Audio not the same on burned DVD

[The Director]

I finished a project that was composed of just a series of edited sound bites. The only other audio was a background music track. I manually did the mix making sure the music was way in the background and did not mask any of the sound bites. I burned to a folder and then made the DVD via my Popcorn software. When I playback the DVD the audio mix is not the same as saved in PE. This happens even if I burn right to DVD. My audio levels are as low as you can get short of no music. The levels are -16.42db. That's what i prefer with this project. I've adjusted the track several times to make sure the music is as needed. Each DVD I make turns out the same way. The music is too loud. Can you explain what I may be doing wrong. I a new user to PE 9. Thanks.

[Chuck Engels]

Hi Director, Welcome to Muvipix

My background music is usually set to around -22, the loudest I ever get is -18. I am in the middle of two big projects and have been playing around with the background soundtrack a lot today, that's how I can tell you exact numbers as they are very fresh on my mind.

Not sure what Popcorn software is, have you tried ImgBurn? It's free and a lot of folks here use it.

What is the level on your main audio track? If the background is -16.42 you probably need the main audio to be around +4, maybe higher.

The Audio Mixer allows you to select what tracks are background audio and then automatically makes the adjustments for you.
Might want to give that a shot.

Be sure to check out the free Basic Training tutorials we have for Premiere Elements
http://muvipix.com/products.php?subcat_id=10

[Bob]

Chuck, Roxio Popcorn is a DVD copy and video transcoding application for the Mac. http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/popcorn/standard/overview.html. One of its features is the ability to burn a dvd from a standard VIDEO_TS folder on hard disk.

Director, it's not clear why you are having this problem. Are you using any audio effects such as the New Blue Audio Polish? On the surface, it sounds like you are doing things correctly. What happens if instead of burning a dvd to a folder, you share to a pc (computer) file using MPEG as the file type and selecting the mpeg2 dvd option. If you play that file back, does the volume behave itself or does the same problem occur?

[The Director]

Sharing to MPEG2 worked fine. That's after tweaking audio levels. When the audio mixer is activated and I position the CTI over a spot on the time line, how can I select and save the level I want? Do audio level changes need to be rendered as do video? I initially tried smart mix but found it created unnecessary level changes at the beginning of each soundbite. Thanks for the mpeg tip. I've been putting PE files in my trash as I don't need them. Will deleting trash affect existing projects?