Hello again
Yesterday I downloaded a 880MB MP4 video recording of a 2-hour meeting, but on importing it into MEP the audio component was lost. No problem with Pinnacle Studio, though, so there was nothing wrong with the download. Any idea what went wrong in MEP?
Thanks
Richard
Hi Richard
What is the audio codec used in the video file?
If you do not have it, download and install MediaInfo and analyse the ideo file and post the results, see this tutorial if you are not familiar with MediaInfo on how to setup MediaInfo and analyse a video clip.
Are you still using the same version of MEP as in your signature?
John EB
Forum Moderator
Hi Richard.
It depends on how you term 'What went wrong with MEP?'.
The MP4 format can contain later additions to what it can encode / decode that are not always taken up by Editing programs.
Simple Profile (SP)
Is mostly aimed for use in situations where low bit rate and low resolution are mandated by other conditions of the applications, like network bandwidth, device size etc. Examples are mobile phones, some low end video conferencing systems, electronic surveillance systems etc.
Advanced Simple Profile (ASP)
Was not included in the original standard. Its notable technical features relative to the Simple Profile, which is roughly similar to H.263, which I'm not sure whether MEP supports or not.
According to a little bit of research I found the following.
Some implementations of MPEG-4 Part 2 omit support for this feature, because it has a significantly harmful effect on the speed of software decoders and it is not always beneficial for quality.
The global motion compensation feature is not actually supported in most implementations although the standard officially requires decoders to support it. Most encoders do not support it either, and some experts say that it does not ordinarily provide any benefit in compression. When used, ASP's global motion compensation has a large unfavorable impact on speed and adds considerable complexity to the implementation.
We have seen problems on the forums before regarding video files from products like zoom that use those compression techniques. The only way to get them to work within MEP is to re-encode them in Handbrake or similar to a more standard set of encoded parameters.
The file itself is very small for a two hour video file so I suspect it had been encoded with one of the above implementations of the MP4 container.
Ray.
Hi Ray
. . . . The file itself is very small for a two hour video file so I suspect it had been encoded with one of the above implementations of the MP4 container. . . . .
If the video is from for example a Zoom meeting the resolution will be relatively small, eg we have seen these with vide resolution of 640 x 360 at 625 kb/s with the audio samplerate at 32 kHz and recorded to the C channel of the audio stream.
John EB
Thank you for your replies. The recording was from a Zoom session, and looking at the MediaInfo data I guess the problem has something to do with the variable bit rate? Annoying that Pinnacle Studio can handle it, though. I'm still using MEP18, and don't intend to upgrade - ever!
I don't immediately see a way to copy/paste MediaInfo, so a screenshot is attached with a couple of irrelevant lines missing that I can't fit on screen. Hopefully it can be read when opened...
Cheers
Richard
Hi Richard
The video needs converting, eg with Handbrake, to get a video standard eg 25 fps for the video and the audio to a format/samplerate ie to mono (Left channel) or Stereo (L + R channel), 48 kHz
. . . . I don't immediately see a way to copy/paste MediaInfo . . . .
Did you set up MediaInfo, as in the tutorial I linked to, and watch it to the end?
John EB
Annoying that Pinnacle Studio can handle it
To us as well!
I don't immediately see a way to copy/paste MediaInfo,
Your image is fine. For future reference, in Mediainfo just go to the "Text" view and copy and paste all the text.
I think the AAC audio is throwing MEP because it's a bit "non-standard".
Run the file through AVIDemux and convert the audio to something more standard, being 48khz, stereo, as follows (this process does not touch the video part of the file):
Download and run AVIDemux (if you don't want to "install it" you can run the portable file from the "Portable" download.
Open the file in AVIDemux.
In the "Audio Output" section, from the dropdown, choose AAC (lav), then click "Configure" and select a bitrate of 128, then OK.
Click on the "Filters" button and set Resampling to 48000, then tick the Remix box, and set Mixer to "Stereo", then OK.
In the Output Format dropdown, choose MP4 Muxer
That's it. Now click on the floppy disk icon on the top bar (or choose File>Save). Your video will be smart-copied and your audio will be converted to a format MEP can open.
The only point I'm hazy on is on the Audio Filters button, whether the Frame Rate Change has to be adjusted.
John, it looks like the video opens fine. MEP can handle 15FPS. I've done many screen captures at that rate with no issue.
I guess not. 😉
Hi Alwyn
That is true however as was mentioned in one of the topics that we have seen on this issue, the export from MEP was not satisfactory unless the Interpolate intermediate images option in the Speed control was turned on for the video clip(s).
Using Handbrake to up the framerate should fix this, and the audio in one step.
John EB
Thank you again for the fixes. John, guilty as charged. I had used MediaInfo a while ago so I thought I was on top of it. I didn't think of the text option - thanks, AAProds.
I'll save the useful info I have here for future use - but for now, Pinnacle fixed it😞.
Richard