MTS Conversion

[Little Nac]

Hi Guys once again.
I hope some one can throw some light on my problem.
I have just bought a new Sony Handycam (HDR-CX110E) which shoots in SD and Full HD Widescreen.
We also bought the full version of Pavtube video converter after researching the Net for about a week or so and doing so many mini test runs onto DVDs for our home players.
We originhally were doing the research for my wife's Panasonic HD camera and we came across the same problem.
We found that MPG2 was by far the better picture quality than AVI, Mpg4, WMV or any other conversions we tried at the time, when brought into PE7.
Now I have just finished testing my video into PE7 and the same problem arose as did with my wife's camera. When converted to MPG2 and brought into PE7, the picture is perfect, but
some of the sound is missing. Not all the sound, only parts of it. When played through Windows Media player the sound is all there.
I have tried different bit rates and different footage, but still come up with the same results.
My wife finally is doing here first HD Project in MPG4 to see how it goes. With any other conversion all the sound is there, only in MPG2 it is missing.
I am still working on the problem, and if I happen to stumble across an answer I'll post back here, but at this stage it doesn't look very promising.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you all in advance.

[Steve Grisetti]

Are you talking about occasional interruptions during playback, Nac, or is the same spot always blank every time you play the video?

If you were using an audio codec that's incompatible with Premiere Elements, the sound would more likely not be there at all. Occasional segments without sound are a bit more confounding -- particularly if you've allowed Premiere Elements to fully conform the audio and video before you put the clips on your timeline. (When you first bring the clips into your Premiere Elements project, you'll see the conformation progress in the lower right corner of the interface. Be sure to let it finish its work!)

Meantime, make sure you have the latest version of RealTek audio hardware drivers, if your computer uses them!
http://www.realtek.com/downloads/

[Little Nac]

Hi Steve.
Thank you for the quick reply. Sorry for my late reply but it is early morning here.
Yes I do let it conform and do it's work.
I don't think my computer uses Realtek as I did a search and nothing showed up.
The audio can be seen missing from under the clips on the timeline. If say I put eight clips on the timeline, the first two may have audio, the next one will not then the next one will etc.
I can go into Windows and rename the clips into a different order, bring them into PE7 and the same clips still will have no sound. The funny thing is that in Windows media player, the sound is there.
After spending all yesterday arvo on it, I think I have come up with the idea that the problem is somewhere between PaVtube and PE7. I tried a couple of other trial versions of different conversion programs like Kyote etc., and the conversion was successful and the same clips all had audio when brought into PE7, but I didn't think the conversion to MPG2 was as good picture wise as Pavtube. My wife's video through Kyote and others was terrible compared to Pavtube, that's why we bought the Program, after testing many others for over a week. I will contact Pavtube and see if they can come up with anything, not that I hold much hope there.
If you have any other suggestions it is welcome.
Thanks again Steve.

[Steve Grisetti]

Looks like you're ahead of me on this one, Nac! Let us know what else you discover with your research.

We'll see if anyone else with experience converting with PaVtube.

Meantime, maybe I'm missing something but I'm not clear what you're converting with it. You're making MPEGs -- but from what? AVCHD footage? Are you shooting in hi-def or standard-def (since you say your cam shoots in both)?

Are you converting AVCHD to HDV and then editing it in an HDV project?

[Little Nac]

Hi Steve.
The footage I have shot with both cameras is onto an SDHC Card, and it is produced in AVCHD MTS file. I am placing the footage on my hard drive and converting it to MPG2 with Pavtube.
When I bring the footage into PE7, that is where some of the sound is missing. Yet with other programs it is OK, but the picture qauality is not as good. The picture quality in PE7 is perfect but not the sound.
I'm going to try MPG4 and do some mini runs onto a DVD and see what it looks like on our HD TV.
Thanks again for the help.

[Bob]

When you know you have audio but it doesn't play, it's most likely an audio codec issue. Besides the specific codec for the audio type, there are different driver models that can be used for the codec. If the audio plays in one player but not another, it could be that the one that doesn't play requires a different model than the one you have installed for that codec. Do you know what audio codec PavTube is using for the conversion? Does it give you an option to change the audio type? If you have that option, you might try using a different audio type for the conversion.

[Little Nac]

Hi Bob

Yes I have tried different Audio types and it does not seem to matter what Audio Codec I try as long as it is MP2 it misses some audio in PE7.
MP4 conversion is fine. I am in the processing of burning a small test of MP4 just to get a feel for the finished look on my HDTV. Right now on the
Computer screen the MP4 does not look as good as the MPEG2, but that could just be the computer screen.
Maybe later to day I may try the MPEG2 conversion in Pro and After Effects and see what happens.
Thanks again

[JohnnyO]

I am placing the footage on my hard drive and converting it

to MPG2 with Pavtube.

How are you bringing the MTS files to your computer. I have a Panasonic and they recommend using the software that cam with it to extract the files from the computer. Hopefully you are using the software that came with Sony to do this.

Also, mpeg2 is a compressed format. You are better off converting to DV-AVI which has minimum compression. If you edit the mpeg2 compressed video, PRE will compressed the compressed video again when rendering. This leads to lower quality. I don't know anything about pavtube, but Koyote Soft makes a free converter which converts to DV-AVI.

You can even be able to use PRE to export the MTS files to DV-AVI.

http://www.koyotesoft.com/indexEn.html

[Little Nac]

Hi all.
Thanks to all very much who have taken the time to help me out.
To Johnny O. Yes, Pavtube does come with DVAVI, and I have tried this with all possible scenarious, but the picture quality is not good. Sony didn't come with any software, the only CD bundled with the camera is the "Instruction Manual". We use card readers to transfer the files to the computer.
I have also tried Koyote software also Emicsoft AVCHD Converter, and plenty of others, but the picture quality is no where near the quality of Pavtube.
I think I may have stumbled on the problem late yesterday afternoon. (It's early morn here now).
In Pavtube, when I went into the settings to change various parameters, I thought I was doing the correct thing.
But yesterday, I discovered that when I bring in the files to convert, if I click on a file, over on the right hand side of the screen a pop-up appears, with the Source file info and next to it is the Target file info.
I noticed that I had changed the Target file info to be different to the Source file info., Especially for the Audio. When I change the Audio back to the same as the Target File, it all comes into PE7 perfectly. No missing audio.
I have copied quite a few files over now with no problems, and have burnt them to a DVD and played them on our HDTV. The picture and audio is perfect.
So to everyone out there who helped me out, I say "Thank You".
Of course I have heard nothing back from Pavtube support which is pretty normal.

[Steve Grisetti]

Glad you found your solution, Nac!