Sound mixing works in Premiere but not on disk

[Scuba Guy]

I am using premiere elements 7, recently upgraded from version 4 where I did not have the problem on a PC with Windows Vista home.

My camera is a Sony HC-40 with a mini DV tape. I upload the raw video with a firewire connection. I am not using the HD capability of PE7. I am shooting mostly underwater video and have the yellow sound bars all the way down. I have added music from I Tunes for the majority of the video which works great.

There are a few scenes where I have topside video with talk. I raised the yellow bars so the talk can be heard. I also lowered the music track bars so it is more background. The effect works great when previewing on PE7. I burned the video to a disk and the music turns down but the talk is mising. I am perplexed. I have used this technique several times with earlier versions with no issues. I started out with about two hours of raw video and have it trimmed down to 25 minutes. I have the video saved on a separate hard drive from the operating system. Any ideas?

[ATR]

First, let us rule in or out any resource related issues contributing to this...
1. How much installed and available RAM as well as total and free internal hard drive space does your computer have?
2. Is your computer optimized..defragmented, no unnecessary programs running in the background during encoding/burning to (I assume) DVD disc, virtual memory configuration by Windows or you??

Since Premiere Elements 7 has an excellent Mix Audio for adjusting audio (see just above Timeline), why are you using the technique of moving the yellow line of the audio track which has less control?

From what I have read the Sony HC-40 is a miniDV camcorder which records to tape. You say that you are connecting the camcorder to computer via Firewire. The reports that I have seen say that this camcorder records to MPEG EX (also known as Motion JPEG AVI). So, what are you putting on the Premiere Elements 7 Timeline, DV AVI or Motion JPEG AVI? Transfer/Capture problems can present with the symptoms that you describe. So, let us rule this in or out. If you are not working with DV AVI, perhaps you should consider file conversion so that DV AVI is what is on the Premiere Elements 7 Timeline.

You say that your Premiere Elements 4 workflow worked for this, but not Premiere Elements 7. Are you comparing the exact same video? If you have Premiere Elements 4 still installed, you might want to double check to make sure that the video file works there also.

When you go to burn the Timeline (25 minutes content) to disc (assumed Share/Disc/Disc) and you have the DVD disc in the DVD burner tray, what does it say in the Premiere Elements Burn Dialog under Quality for Space Required and Bitrate?

To be continued.....

ATR

[Scuba Guy]

My computer is a Core 2 Duo @ 2.66 GHz with 2 Gig of ram. The memory meter usually stays at 32%. C drive has 324 our of 465 free space. D drive has 279 out of 372 free.

I shut down all other programs when I burn to a DVD drive. Virtual memory must be by Windows Vista. I use the yellow bars because I am familiar with them... I have recently gone through a tutorial for sound mixing and the new system looks cool. Net effect should turn out the same.

The clips are a .avi with either a V for video or A for audio. The audio is on Audio 1 track and my music from I tunes is on Soundtrack. This video is new and not the exact same video that I used on V4 which is no longer on the computer. It is shot from the same camera and edited the same way as V4.

The last question is about the burn style. There is a slider that goes from quality to fit. This was set to fit however I tried to change it to quality but it would not change. I did not figure this short of a video would make a difference.

Again the sound from the .avi track sounds great when previewed. It just is not there on the burned copy. I also have the entire project rendered so the little red lines are now green if it makes a difference.

[ATR]

First.....

Please supply the following details:

1. You say that your Vista has 2 GB RAM. I am assuming that is installed RAM. So, go to System Information and tell me what it says for Total Physical Memory and for Available Physical Memory.

2. Place a DVD disc in the DVD drive tray. We are not going to burn Timeline content to it. We just need it to trigger the appearance of the needed data in the Burn Dialog.
a. Your project on the Premiere Elements Timeline
b. Switch from Edit Mode to Share/Disc/Disc.
c. In the Burn Dialog, look to the Quality Area. Leave "Fit to Available Space" checked. In the Quality Area, what are the values given for Space Required and Bitrate.

The requested information will give me important information about your situation just prior to burn.

To be continued....

ATR

[Scuba Guy]

I am strking out on the answer for question #1. I went to control panel, then system, and it says I have 2GB memory. It also says I have a Windows Experience Index of 5.5 in case this helps. Exactly where do I get the memory info you requested?

Question 2: Space required is 1.67 GB(bitrate 8 Mbps) with the check mark on in the quality box.

These stay the same if the check mark is off and the slider is set to Max quality. They change to 421 Mb(bitrate 1.69 Mbps) if I set it to most video. I have not tried to burn a disk at this setting but I will.

Thank you again!

[Scuba Guy]

Dear ATR,

I tried the setting with the lowest quality and the sound problem is still there. Thought you would want to know.

[Scuba Guy]

Dear ATR,

I found the memory information you requested from another post:

2 GB installed memory
1.98 physical
1.3 available
4.19 total virutal
3.35 available virtual

Hope this helps.

[ATR]

Scuba Guy

Thanks for the latest information.

I have not forgotten about you either. I hope to be back before the end of the day (hopefully sooner) with further comments. I keep getting detoured.

To be continued.... (do not give up)

ATR

[Scuba Guy]

Dear ATR,

I tried something else. I started another new project. I captured 48 minutes of raw video from the same source camera. I did not edit or add any additonal sound tracks. Then I burned a disk in the same way. The disk and the sound were fine.

Remember it was the Audio 1 track that was the problem in the first project. The burn information was 287 GB @ 8 Mbps. My thinking is this proves the system is capable but I must have done something on the first project. Are there any switches or selections that would prevent the Audio 1 from being picked up in the disk but allow it to be heard in the preview???

Thanks again.

[ATR]

Thanks for the follow up testing.

RE: 48 minutes of captured video

The burn information was 287 GB @ 8 Mbps.
How are you capturing your video into Premiere Elements? You mentioned the Firewire connection. Is this a straight and forward camcorder firewire capture into Premiere Elements placing DV AVI on the Premiere Elements Timeline or something else? In the burn information, do you mean 287 MB, not GB? I am assuming that was a typing error and should be 287 MB.

My two routes of thinking are:
a. A problem related to capture
b. A resource problem related to the size of your project


I am favoring b. at this point. In your last post you wrote that you were successful in a new project that started with 48 min, rather than a 2 hour capture. You noted previously that your installed RAM is 2 GB, but you only have about 1 GB RAM available. Going along that line, I was going to ask you to recheck the values that you gave me for free hard drive space, C drive about 324 (? Units) and D drive 279 (? Units). If you go into System Tools/Defragmentation, it should show the drives and give values for their capacity and free space left. Are the units in GB?

The information in the Burn Dialog for the problem project, Space Required 1.67 GB at a Bitrate of 8 Mbps, sounds like there should be no problem burning the Timeline to disc from the point of view of the capacity of the disc and what you have on the Timeline. But, the resources for doing that are what keeps me pondering. Note that this recent project using the 48 minute capture ends up showing Space Required only 287 MB which is a big reduction from the 1.6 GB figure of the problem project.

You could use the following approaches to check this out:
a. Keep adding to this new project, upward to 1.6 GB space required....and see if and when audio problem develops
b. Go back to the problem project, and subtracting from that, downward to 287 MB space required...and see if and when the audio problem disappears.


There is another thread here with a soundtrack issue that presents (for me) the same type of thinking. I need to get back to that other thread also and see what we can develop there.

Please update us on your progress. And, good job with the troubleshooting.



ATR











RE: Audio Volume Adjusts......

1. Sound Adjusts Within Premiere Elements 7
a. Click on the Mix Audio icon above Timeline, and check out the settings for Audio 1, Narration, Soundtrack, and, if appropriate Audio 2 and 3. The normal setting is 0 db. The 0 db does not mean “no” sound, but rather the volume level of the original sound. So, moving the slider up will increase the volume above the original (+db) and moving the slider down will decrease the volume below the original (-db).
a. Even if you do not use the Sceneline View, there are volume settings there that could impact your audio in the Timeline. In the Sceneline View, look to the left of the Filmstrip. Click next to the Filmstrip. A slider for the video’s audio (Audio Track 1) should appear that should be position midway (you will not see an Audio Track 1 in the Sceneline View). You will get a slider for the narration track and soundtrack by clicking to the left of the narration track and soundtrack respectively.
Although all this should be checked out, I do not think that this is at the core of your program.

[Scuba Guy]

Hello again!

I defraged both drives. Current readings are 312/465 GB and 247/372 GB. Yes they are in GB.

I connect the Video camera through the firewire port. A dialog box opens and asks whether to use Adobe or Windows to capture the video. I chose Adobe PE7. Then I capture the video one tape at a time. There was a total of about 2 hours of raw video. I have this edited down to about 25 minutes. This is what yields 1.67 GB space needed on the disk. My test project started out with 45 minutes of raw video. I burned this with no editing and the space needed was 2.79 GB not 279 GB as I earlier mistyped. This disk burned perfectly.

I checked the audio mixing button and all appears well. The slider in the sceneline is mid way.

[ATR]

Thanks for the update.

So, it sounds like the space required for the second (audio 1 successful) project was greater than that of the first (audio 1 unsuccessful).

What you might try next is adding to this second project, that is, editing, adding your soundtrack, etc. and see if you get a video end product with good playback pre and post burn to DVD. You could do the additions all at once or do them step wise to see what does and does not impact a successful workflow.

That should give interesting information.

To be continued....

ATR

[Scuba Guy]

Dear ATR,

I bought an additional 2 GB of system memory for a total of 4. My thought is that if this was a resource issue then adding more resources would solve the problem. No help. The sound tracks still play in preview but not when I burn a disk.

[ATR]

Scuba Guy,

Thanks for the update. Of that Total 4 GB RAM that you now have, how much is available?

When you wrote:
I tried something else. I started another new project. I captured 48 minutes of raw video from the same source camera. I did not edit or add any additonal sound tracks. Then I burned a disk in the same way. The disk and the sound were fine.
did you use only 48 minutes of the same 2 hours that you captured before or did the 48 minutes come from another? Right now I am assuming it was a new part of the recording collections.

Based on your success with new footage (capture and Premiere Elements end product),

a. have you tried to recapture the very same footage in issue and the look at that end product from Premiere Elements?
and/or
b. have you tried sequential subtraction (leaving the Soundtrack throughout) from the Premiere Elements Timeline containing content that ends up with an end product without Soundtrack?

ATR








ATR