Posts and other comments

Aug 08 - numerous attempts to install SP3 on my XP laptop failed... after which I found myself with a number of MM2.1 issues with audio files. I got a 'class not registered' error when trying to open the narration feature, couldn't play existing wma files in the collections, got error messages about wma files not being valid or corrupt when trying to import them, and the picklist of options in the narration window were gone. The files on the hard drives played fine in WMP.

All were resolved by re-registering the QASF.DLL in the system32 folder.

7/24/06 .... I use WMA..but did start out w/MP3... it should NOT make a differance.. I even mix both WMA + MP3 with no tell-tale sign. Clicking sounds are usually the original capture of the audio file.. BUT.. if I turn my TREBLE up real HIGH (Sound Blaster) there are "noises".. also an improper OS install might create some in-consistencies.. a trick I used in the beginning was to RUN the EDITED Storyboard BACK to the DV-Camcorder.. [CLEARS] some noise from Transitions.. but lately I'm using a 1024 x 768 SIZE in jpeg images.. that seems to quiet some things (slightly).. I have had CLICKS&POPS... they were from a bad CD..../.

6/2/06 (SimplyDV forum) - Music stutters on saved DV-AVI AVI, but is fine in project > This happened to me and was driving me insane. Eventually, I found the problem. The MP3 I had was at 256Khz and when I reduced it to 192, it was fine!

3/25/05 - When I export it as a WMV in PAL (not NTSC) format, the music is about 30 seconds shorter, so the video continues silently towards the end after the music ends. Presumably this is due to the different frame rates for PAL vs. NTSC but it's a nuisance nonetheless. > ... it might be an issue with the MP3 file. I noticed it was encoded at 217Kbps, so I converted it to 192Kbps @ 44.1kHz (a more standard type) using db PowerAMP and reinserted it to the video. Export then went smoothly. > ... I did as you suggested and converted the file to 192Kbps and the timeline worked perfectly

3/25/05 ...lipsync problem is caused by many factors among which are:

1. Interfering background processes while encoding

2. Input in highly compressed format such as WMV

3. Low system resources

Try to eliminate these and try again.

4/30/04 ..... We are creating a photo story in MS Plus!Photo story then bringing it over into Movie Maker 2. We then are adding a audio file from a file that was saved from music CD to the hard drive as a .wma file. Then we are saving it as a AVI file. If you play that file in the Windows Media player you can hear a electronic buzzing like sound along with the music. It was fine when we saved as WMV/WMA file option it was fine. Final project we want is a VCD or DVD. We were succesful with encoding with TMPGEnc software then burning it with Nero to a CD as a VCD, the video is really good. So how do we make the audio better... Do we use a different type of audio file?

Well I figured it out myself with a little bit of research.... In Movie Maker, after we made it, we save the audio and video separately. The Video as a AVI file and the Audio as a WMA file. Then in TMPGEnc software the two are merged back together to covert it to a encode it as mpeg 1 or 2. Then used it in Nero to put as a VCD or DVD. The audio was great in final product!!

4/25/04 (SimplyDV forum) - I experience one problem constantly - after I add Titles, or transitions, and preview, the sound doesnt play for sometime. After I fiddle around, play from a diff position in the timeline, come back to 'that-non-sound-playing section' it plays fine. The audio is the one in the video avi. Its kinda random, but it does happen...

Source file is a DV-AVI and plays perfectly fine when played stand-alone. Moreover as I mentioned this 'silence' when previewing is random. It's not consistent and at 'specified' points. I still have to generate the movie and verify that the final movie is fine. I hope it is.

OK, after hours of digging, I have finally found a solution to my problem. I first tried to re-install my sound drivers - didnt help. So I decided to dig into the sound hardware settings. I just noticied that for my Sound Card (Sigmatel Audio) there is an item in the Control panel which has setting for Power Management for my sound card, which is enabled by default. I unchecked the box to use Power Saving features and yes! all my audio issues were solved.

I guess any user using the Dell Inspiron series of laptop with similar config might experience the same problem. This is the workaround that worked for me.

2/15/04 - (I don't know if this item is related to issues that some are experiencing with Movie Maker 2, but I'm including it now and will be adding info about it as people check it out) Microsoft released a Digital Video Decoder and Multiplexer Hotfix for DirectX 9.0, 9.0a, and 9.0b KB831937. This Hotfix corrects specific application compatibility issues with DirectX 9.0 changes in the DirectShow DV Decoder and Multiplexer. Overview: Changes made in DirectX 9.0 has the potential to affect two configurations:

1) Print to tape using a DVCPro device with a non-MS DV encoder may result in audio dropouts or complete loss of audio.

2) Decoding of a live or file-based DV stream with the PAL bit erroneously set in some frames may cause decoding to stutter or halt completely.

Modifications for these issues are as follows:

1) Alter DV Multiplexer to set SPEED field value in AAUX source pack to 1.0 when DV encoder does not set a valid value.

2) Change to buffer size checking in DV Decoder to accept non-standard assertion of the PAL bit.

Note: The English hotfix package (ENU) may be deployed on any language installation of the supported operating systems.

2/11/04 - ... I was doing some background reading on the DV format and came across the following paragraph: Although the format supports high quality sound, DV's audio is unlocked. This non-synchronous design means that a specific number of audio samples are not rigidly synchronized to each video frame. If one frame is off a couple samples, you must insert a short mute at any audio edit or risk inducing an audible click. (source: 213.84.219.66/Documentatie/dv_explained.pdf )

It made me wonder if the phenomenon is a result of the way audio is encoded within the DV format, and the way MM2 handles it? I know that the MM2 edit space is not the full 25fps (PAL), but something more like 12.5fps (or 15fps NTSC), so I wondered if this could somehow lead to the audible pops that I hear at cuts and transitions.

1/31/04 - ... I have what is required to play the files.... The problem is MM2's Storyboard????? the only solution I have is to use an MPEG encoder. This fault is undoubtedly within MM2 and its Storyboard. It SHOULD use the PCM codec, installed in XP, for playback just as it uses it in Collections. > PCM is PCM, regardless of what encoder/ or compression format is used for the video stream. If the audio is bad while using default MJPEG handler, and normal when using another MPEG decoder, it does not mean that the audio format has changed; it hasn't, it is still PCM. Since the original file now renders properly from within storyline, we can reasonably assume that there is inherently nothing wrong with storyline; the audio format is still PCM, and storyline is still playing the same file, in the same manner as before. So, what changed? .... it is possible the default system MJPEG Splitter was simply corrupting the audio stream, during separation, or, maybe something was wrong elsewhere in the rendering pathway. Whatever the source issue, it was apparently only being manifested from within storyline; possibly indicative of greater burden upon MM2's resources when rendering from storyline. Anyway, by installing a different MPEG solution you may have physically changed MJPEG/MPEG Splitters, and/ or changed the rendering path in some other manner. Without in-depth analysis we may never really know the true answer. Keep in mind that the MPEG/MJPEG splitter actually separates the audio stream from the video stream at the source input. Each stream is subsequently passed along its corresponding pathway for final rendering to the default DirectShow or DirectSound player device. Just becuase an MPEG Splitter was used during stream separation does not mean that the audio stream is an MPEG Layer. What I can say with some certainty is that, from within Storyline, your PCM audio stream is still being rendered via XP's default PCM handler. As far as the actual decoding (rendering) of the audio stream goes, nothing has changed.

1/23/04 (MovieMakers forum) - The music skips when the transistioning to some video clips (not all video clips and never a picture). It only happens when you save the file to dv or avi file. It works fine as a wmv file. It always happens at the exact same clips, not matter which transistion I use. > (followup post 40 minutes later) I have tried changing the music files from wma to mp3 (like MS suggests as a work around) - no luck. I finally figured out how to stop the sound from skipping when you transition to video clips. If you include some sort of 'Video Effect' such as a 'increase brightness' or 'ease in' effect the sound skip goes away when you save to your DV camera.

I had several spots where the sound would have a glitch when transistioning to the video clip. I wondered why it didn't happen to all the video clips, then I realized that the sound skip was only happening on the video clips that didn't have a video effect on it.

1/19/04 > When Importing an avi file and saving the saved file as WMM file, the audio lasts some fraction of the video and sounds compressed. I'll contribute my 2 cents to the (as yet unsolved) WMM audio compression problem. My computers:

• Problem Computer: Dell 300m laptop with Windows XP, MM2 (had same problem with WMM1).

• Other Computer that does not exhibit problem: Inspiron 8000, Windows XP over ME (Oooh so nice), WMM2

Differences in Audio Codecs

• My Problem Computer has the same kind, order, and settings for Audio Codecs as.... PapaJohn's laptop - see the audio codec figure above.

• The one that works has 2 additional Audio Codecs and the order of two of the codecs common to both is reversed: ... Spiro Lab, Indeo, Fraunhofer, Lernout and Hauspie, Voxware Compression Toolkit, MSPCM

... since one of my Dell computers worked and the other did not, and they both had XP and WMM2, I called Dell support and spent about 3 hours on the phone with various folks. I had to do a restore afterwards to fix the damage to various drivers and WMM2, which would not work at all. They had me attempt to remove and re-install WMM2 (could not figure out how) and remove and reinstall a sound driver (SigmTel C-Major Audio Driver).

... I downloaded and tried MainConcept's MPEG encoder. I used the main window that pops up when the encoder is launched. I tried to play the resultant clip (AVI to MPEG1) but there was no sound at all. Maybe I didn't understand the suggestion to install it in the post, I thought the encoder would go live in my audio or video codecs spaces somewhere and transparently allow WMM2 to work, but that was not the case.

Note: the 1/16/04 and 12/28/03 posts are from the same person:

1/16/04 - It now appears that, in certain cases, MM2 converts a PCM audio file to MPEG2 when the file is dropped into MM2's Storyboard.

The result of this is inaudible audio because - correct me if I'm wrong, please! - the MPEG2 audio codec is not one of the eleven audio codecs included in Windows XP.

The PCM codec is included. That is why PCM audio files play back perfectly after being imported into MM2's Collections.

Why this should happen is beyond comprehension. It seems ridiculous that a Microsoft program would convert something into a file that another MSFT program cannot support!

In any case, I downloaded an MPEG2 decoder from www.elecard.com and installed it. But, I am still having playback problems.

How can I make MM2 or XP use the Elecard decoder when a video/audio file is in Storyboard?

12/28/03 - Has anyone tried using the Optio video files in MM2? The video bit is AVI, while the audio bit is PCM. I am running XP Professional. On my machine, both the audio and the video play perfectly on Windows Media Player, Real Player and in Movie Maker 2 Collections. But, when I drag the file into MM2's Storyboard, only the video works. The sound becomes totally distorted and unusable.

I have tried increasing the priority of the PCM codec from 11 to 1, but to no avail. How can I make the PCM audio work in MM2? Should I first convert it to something else using Pentax ACDSee software? (I will only be able to convert the entire file.) If so, what should I convert it too?

1/20/04 - This (Elecard MPEG2 Player 2.1)... has been recommended for those having audio problems in Movie Maker 2's Storyboard. Those considering downloading this program should be warned that it doesn't like being uninstalled. In fact, I cannot uninstall it! ;-( ...And Elecard have, thusfar, ignored all email requests for information as to how to get rid of it. When I open the Uninstall window and click uninstall, the program freezes. The Back, Next and Cancel buttons grey out and clicking on the X doesn't close the window either. The only way to close it is via Ctrl/Alt/Del and the Task Manager. Equally, doing a search for all things Elecard (10 items) and trying to delete them individually doesn't work. Nor does trying to uninstall via Add/Remove. A nasty little program. Avoid! I will keep you posted re my correspondence with them. > (followup post 3 hours later) Hidden behind the Uninstall window was one of those windows with the message "The system indicates that one or more shared files are no longer being used by any program on your system.........etc........." Yes, Yes to All, etc....etc...... Once I found this, by dragging the Uninstall window to one side, I had no problem uninstalling the program. BUT! That window should have appeared in front of the Uninstall window.

1/2/04 - There have been many posts here about a specific audio problem where an AVI clip plays fine in Media Player, but when dragged to the storyboard, the audio screeches/ plays fast/ is out of sync/ etc. What worked for me was installing an MPEG2 codec. By downloading the eval version of MainConcept's MPEG encoder (www.mainconcept.com), my imported AVI clips now play in the storyboard of MM2. My guess is that when MM2 copies the clip to the storyboard, it changes the audio playback type from PCM to MPEG2.... What threw me off was the fact that my clips are Motion JPEG AVI's, so I focused my attention on AVI and MJPEG codecs and not on MPEG2 codecs. However... after reading some posts about MPEG2 codecs, I decided to give that a try. It worked > MainConcept (occassionally) produces files with the video blacked out.

12/30/03 - post by Digger with responses by Anthony (if you want to go even deeper into this thread, see the posts for the follow-up discussion) - Clicks, Pops, etc., recording/ editing/ rendering windows audio media.

1. Use of 3rd party emulated DirectX drivers may cause stuttered playback; OEM/ product specific.

DX emulation usually appears in the form of 3rd party plugins/bridges and device drivers. Remember, the purpose of emulation is to fool DirectX applications into thinking they are talking to a DirectX compliant device. So, MM2 is a DirectX application, and yes, sooner or later MM2 will certainly meet with emulated devices.

2. There is a problem in the Windows kernel mixer, which causes short glitches or clicks at the start of playback or at the beginning of a recording. DirectX 9+ helps, but does not fully eliminate this condition. Thus, one must thoroughly check for noise at each new rendering; a real pain-in-the ????

> Is the kernel mixer used to Preview or render files in MM2 or is this strictly relevent to the Media Player?

It can be relevant to both, depending upon how and what is being done...

The WDM Kernel Mixer (KMixer) supports audio mixing, effects processing, encoding/ decoding (AC3, Mp3 etc). So, if using WDM to communicate with your audio card (s), then yes, KMixer is definitely involved.

The major issue with KMixer is that it adds about 20-30ms of latency to processed audio streams. Some latency is not critical in AV applications, easily compensated for, but it can be disasterous for effects processing. It is also this latency effect that is blamed for the introduction of glitches and clicks.

There is actually a pretty well written summary of what is involved and how this all works, scroll downward to the section on "WDM" at http://www.staudio.de/kb/english/drivers/

> So do you have any idea why it is when we render independently there is a differential time compression in the files?

There are many factors that come into play when speaking of time differential. The engineering of the applicaion itself is a biggy...does the app preload 500ms of audio? Are the files each rendered using the same timecode bias (clock)? Exactly how stable is that onboard clock for your audio card? Remember, we are not using GenLock and SMPTE.

Try a little experiment for me...

• Produce 2 AVI files, and render one as a Type-1 DV-AVI. Render the other as a Type-2 AVI. Perhaps someone else could provide 1 minute samples of each type, but, what we don't want is a set of calibrated production standards.

• Use VirtualDub (free) and load the Type-2 AVI. While in VDub, observe the timeline for the entire file. From the main menu, choose "File | Save As Wave".

• Using a variety of freely available audio tools, strip/ convert the audio streams from the sample AVIs; Audacity, TmpGenc, GoldWave, Sonar(cakewalk), SoundForge...etc.; trialware works for this little demo.

• Chart (plot) a matrix of the file lengths (timelines) from each of the saved audio streams.

• How many of the source A/ V streams are correctly matched in length?

• How many are within 20-30ms of each other?

3. WAV files may legally contain extra non-audio information (markers, summary data, etc.); usually inserted after the header and before the actual audio sample data begins. This extra --non-audio-- info may contribute to unwanted noise, erroneous timelines (out-of-sync), and a host of other problems. Unless one is intimately familiar with the history of a source wav, it is simply a good idea to insure source files are well washed (cleaned) before use; sorta like washing hands before preparing dinner. I use the following for expediency, but many of today's semi-pro audio converters and better editing suites will do as well or better...

StripWave - http://www.lightlink.com/tjweber/StripWav/StripWav.html

All good arguments for building audio and video streams independently; multiplexed (mixed) only at production times. Also good arguments for use of tools that support scripted production; Adobe Premier, Avid, Final Cut, etc, etc... Hmmm...WMM? Oooops!! My, how quickly I digress.

> Is this where we would need to know a programing language?

Actually no, but there are many repetitive processes that lend themselves well to scripted processing. For example, as a matter of SOP all of my audio clips begin with a 3 sec. linear fade-in; fade-outs are standard at 6-7 sec. The clips are normalized to an average of 0db over the entire length of the file. Given these knowns, it is pretty easy to build batch processes (scripts) for rendering streams quickly.

12/25/03 - Edited posts by Anthony (and Phil) about a... partial break-through with... audio dropout at transition on tape and in preview , stall, hang problem. I did not have a beep problem during transitions, so I don't know if this will help that, though the applicable theory suggests it might.

... it appears Microsoft's PCM Converter has trouble working with coincident varied bit rates and/or varied sample rates... and not necessarily, {though it still could be}, different file types or rates that are too low. This might answer why an otherwise good quality file might not work.

The PCM converter appears to "like" it if these rates are consistent {mathematically relevent?} from clip to clip.... especially disliking variations placed in the second audio track, or as differentiated between the extremely fast DV capture rate and the much lower audio rates in the respective tracks.

Here's what I did to solve most of the problems I've had [at least for tonight], though some remain. It's a lot more work than we should need to do, but it seems this works none-the-less... and where Micro-seems-soft to lend a hand to uphold "pro" {adequate} quality. I took a heavily edited "finished" project exhibiting The Problem, the video/audio, 16 bit, of which was captured from a Mini-DV camera, all other audio and video was gotten from Microsoft downloads, and made a few extra versions of the project as described below for purposes of a "clean" compilation. > It makes sense that if somehow the transitions are causing the problem then a solution is to 'pre-render' the video track so that the transitions aren't there any more.

PapaJohn's Comments What Anthony (and Phil) describe in their posts, is a way to work-around some of the audio issues. The approach is to save the project movie in two parts, the audio of the Audio/Music track, and the video/audio of the Video track(s), and then combine the two parts into the full final production:   • Save a movie or audio file using only the clips on the Audio/Music track. If there are no clips on the video track, save it as a High Quality WMA file (Variable bit rate). If there's a video clip and only video file options are available, select one of higher quality such as 340 kbps video for Broadband. • Save the video/audio clips to another file, without the clips on the Audio/Music track. • Import the two new audio/video files and combine them into your final saved movie. The process is not a solution to audio issues, but it may help you finish your movie project.

1 - With the original "finished" Project open, I did SAVE AS, {"project name"_audio}, Then selected all video, DELETE. SAVE. What you have saved is the audio in the second audio track AS IT IS SYNCRONIZED TO THE VIDEO {important for later}. Save/render that as a movie, same name, using the 340 kbps video for Broadband selection to the computer. I tried this rate only because of some things I've been noticing. Remember here, we're not interested in the video rate for any attached video anyway. Other selections might work also. The theory requires that we convert all the individually rated audio clips to something the MM2 Converter understands without taxing it too much, {i.e., during a video/audio transition} yet and with sufficient quality so it doesn't distort the sound by compression.

> When I 'Save Movie File...' with only an audio track, I only get 8 audio choices; 8, 16, 32, 64, 96, 128, 160Kbps, and 'High Quality Audio', bit rate unspecified. I always choose that one assuming it's the best, since it's at the top of the list. When played back in Media Player, it shows as a 154Kbps variable rate. I don't get any other choices but these. I have deleted all the video, leaving just the secondary audio track. > It just so happens the first project I used, and explained here, had video attached to the audio placed in the second track as fill. So when I saved it, though it is used only for audio, these files also have video attached that must be copied.

> (Microsoft - 12/28/03) Movie Maker was created for consumers, and we've found that most people can't distinguish quality differences between 128Kbps and 160Kbps audio, but it sounds like you'd like a higher bitrate than this.  In Movie Maker we allow you to create a custom profile using the Windows Media Encoder. This will allow you to create a profile that has an audio stream up to 320Kbps... In MM2 the highest audio bitrate either when saving video or audio is 160Kbps. (... saving to DV-AVI will give you better quality, and this is only available when saving video).

2 - Reopen the original project file. SAVE AS, {"project name"_video}. Delete the entire Second Audio track, SAVE. [This is where I found the Preview starts to work smoothly. [After taking out the second audio track, the same as disabling the PCM Converter.] Make a DV-AVI Movie file saved, same name, to the computer

3 - Open a new project. Import these two new files into Collections, uncheck the box, create clips, (you want each entire "movie" in one piece), then select and place that Video "Collection" on the Timeline. Then select and place the Audio "Collection" in the second audio/music line. These should synchronize as in the Original.

4 - Save {"project name"_clean}, then Render this movie to DV-AVI camera/tape.

My finished Mini-DV taped project was indeed finished... Mostly. Mostly more than before. Instead of audio dropouts at every transition, I had only one dropout and a couple pops which I will now turn my attention to resolve..... or not... What's one dropout and some pops between friends.

> (Phil) I tried it and had about the same results. On a short 15 second clip with lots of transitions, it was very good. I think the overall audio quality was down from the original, but there weren't any obvious pops or glitches. I doubt another listener would have recognized the deteriorated audio quality. (Anthony in a later post... agree that the audio degrades when saving to "high quality" WMA. So far the "Video for local playback NTSC (2.1 mbps)" gives the best numbers and I believe I hear less compression degradation, through Preview. )

> On a longer clip of about two minutes, there were a couple of pops, but very quick and not detracting from the result. Still, I would like to not have any extra effects. Audio quality about the same as the short clip, generally lesser than the original, but I'm sitting here listening to them one after another, so I hear it. You probably wouldn't unless you were very familiar with the song.

Oh, and the blurred slow motion movement cleared up too! That indicates a Microsoft CODEC problem but not as a conflict.

There may be more efficient ways to do this work-around. This was my first attempt, and success, despite all the other ideas flying about. I made extra project name versions only to keep track of the progress as I am finding it harder and harder to keep track of what territory I have and have not covered in resolving these issues... shame on Microsoft to put us through this.

This work-around is absolutely unsatisfactory and time-consuming for a product claiming to have us make movies like a pro, but despite all that, I Hope this helps y'all with an annoying inexcusable Problem on an otherwise impressive program.

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12/29/03 - (followup post by Phil) ... Rather than 'render' the audio portion to a wma file, just store it temporarily in the clipboard until you are ready for it. It works and it works well. Here are the steps - simplified.

Build your project. Add all the video clips, extra audio/music tracks, transitions, everything. Save your work regularly, of course. When you get it the way you want, select the entire 'Audio/Music' track and 'Cut' it into the clipboard. You are left with a video only project. Save that as 'project_video' and 'Save a Movie File...' in DV-AVI format. Give this movie a name, like 'project_video', to differentiate it from your 'project' file with all the parts in the timeline.

When that finishes, start a new project and import the just completed 'project_video' clip. Drag it onto the timeline and then paste the audio track (still sitting in your clipboard) into the Audio/Music track. Save this as 'project_video_audio'. Now, once again 'Save a Movie File...' to DV-AVI format and you will have your clip with all your transitions, the audio with no clicks or pops or other garbage and it will sound just like it did to begin with.

This is basically Anthony's solution except it 'stores' the audio/music track in the clipboard rather than as a wma file avoiding the deterioration.

This works; for me at least! I edited about 20 minutes of video, lots of transitions and several separate audio tracks into one final DV-AVI file. I then used that file to build a DVD video and it plays and sounds just the way I want it to.

There are a couple of caveats. MM2 is not a 'precision' video editor. You can't move along 'frame by frame' looking for a specific point in time. Same with the audio, you can see generally where the loud and quiet spots are, but for precise editing you need other tools. I mention this because I noticed one oddity in this process. When the first 'video only' clip is made into a DV-AVI file it doesn't end up exactly the same length as you started. Seems to get a bit shorter. This means I had to adjust the audio clips I pasted in from the clipboard a little bit. This was no issue for me since I wasn't trying to edit these clips all that accurately. One or two seconds either way at the beginning and ending of each section was all I needed. It is something to be aware of if you're trying to be 'precise'.

One other thing I noticed was when playing back the combined DV-AVI files (both audio and video in the file), my Media Player would 'skip' or 'glitch' every now and then. At first I thought the problem was still with us, but when I paused the player and moved the cursor back a few seconds and replayed that portion of the clip, it played without any problem. I think the issue is this: DV-AVI files are huge and the data rate is huge and this puts a bit of stress on all but the fastest PCs. To test this, I rebooted, turned off everything I didn't need running and played the clip again. In a 21 minute DV-AVI file (4.5G!) there was one glitch. When backed up a bit and replayed, it was perfect. And the final result on the DVD is also perfect. Whew!

11/17/04 (forum post) - Took about 14 mins of video and have broken it down and deleted some of the 14 mins. I've created about 9 clips in various lenghts. All play and sound fine in the preview. When I put them bath together and make a movie and play it back the sound gets messed up. By the time it reaches the 3rd clip the sound stops completely. I played around and it doesn't matter what the 3rd clip is... I can do random order or the same clip 3 times in a row, by the time it reaches #3, the sound goes.

Here is the other interesting thing I found. I can put #1 & 2 together, 3 & 4 together and then import those two new movies and put those together and everthing is fine.

12/22/03 - ...to control the parameters of my audio tracks such as EQ, effects and the like, I import my video/audio track into a wave editor, perform manipulations, save and then drag it into the audio timeline. If you have a multi-track editor you can mix dialog, sound effects and background music all into one audio file, then import into MM2. You just need to be aware of the timeline entry points so that your tracks sync up.

12/19/03 - Disabled every listed Codec through Properties. Enabled each singly until I found that the Microsoft PCM Converter is the only listed Codec used to allow audio for MM2. Disabling every other listed Codec, while PCM is solely enabled, does not resolve problems in previewing the timeline. Interestngly, when PCM is disabled previewing the timeline is possible without any hang, stall, or audio sputtering run-on problems.

12/8/03 - On about 30 - 40% of edits. That is the join between 2 clips in the time line. When I record it back to my camera the sound briefly cuts out at the edit point. It plays okay within Movie Maker, but when I transfer it to camera it cuts out on the final tape. Obviously this is rather undesirable, especially in a film with lots of edits. It's doesn't look good with the sound cutting out at all the edit points. I don't think its because my computer is not powerful enough. It a new 'mid range' 2.6Ghz 512mb Radeon9800 graphics. > Yes, I am too. Running 1.6Ghz mobile 512MB RAM, 9000 ATI Ratheon in a Thinkpad. However, preview runs aren't so smooth either, though this system is supposed to be more than meeting requirements.The audio breaks really affect continuity. > I had something like this, too. I ended up with two problems that might help you. The first problem I found was the MM2 didn't auto cut my clips correctly. I had about a 1/4 of a second of the previous clip in front of the "main" clip. I then had another problem of the added music cutting out during some transitions. I found that if I added .WAV music instead of the .WMA format, the editor was a happier person. :-)

12/5/03 - To remove hiss and noise I copied and pasted the audio in the original MM2 movie ... deleted the movie ... and saved only the audio.. then imported to Goldwave .. put filters on .. saved .. and imported into the original movie in MM2 .. and muted the original movie sound - turned out really good.

10/28/03 - ...Sony Vaio w/ 1gb ram. When I add transitions to my videos there is a hiss between the video transitions. The pattern is random. I will have some video clips clean and crisp while other have this problem. > this happens to me too. I wondered what it was - almost as if a flash frame appears for no apparent reason. I've taken to stepping frame by frame at the transition point and resetting the in point to get rid of the extra frame. Works every time.

10/18/03 - I am importing on my laptop. (XP Pro, AMD 2000, 512MB) My camera is a Canon Digital Camcorder 1.3 mpxls. I connect to my laptop with a firewire cable which connects to my fire wire port on my laptop. If I try to import the film as DV-AVI I only get video and no sound, I have tweaked with all the sound settings but it don't seem to make any difference. But if I import it in to WMM in any other format such as High Quality for broadband connection I get sound. I have tried many different settings other than DV-AVI and they all work with sound, but as you know the picture quality is not as it should be with an AVI file.

10/16/03 - When I record video from my DV camera it looks great. When I play it back in Movie maker the audio has an echo. How do I get rid of the echo? It almost sounds like a feedback loop.

10/14/03 - I'm exporting a movie to DV tape. It runs and sounds great in preview mode, but when playing the tape, the audio skips when action sequences change (sports action, lots of cuts). The original sound file is burned off a CD (596 kbps), so it's not an MP3 compression (rate) problem. > I have the same problem whether using .mp3 or .wma as my source file for sound. The problem was most noticeable, i.e. unbearable, with high quality .wma files, but still evident, i.e. irritating, with lower quality .mp3 files, and the audio drops out exactly as you describe it - at cuts in the action. I haven't performed a thorough test yet with .mp3s to see which bit rates give the best/worst results, but it's something I want to do. If I get round to it(!) I will post my findings here. In my particular case I'm rendering the final cut to DV-AVI format on disk for export to DVD at a later date, but I suspect the cause of the problem is the same, whatever it is. The end result, although beautifully edited (even though I say so myself!!) and choreographed with the music, is unwatchable because of this bug! > Try publishing the project to disk as a 2 mbps WMV file first. Then start a new project file, import the file you just published, drop it to the timeline and the publish to your DV camera. My audio source was a CD, so I thought it couldn't be an audio bit rate problem (596kbps, it said). To fix this, I published just the music portion of my movie at the "high quality audio" rate, then imported it into the timeline and and dropped it into the original movie. Worked beautifully.

9/30/03 - I'm using the Video Capture Wizard's DV-AVI(NTSC) setting to capture video from my Canon DV camcorder. The AVI created is beautiful and plays great in the previewer. However, when I put a clip in the timeline and press play, it plays the audio about an octave lower than normal; everything else seems okay, just the audio's messed up. It's like MM2 is playing back the audio in the timeline at the wrong bitrate. Actually, that's not true. When played from the timeline, the video looks compressed (or more compressed than the DV-AVI format) and frequently contains the small, "scratchy" lines on the edges of objects (can't remember what that's called). So what the heck is the timeline player doing to mess up my video playback?? > I'm experiencing the same problem with other software. I just bought a Canon ZR65 and trying hard to reconcile this problem. I've tried several different pieces of software to capture the DV from the camera, no luck. If I convert the audio to anything it ALWAYS gets messed up. If I play the DV file as is from the start it plays fine in some software and not others. If I skip forward (without playing) and then begin playing it always sounds messed up.

9/29/03 - I'm using MM2 to create a company movie of our firm retreat. At one point in the movie one of the audio tracks I use speeds up to twice the normal speed. It doesn't matter what audio track I use (I've tried several different ones). The video plays normally, but the audio doesn't.

9/28/03 - I installed a 1394 capture card. I have a Sony DCR/TRV17 digital video Camera. My camera settings are as stated in the op manual. When I attempt a capture from my camera the video is Ok. I get a sound track and very faint audio,with all volumes at hi. With volumes so hi the little sound I receive is distorted. The timeline narrative works good with audio and a still.

9/28/03 - I've just had a go at creating my first movie with MM2. I was a bit disappointed that the audio seemed to skip very noticeably on transitions between frames. KB article 812610 (Audio File Sound Skips During Image Transitions) says that low quality MP3s will tend to cause this. However, I used a low quality MP3 on the first half of the video and that rendered perfectly. I used a high quality WMA file on the second half of the video and that's where the problems occurred! I would like to rule out computer performance issues as I've just got a new PC with a P4 2.8 HT processor, 512MB RAM and all the other whistles and bells that you'd expect with a new PC. I will have a go at re-rendering the project to see if I get the same results..... Just re-rendered it and the audio drops out in EXACTLY the same places. I'm rendering it to DV AVI format (PAL). > My projects do exactly the same thing. I thought it might have been a resource issue. However I upgraded from 256 to 512 ram and it didn't seem to matter. Next I was going to get a separate hard drive to see if running the system, MM2, and writing a DV-AVI file was too taxing on one hard drive. But I haven't had a chance to test that yet. The most interesting part of it is when you preview the project, it doesn't do this - it runs fine. It only happens when the file is rendered. This seems strange since it should be able to just take longer or command more resources during the rendering process than during the preview. > I would like to reinforce the point about the lack of audio skipping in the preview. I also forgot to mention this, but I think it's important to note. I can watch the entire preview at about 15fps and it never misses a beat. If it was CPU, memory or hard disk performance related then I would expect to see problems at random times, but since the problem occurred at exactly the same points then I can only imagine that it's a bug. In a way I'm glad it's not just me that has this problem, although it still doesn't solve it!

Yes, I came across this bug, too. These audio hiccups are incredibly annoying. Having invested quite a few hours in getting my movie under control so that it finally runs well and feels well, it was so frustrating to find out that no, you have no control over these hiccups and basically all you can do is give up. There is no way as far as I can tell to import your MM2 movie project into Premiere or anything else. You have to start from scratch. Effectively, this bug renders MM2 useless as home video making software, IMO. There is one thing that just came to my mind. In my case, the audio skips appeared at the end of the movie, too. The first 10 min or so ran smoothly. Maybe, I could split my movie into 10-min chunks and render them one by one, and then somehow glue them together afterwards. Just a thought... > I don't think that splitting it into ten minute chunks will help. I've had the problem half way through 5 and 7 minute chunks. I've narrowed it down to this: The problem doesn't occur with MP3 audio files. It occurs with WMA files, which I created by saving an audio track from CD via Media Player. When rendering the final cut, the problems occur where there is a significant frame transition, i.e. 100% of the pixels change - a cut between scenes. Too much data for MM2's rendering engine to handle? I noticed this because one of the 'effects' I've tried is cutting a clip in two places but allowing them to run together as if they're one, applying a change in speed between them (normal -> slow down -> speed up) to give an apparent change in speed within the same clip... The audio didn't skip between them even though they behave as separate clips within MM2. Having said that, one thing I haven't tested is the clip transition. I usually use the simple cross fade transition and the problem always happens then, but I haven't checked to see if I get the problem when using a straight cut. I will try this out tonight. > In my case, the problem occured with 192kbps MP3 files. When I converted them into WAV files, the problem became slightly less pronounced however the quality was still far from being adequate. Indeed, it does look like the problems occur where there is a significant frame transition. It looks like MM2 rendering engine chokes up on the audio when processing transitions. It certainly should not be that way. MM2 should take as much time as needed to render transitions properly. Instead, it acts as if it was required to produce a real-time output. Microsoft may have ... used the rendering code from MS Media Encoder... > I've now had the same problem with mp3 files, but not as pronounced as wma files.

9/25/03 - I captured some video through my TV card, but the audio is not in sync. It's delayed by between 5 to 20 seconds. I've tried various things to improve it, but it still occurs. Interestingly enough it doesn't happen when I record a TV station, it only happens with the VCR. If I view the VCR through the program supplied with the TV card I can view it ok, with no delay, but the playback is delayed! One answer to this is to trim the delay out of the audio, but I have not found a way of doing so without trimming the video...

9/23/03 - In order to get my sound working well with Movie Maker 2... I saw a post somewhere on how to change the audio bitrate on my .avi files to be more friendly with MM2 . I believe using Virtual Dub or some other freeware like that... Does anyone have a link to how to do this and also how to sync the audio with the video of course once I convert the audio bitrate? > I just found the link for myself that answers this question in case anyone is interested. What's nice about this link is it shows you how to extract the audio using tools that anyone can download free. Here is the link... http://www.dvdrhelp.com/divxtovcd.htm

9/16/03 - ... When I save as DV-AVI, I notice small little hiccups at some of my transitions that were not present when previewing or when exporting to any of the WMV formats. I've tried exporting the same movie to AVI on a couple different computers, all with the same result. The source movies were captured from a DV camera in DV-AVI and all seem to play back fine .. they certainly don't exhibit any of the behavior of the final movie. > Many users have made the same experience. This can be considered as a bug in the "save to dv-avi" of MM2. > I had/have the exact same problem. My home video was captured to the hard drive in DV-AVI format. I added music tracks in MP3 format and output the finished movie to DV-AVI. The music I added had skips and double up's. I converted the audio tracks from MP3 to WAV and this improved the result dramatically, although there were still some minor skips. I then re-output to High Quality PAL (I'm in Australia) and this produced a WMV format file which was "perfect". Interesting. > ... I had this issue, I reinstalled and it made no difference. With no real reason, it occurred to me that it might be something to do with the keys in the file.... so what I did was to cut off the smallest possible bit from the beginning of the second file... saved it back to the hard drive... re-imported it and I got rid of the glitch... maybe it was coincidence, maybe not, and I certainly have no technical reason for suspecting it was the keys... it just worked.... and the web version of the file can be seen on my site. Its called New 2 Old... but be warned its rated for broadband speeds,,the video itself is not very long. > I'm having the same problem... but I don't understand your response. what is a key? and the key to what file? how would I at least try to recreate your inadvertant fix.

9/16/03 - I'm trying to capture video from my VCR. I can get perfect picture, but I cannot get any sound. Im using aux to record and playback but it won't work. I have had it working before, but it won't now. Using S-video input > S-Video carries the video signal only. You will need an additional cable from your camera to the input of your sound card for the audio. > I have got an audio cable, which connects to the aux on mobo. I belive it is a software problem as I have tried switching around the cables etc, reinstalling capture card drivers and software. But movie maker won give me sound :* > You should be using the line in on the audio card. Check in control panel to make sure that it is enabled and that the volume level is set high enough for recording. If still no volume, suspect the following: 1. bad audio cable, 2. bad audio card driver installation, 3. bad audio card, 4. bad audio output connector on the camera.

9/13/03 (post on the WindowsMe newsgroup for MM1, but maybe a clue) - Whenever I played an MP3 encoded with INTERVIDEO it crashed, so I encoded the MP3 to WMA and it's fine now.

9/8/03 - The audio from several clips placed on the storyboard does not begin until several seconds after the video. This problem occurs both in the video preview and in the saved movie. The clips come from a dv-avi file. I added some titles, stills and transitions.

9/5/03 - after dragging a clip to the time line / storyboard the sound gets distorted to high frequencies, whereas the original clip plays the sound correctly. I have tried everything, I could think of, but without success. First I checked all the available sound levels to ensure that there is no clipping at an amplifier. Then I switched off the hardware acceleration of my soundcard (RealTek AC 97). Then I have uninstalled all the video and audio codecs' I've found. Nothing helped.

9/5/03 email - lack of audio - I looked into the configuration of my sound card, which is integrated into my ASUS P4B533 motherboard. The speakers were configured for surround sound, which changed the "line-in" port to "sub woofer out", making the line-in port mute/useless. I changed the configuration to just 2 speakers and the line-in port sang like a bird! > I did as you suggested and that WAS my problem!

9/4/03 - After transferring my videos from my new Sony TRV22 into movie maker, I can save them, manipulate the clips, etc. but I have no sound. I have checked all the Mute points, and all settings but can't get sound to work. > ME too!! I can hear the sound while video is being recorded, but not when I play back after editing. > Are you capturing via a firewire connection or USB? If by firewire, audio is automatically transferred with the video. > (2nd poster) I'm running my Camcorder through a TV card via a coax cable and Audio/video wires. I can also run video via a s-vhs cable, but then have problem with no sound. I have tried to play via WMP but still no sound.

9/3/03 - ...problems with video/sound sync after processing the video clips for writing to DVD using MM2. The video clips (avi) alone have no sync problems. > someone who is experiencing the same problem that I have been trying to find an answer to for over a week. I received Image Mixer software with my new Sony Digital camcorder (basically it is the same as MM2) and experienced the exact same problem. Support for Image Mixer.... when everything... suggested... failed, he then suggested to try the file in MM2 to see if that fixed the problem. Well I did, but it didn't. There seems to be nothing wrong with each individual clip because if you view the clip, it is fine. However, put these clips on a storyboard and try to make a movie, and the video is about 1 second ahead of the audio. I tried saving the movie as an MPEG file but that didn't help.

9/1/03 - I am creating a slide show intermixed with video. When I save a movie file as a DV-AVI, the audio/music track will not be there. (it is not muted and the mix is mixed equally between the audio and audio/music track). The audio/music track from the video clip will be encoded. I have tried mp3, wma, and wav for the audio/music track. I have tried just photos, as well as just view files. I have tried several different DV-AVI codecs. The results are always the same: the Audio/Music track is not playing back. Saving the same as windows media will have all the sound correctly encoded. - I have reinstalled movie maker. I have installed movie maker 2 into a second bootable partition. I load the same movie maker file and save to movie. This encodes the entire file correctly (with audio). This leads me to believe that there is an issue with one of the CODECS. > The DV Audio Compressor CODEC is in C:\WINDOWS\system32\quartz.dll Perhaps it's missing, unregistered, or corrupt. I think that's a DirectX filter, so if you re-install (or upgrade to the latest version of) DirectX, it might help.

8/28/03 - I captured video from camcorder with Firewire to an .avi file. When I play the original file in WMP and the clips in MM2, the sound is fine. But, after dragging the clips to the timeline, the sound is terrible... a metallic high-end type sound. This carries through all the way to the completed output .avi file. My system: 600 Mhz AMD Duron, 320 RAM, 13.6 GB and 160 GB HD connected to PCI ATA 100 card, Sony Digital 8 Handycam, Gigabyte GA-7ZX MB w/onboard sound

8/18/03 - .wav files play fine in the player, from the Collections area, but when I drop 'em into the Audio track, they screech like wailing banshees!

8/14/03 - I can store my movies from my Sony DVC PC101 to the HD. During preview in MM2, I set the correct audio device to 'Sony Digital Imaging Audio'. I can see the video being captured but there is NO audio. I thought maybe that's just during capture mode but when i played back the file via Windows Media Player and RealPlayer, there was also no audio. There is audio however with other media software (Pixela ImageMixer - which came with my camcorder). What am I doing wrong? It says that the device is working properly when I checked it under Hardware. > What cabling method are you using between the camera and computer? You might try this. Double click on the speaker icon in the System Tray. Click on Options, Properties, Recording. Make sure that Aux, Line, CD are all checked in the "Show the following volume controls" boxes. Experiment with the different devices under Recording Control selection boxes and make sure that there is sufficient volume on the sliders to allow the system to record sound. > I'm using a firewire from my dv camcorder to the usb port. Do you think it might also might have to do with the sound card? I will give this a shot. Thanks! > You can't do firewire to USB. Your camcorder likely came with a USB cable. You need to get a firewire cable (and possibly a firewire card) to load video with sound. > he did say that he was getting video. Yes you can't send Firewire through USB. I thought he might be using a S-video connection to the computer which doesn't supply sound. I am not familiar with the camera in question but my Sony can transfer via S-video, USB or Firewire. If he is using Firewire (IEEE1394) or USB he should get sound. I can't remember if you have to Select a source when transferring via USB or Firewire. I use both Analog capture and Firewire transfer but have them set up on two different computers and it has been a while since I set up the Firewire card. I do know that with Analog capture you do need to select a source on the sound card as well as attach a cable to it. > USB from your Sony sends sound? From what I've read here, people report that USB from camcorders doesn't. Why would you use analog if you can use FireWire? Analog is more expensive and gives lower quality video. > Actually my Sony Digital camera is capable of sending via USB and Firewire, but I have never used USB. I only use Firewire from the Camera. I use Analog from my Super VHS camera and when I rip VHS Video tapes. From what I understand from reading the previous posts here is that USB can send the image and sound to the computer since it sends the "digital" signal from the camera but it only gives a smaller or poorer image where Firewire will give as good an image as possible.

7/28/03 - I tried to create a movie with clips from a digital video camera. The problem is once I have finished editing and I try to view the final product, the sound is too quick and not synchronised with the images! I just used the original sound from the video! > I have the same problem, only on a Dell latitude portable > (Microsoft) Do you have WinDVD installed? Then KB article 814837 (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid = kb;en-us;814837)may help you. The resolution in the KB article is: To resolve this issue, download and install the most recent version of WinDVD. For more information about how to download and install the most recent version of WinDVD, visit the following InterVideo Web site: http://www.intervideo.com/jsp/Home.jsp - IVIVideo.AX is installed by WinDVD, and older versions of this file can cause problems. >

8/27/03 - I saved my project (originally captured as DV-AVI from DV) into my DV. Sometimes the volume of the music (joined from CD by WMP 9) almost disappears, and then returns as before, at the beginning of some clip (without fade between clips). The strange is the same project saved in CD (format HighMAT) is fine,

7/26/03 - I have been blessed with the issue of my imported audio tracks cutting out at transition points. As per MS, I tried using higher bit rate MP3, all the way to 192. No help. So I tried converting a 192 bps MP3 to WMA. No help. So then I ripped a CD track straight from a CDs using MS Media Player 9 with the quality setting as high as it would go. No help. Finally, just for giggles, I ripped the same CD track straight to a .wav file with Nero. That actually worked. No audio dropouts at transition points. Looks like MM2 will butcher pretty much anything but uncompressed audio. System is Athlon XP 1800 w/768 megs of RAM and XP Pro. > It's probably just another example of no two PCs are exactly alike. I don't do a lot of audio but I had no problem with the few I did use, WMA from CD 96kbps.

7/19/03 - A clip imported from a DV cam will play fine when just previewing the clip, but after inserting it in the time line, playing the timeline will produce a slower sound. > Similar audio problems!!! Importing an AVI clip with integrated audio previews fine, though I lose the audio when I copy to timeline. I've tried adjusting audio level, etc.

7/16/03 - I attached a 192kps mp3 file to some video clips and, when played, the audio sound very bad (sounds like a poorly received radio station --cuts in and out quickly/lots of "static"). > That's over the 160 kbps threshold that MM2 has problems with on MP3 files sometimes. Can you convert it to a bit lower bitrate?

7/13/03 - The problem (audio out of sync with video) is not necessarily with MM2. Audio sync and 'jerky' pix are a symptom of dropped frames. These are caused by any or all of: fragmented h/d, underpowered CPU, screensaver activated, virus checker or other 'behind the scenes' software, one or more additional apps open, working on other files while capturing the video. If any or all of these items are true in your case, you can experiment with 5 min clips and eliminate one-by-on, each of the offending culprits until you locate the source of the 'bad captures'. Best captures are done with no 'background' software running, no screensaver active, and not otherwise using the CPU's resources during the time of the captures. > Thanks for the tip. I did as you suggested and created about a 5 minute video and the sound stayed in sync.

7/12/03 - After finishing my movie in MM2, I used Sonic MyDVD software to burn the movie to DVD. When playing the movie on my DVD player, the video and sound were out of sync, and some of the video was jerky. I didn't have this issue when I used Sonic by itself to make a movie. Format is WMV. Viewed the WMV file in media player, and the sound is out of sync there. It did not get any worse when converting in MyDVD. So the problem appears to be happening in MM2. Using VHS tape as input files. > What video capture card are you using and do you have the latest drivers and capture software installed for that device? > I'm using an All-in-Wonder RADEON 9000 Pro capture device. Will have to check and see if I have latest drivers. > Is the audio/video in sync in the captured stream? What format is the captured video (MPG, AVI, etc)? > The video and sound are in sync until I start editing. Not sure what the format of captured video is... > If the video/audio is in sync after the initial capture, the card and drivers are not the problem. You may have to invest in a different video editing software solution. I use Roxio's Video Wave 6 (with latest updates) to do my capture and editing. Others like the Ulead program and others use Pinnacle Studio 8. You also did not state what your memory, processor and available HDD space is. IMHO video editing should be done on systems with not less than 256 MB RAM, P4 1.5GHZ processor and 20 GB of free defragged HDD space on the drive where the temp files are stored. If you are using an older machine with ATA 33 or 66 drives, they may not be fast enough to process the stream of data causing the machine to "pause", especially if they are fragmented.

7/8/03 - I'm using a sony TRV-33 miniDV connected with a Firewire card to my computer. No problems with capturing my video (in DV-AVI) but, when I put my movie together, I get either a popping sound with some transitions or the music is temporarily lost during the start of a transition. What do you think is causing this and what can I do about it. I have a Dell P4 (2.2) with 1 gig of RAM. > (Microsoft) - We've seen this happen with lower bitrate MP3 files in Movie Maker KB812610 . A workaround is to either use a higher bitrate MP3 file, or to encode the MP3 file to a WMA file first before using it in your movie. You can encode an MP3 file to WMA using Movie Maker - just drag the audio to the Audio/Music track and hit save movie.

7/6/03 - Sound distortion with WMP9/MovieMaker2 playing AVIs [CMI8738 onboard sound and DX sound hardware acceleration] - I have AVI videos which contain an 8bit PCM sound stream (as recorded by my camera). When I play these videos in WMP9, I get a 'swooshing' sound which resembles a washing machine. First I thought it has to do with the camera, but yesterday I found out I can get rid of the distortion by switching back sound hardware acceleration two notches. (Basic Acceleration) . Any one a idea why I have to switch back H/W acceleration and what causes the 'washing machine sound' ? Codecs ? WMP9 ?? - When I play my videos as clips in MM2, the sound is fine. But when I put the clips in the time line and play the clips, it sounds very distorted, like MM2 compresses the sound wrong.... high pitch and distortion. I was reading around and I read that some people say certain codecs may confuse each other... but this is easier said than done. I don't think that blindly renaming codecs is a good solution. And, yes, I have both WinDVD5 and PowerDVD5 installed. The problem is kind of serious because it makes the sound of all my videos sound horrible, and as it seems it happens *only* ??? in MovieMaker2. > This was not a problem with MM1, this started with MM2. > I vaguely remember reading somewhere that you should use 16 bit sound. Have you tried that? > I just told my camera :) Just kidding... when I make videos with my camera the sound is recorded in 8 bit PCM.. I can't change that. A solution would be (afterwards) to convert the sound to 16 bit (virtualDub etc.).. but I don't want to go thru the hassle. BTW - the problem is Microsoft PCM converter! It just can't convert/upsample the sound right up to 16bit... lots of aliasing and artifacts.

6/27/03 - Anyone knows if Microsoft will ever resolve the sound issue of MM2 referenced several times in this forum? The problem is: after dragging a clip to the time line the sound gets distorted and very lound. The original clip plays the sound correctly. > What was the original clip captured with? MM? Something else? Is it WMV, or something else? > A clip imported from a DV cam will play fine when just previewing the clip, but after inserting it in the time line, playing the timeline will produce a mettalic sound. Dont know why.