My camera, every once in awhile, develops these one second
clicks in the sound track when I convert the mov file to wmv.

Does anybody know how to remove these?

Paul Lamar

Hi Paul. I am an editor, and I also sometimes use windows movie maker ( for
simple quick stuff)
1. Is this a usb transfer from camera to computer?
2. What brand of camera is it ? If it is a sony this is a common problem
with the handycam series and I think I may have patch for it depending on
the model. (USB 2.0 versions had this audio frame dropping problem and it
drove me nuts till I changed my USB connection software. ( the name on mine
is Sony_usb) It has since disapeared form the Web, so I am really glad I
saved a copy on my portable hard drive.
3. Since it is intermittent I believe it isa software glitch with either
the USB transfer ( hence the software patch) or there is system resource (
not one you are running but one running in the background that you are
unaware of, check task manager to see wat is using audio resources). I
have also had this problem with creative software for MP3 transfer onto my
Nomad. Again it is a USB transfer issue. The USB patch I used was
eccommend in a software forum because it "siezes" the audio resources just
while it is transfering to fix this problem. I think you run Linux,
(Ubuntu ?0 which I am just learning, but one of my friends is a Linux
devotee who may be able to help.

4. Is there any way you can capture onto another Stripped down computer
to see if it stops ? I keep a stripped down desktop and Laptop just to do
this so as to not have any interference.
I hope this helped
Lionel
1. Yes
2. Panasonic DMZ-FZ30
3. I run Ulead software on XP
4. Nothing running in the back ground as far as I can tell.
Paul Lamar

Paul -
Is there fire wire on this model of camera ? if so you can use another
computer
ie apple for the initial transfer.
Fly & build good -
--
Mr Bryan Wilkinson in England

No fire wire on the camera or the computer. The computer is rather old.
I am half thinking of updating it.
Paul Lamar

I think it is the Ulead program. As long as I just run the raw mov
in Ulead everything works fine. As soon as I remove just a few frames
the clicking starts.
Paul Lamar


Ah.. That makes some sense - a form of aliasing? I could imagine
that Ulead may mess with the time base when editing. I wonder if
Ulead allows you to preserve the original time base.. I know some
cameras run at 29.77 fps and others run at 30 fps. If the editor
tries to convert one to the other and doesn't do a nice job, it may
have to catch up the difference once per second..
I'm using QuickTime Pro for video editing. It seems pretty slick for
things like this. Not quite pro quality, but it's good. Not free
though.
Matt-

If I convert the mov file directly to the mp4 format then I can edit
that with out getting the clicking. It appears to be a bug in Ulead.
The bug is still there if I convert it to a wmv file and then edit.
Youtube prefers mp4 anyway.
Paul Lamar

This is a video converter that we use: http://www.squared5.com/It is a free download and is virus free. It was suggested to us by DVIDS (http://www.dvidshub.net/)
I don't edit compressed files very often, but when I have, mixed formats play havoc with the editing programs. I've seen all sorts of strange things including the clicks, no audio, no video, audio drift (where the longer it plays, the worse the sync gets) and strange red frames pulsing through the video. I use a PC with Vista primarily, but I also have an old Mac - depending on my customer's wishes. I use Adobe Premiere (PC) and Apple's Final Cut Pro.
I believe .mp4 has a better compatibility with editing software than WMV. If you need to convert your raw files to anything, I would use H.264 (first), or MP4 depending on what your editing software will handle.
Edit with the least compressed (raw) files, then compress after it is finished. I don't do anything with WMV until I get the final edit finished, then I make multiple file format exports to e-mail for final customer approval. The Squared5 works just fine for that (as does the Adobe CS3 suite, but that was REALLY expensive). I upload to YouTube using H.264 deinterlaced.
Cheers,Kevin in Denver


Thanks for the tips Kevin. The only choice on the camera I have now is .mov.
Paul Lamar

One more, then I'll go back to quietly reading...
This software is unknown to me, but may be a resource to try. http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_tools/virtualdub.cfm VirtualDub is free and (alleged to be) a great program for easy editing. It MAY solve your problems.

You can spend $30 on QuickTime Pro and edit MOV files somewhat rudimentarily. I used it once and it did an good job of cut-and-paste editing.

As for Ulead, here's the down and dirty: Sounds to me that when you make a cut, Ulead loses the timecode or has a dropped frame error that shows up as a repeating click. Different formats have different ways of marking time (which the editing software manages in order to stream non-linear frames of video and audio). .MOV is a great format, but some software doesn't play nice with it because it is an Apple format. Adobe tried to marginalize it some years ago and Final Cut took away a bunch of Adobe's customers.

One of the claims Adobe is making for their latest editor - Premiere CS4 - is that it can handle multiple and mixed formats. If Adobe is just getting around to that issue, then you know Ulead has some catching up to do.


Converting the .mov file to a Ulead preferred format should give the video a different style of time code that Ulead is designed to handle. Squared5 should do that without any problems (however, you may experience audio drift when converting to .wmv).Once finished, export the final edited piece as a file, then convert that to whatever format you want. (Of course, losses will increase as you compress more and more.) Good luck!Kevin in Denver


Thanks again Kevin.

Paul Lamar