record button is the advised method in the tutorial . . .

If you are using the AVCHD option then this copies the files from the camera to the specified folder it does not 'record' them.

I have never used the Record option to transfer files from my Sony HD camera to the PC this way - I will try it later.

John

osmeest wrote on 12/22/2013, 4:24 PM

Hi John,

I published in Dropbox one of the clip I was importing. The audio is the sound of a road on a windy night. Nothing brilliant. But anyway, in my installment of MEP2014, it is simply silent...

Here's the link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/76f033r21sil87y/00119.MTS

Thanks in advance,

Olivier

Scenestealer wrote on 12/23/2013, 1:19 AM

Hi Olivier

Plays fine here in MEP2014 timeline and shows audio waveform with right click.

Looks like something is not set up proerly in Windows. If you click the speaker icon in the windows notification bar, bottom right and click "mixer" whilst the clip is playing you should see a slider with your MEP project name appear

Ss.

johnebaker wrote on 12/23/2013, 3:15 AM

Hi Olivier

Also plays fine here on the MEP 2014 timeline, create waveform works OK. I suspect something is amiss with the audio codec.

You can download GSpot and analyse the clip with it - GSpot will tell you if the codecs are there and are used if you use the buttons under MS A/V bottom left of the pane.

John.

osmeest wrote on 12/26/2013, 5:05 PM

Hi,

@Scenestealer,

When opening the sound mixer and playing a clip in MEP2014, the extra fader for the application appears but the sound level bar never shows up. In comparison, it does appear when Windows Media Player is playing the same .MTS file.

@JohnEBaker,

I downloaded the latest GSpot (2.70a), opened one of my .MTS clip. When I click on the MS A/V 1 button which gets highlighted when the clip is opened, an error message comes in the text area at the right of the buttons:

Rendering failed. Following is the error reported by DirectShow:
0x80040265: [unknown]

What does GSpot reports when you open my sample clip ?

I also tried loading those clips in another video editor (Sony Movie Studio 12) and there they play like a charm (audio is identified as Dolby AC-3).

Again, thanks a lot for your help,

Olivier

johnebaker wrote on 12/27/2013, 3:00 AM

Hi

. . . . Rendering failed. Following is the error reported by DirectShow: 0x80040265: [unknown] . . . .

Same here with GSpot.

John

osmeest wrote on 1/3/2014, 8:58 AM

I submitted the question to Magix support line and finally got the following answer:

Dear Mr. Smeesters,

Thank you for your message.

The problem is with the fact that Dolby Digital decoding is unfortunately no longer supported in the trial version of the program. We needed to change the Dolby Digital activation and implementation for licensing reasons, which now calls for an online activation and the download of actual Dolby Digital decoding components from our server, which is only possible in the full version. As a result, you won't have any audio on formats using Dolby Digital audio (e.g. AVCHD and a lot of MPEG-2 files). We hope for your understanding. The full version will support the decoding of this kind of audio after performing the necessary online activation.

Best regards,
Ralf Hentschel

MAGIX Software GmbH

This explains why it works for some (registered in full) and not for me. Unfortunately, this makes it impossible for me to properly evaluate the software. Pity...