About Audio- PapaJohn's Newsletter Archive

Half of our story and movie viewing experience is about what we hear and not see... the sounds recorded with the video clips (on the Audio track), and the added narrations, sound effects and background music (on the Audio/Music track). If things are too quiet, I’ll add a ‘background ambient sound’ clip just to make it more like the real world, where you hardly ever hear pure silence.

Let’s take a fairly broad look at:
·         the audio that goes into stories and movies
·         the limited editing features available within Movie Maker and PhotoStory
·         and the profile options when saving an audio-only movie

The WinDV utility has proven to be great for getting digital video files into your computer from a digital camcorder, and back to the camcorder from a saved movie in DV-AVI format... someone asked how to tweak it such that the captured file was one large one, as opposed to a number of small ones. I explored it a bit... and Rehan provided the key.

The Config screen of WinDV has an entry for ‘Discontinuity threshold’ (sec.), originally set to “1”, which results in each scene (based on timecode) being a new file. By changing it to “0”, the captured file keeps growing until the size of the Max. AVI size in frames is reached. Set it to 115000 frames for NTSC and 95830 frames for PAL... to get a 63-1/3 minute capture, the normal recording duration of a digital video tape.

One thing I like about WinDV is feedback about dropped frames... I typically don’t have any, but it’s comforting to know a file is good without having to watch it fully or bump into an issue when editing.

I tried capturing from my Sony digital camcorder directly into a WMV high-definition profile... 1280x720 pixels, using the Windows Media Encoder for the capture session.

The capture went well... I had Movie Maker and a few other apps running at the same time as the capture, with no adverse effects.

Capturing from a digital camcorder to a WMV file is a 2 step process. First the captured file goes into a temporary DV-AVI file, followed by the rendering of the WMV from the DV-AVI.

The temporary DV-AVI file has to be built in real time as the data streams into the firewire connection. That part took all of 2 minutes, the duration of my test clip. But the rest of the process, the rendering of the high definition WMV file from the temporary file took another 2-1/2 hours (on my 2.4 GHz laptop).

I did a second test with a one minute clip to see if the time needed correlates to the video duration, and sighed a bit of relief when I found it wasn’t. It seems there’s a needed 2 hour period for it do something, but double the duration doesn’t need twice the time.

The sample looks and sounds great!!! even though my camcorder doesn’t shoot in high definition... I’ll be following this up to see if a normal capture to DV-AVI, followed by Movie Maker rendering it to a comparable high-definition video... will one way clearly out-perform the other??

Let’s first go through the audio files that come into your computer from another source. We’ll follow those with ones captured or generated by Movie Maker and Photo Story.

Your camcorder probably captures in CD quality stereo... leave the lens cap on and use it when you hear something you’d like in your library... or use the audio track from a recorded video.

The audio of a digital camcorder can be 16 bit or 12 bit.... although the 16 bit is higher quality, camcorders out of the box are usually set to 12 bit.

The 12 bit option is for 4 audio tracks, 2 to capture the audio during camcorder shooting, and the other 2 to add narration on the tape while it’s still in the camcorder. It’s for those who don’t do computer editing.

The 16 bit option is higher quality with only 2 tracks... those doing video editing with Movie Maker would usually add narration during the editing phase, so changing the setting from 12 bit to 16 bit is one of the first things to do with a new digital camcorder.

The specs for my Sony TRV615 Hi8 analog camcorder say it records in stereo FM quality sound... my digital Sony TRV80 has options for 32 kHz stereo when set at 12 bits, and 48 kHz stereo at 16 bit...

WMP10 doesn’t report the audio properties of a captured DV-AVI file... MM2 says the audio of my captured DV-AVI files (using MM2 for the capture) from the TRV80 are 48 kHz, 16 bit stereo (aligned with the specs)... with a bitrate of 1536 Kbps. This is the highest audio bitrate we’ll see in this newsletter.

I downloaded a track from Napster the other day using WMP10... a WMA file with properties (per WMP10) of 128 Kbps, 44 kHz, stereo 1-pass CBR... of course it’s Digital Rights Management (DRM) protected and can’t be imported directly into Movie Maker or Photo Story. But it’s another starting point for music in your projects, and easy to get there...

Use WMP 10 to rip a track from an audio disc... the properties are Windows Media Audio 9.1, VBR Quality 25, 44 kHz, stereo, 1-pass VBR.

Tracks ripped from CDs import fine into MM2... which report properties of 81 Kbps, 44.1 kHz, 16 bit stereo.

Voice narration can be lower quality than music from CDs... but Movie Maker 2’s narration feature facilitates the capturing of high quality audio. Play the CD itself or a ripped track from it, and at the same time narrate the timeline using an audio source such as the Stereo Mix.

You’ll get a new WMA file with properties of 131 kbps, 44.1 kHz, 16 bit stereo... a higher bitrate than a file created by WMP during the ripping... the file size is comparably and appropriately higher also. That leads me to believe you’re better off ripping directly from the CD using Movie Maker instead of using WMP10 as a middle man.

The narration wizard lets you test and adjust your sound hardware, but it doesn’t offer you the option of using anything other than your microphone.

MM1 is interesting in that you have two options for capturing audio or narration... the Record >Audio only feature and the timeline narration. You get very different results with each... most notably high quality stereo with the Record option and mono with the narration.

The Record feature of MM1 is for video or audio, whereas the Capture feature of MM2 is for video only. With the Record option you can use the stereo mix source to create a new WMA file from whatever is playing on your computer, or use it to record from the microphone. Either one gets you, for the best audio option, a WMA file that MM2 reports as 128 kbps, 44.1 kHz 16 bit stereo.

The other option, the timeline narration feature, regardless of source - microphone or stereo mix - gets you a WAV file of 352 kbps 22 kHz 16 bit mono. If you want to preview the project as you record narration, and don’t mind the mono file, it’s a good option.

Narration files recorded by Photo Story 2 are 1411 kbps, 44.1 kHz, 16 bit stereo WAV files, the next highest bitrate files to the camcorder tracks.

A narration is limited to 4 minutes and 10 seconds, and the WAV file can be copied from the project file.

Narration files recorded by Photo Story 3 are the same as Photo Story 2, 1411 kbps, 44.1 kHz, 16 bit stereo WAV files.

If you want the higher quality stereo narration of PS3 for a movie project, you can easily preview the project in MM2 with your speaker volume down, and narrate it in PS3 as your view it. This might be nothing more than an exercise. The narration of a PS3 story is limited to a maximum of 5 minutes, and you need to copy the temporary project narration file to get it. I’m looking at a temporary narration file right now.... a 5 minute one is a hefty 53 MB WAV file. But, if you plan to do audio editing with something like Audacity that doesn’t handle the WMA files, then narrating a movie this way might be easiest and best.

How long of a background music file can you create in Photo Story 3? The help file doesn’t say, so I tried a 15 minute story (3 pictures at 5 minutes each in duration) to see if the music file would go that long...

The saved story was 15 minutes, but the music stopped at a point just past 11 minutes and 2 seconds. You can see in the portion of the timeline at the right where the wave patterns ended. But an 11 minute file would be more than enough for most movie projects.

I’d need to run another test to see if the duration seen in this one is a limitation of Photo Story 3. For now, it’s just a note of interest.

The audio properties of the story were 103 kbps, 44.1 kHz, 16 bit stereo, another high quality audio file.

That’s about all the ways of getting audio into a story or movie project. We’ll now go into the topic of using the files.

A great feature of Movie Maker is its ability to render an audio only ‘movie’ as a high quality WMA file... this is so for MM1 and MM2.

Unlike the video track of a movie, you can have empty space between clips on the audio/music track... and similar to a movie, you can overlap the audio clips to have them dissolve into each other...

With Movie Maker 2, you can adjust relative volume levels between the audio of the video track and the clips on the audio/music track, adjust the volume of an individual clip, fade a clip in or out over ¾ of as second, or mute a clip. For anything beyond that you’ll need to use other software... WMP10 Equalizer

... or use some imagination and use more than one of your tools at the same time.

For example... open a video or audio file in Windows Media Player 10. Start the Graphic Equalizer feature - from the main menu:

As the file is playing, adjust the balance, change the built-in preset equalizer style, or tweak the equalizer settings manually... the changes won’t interrupt the smooth playback, and will be immediately heard in the sound.

And if you are hearing it, you can easily get it into your movie project. Capture it as a narration file with MM2 as it plays (use the stereo mix source), or record it with MM1 (again the stereo mix option).

If you’re busy working on something in MM2, capture it with MM1 and import the new WMA file for your MM2 project.... multi-task.

For parties, or just relaxed listening, it’s so easy to drag and drop tracks from a dozen music CDs into a collection, delete the ones you don’t like, arrange them to your liking, batch them into the timeline, overlap to mix them, and save them all as one long playing WMA file.

Play it on your computer or your portable music player.... 5 to 10 hours of playing time in one neatly packaged file. No need to think about changing discs during the party. My longest movie to date was a 22 hour one using MM1 to create a music file that had a playing duration longer than me.

The image at the lower right shows the rendering choices of Movie Maker 2 when you save a movie that has only clips on the audio/music track... MM2 - Audio Saving Choices

the clips can be a mix of audio and video files - just don’t have any other tracks in use that would make Movie Maker 2 believe you want a movie file.

The first choice, high quality audio, is a VBR choice. The others are constant bitrate.

In addition to the audio quality choices built into Movie Maker, see the last one in the list... a custom profile that I use when I want to rip the audio track from a DV-AVI source file...

My profile is currently set to rip the audio to a file of 192 Kbps, 44.1 kHz, 16 bit stereo (I guess that’s the same as the high quality choice... but it changes as I tweak it).

There’s nothing but easy to use and good choices when capturing audio into stories and movies... the only things to be aware of are the limitation of mono in the narrations of MM1, and the maximum time limits when using Photo Story narrations.

I look forward to comments and discussion about this and other newsletters on the forums at:

Windows Movie Makers.net

I'm involved in many things that support the users of Movie Maker and Photo Story, and adding more daily. Here's a list of what is available to the public. Some are free and others reasonably priced.

Movie Maker 2 - Do Amazing Things

(with its online companion on www.papajohn.org)

MaximumPC's winter 2005 quarterly special - with a 7 page tutorial 'Make a Killer Home Movie with Maker 2'.

Packt Publishing of Birmingham, U.K. is publishing the first book about VirtualDub, expected out next month. My contribution was the introductory chapter.

Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 - www.papajohn.org - 3 goals: the online companion to the Do Amazing Things book, a detailed tutorial for Photo Story 3, and helping you solve Movie Maker 2 problems.

PhotoStory 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org - a detailed tutorial about using it. It's not a problem-solving site.

Forums are open to all for viewing, but require registration of those who want to post. Moderators actively participate to ensure the forum discussions move forward and stay on track.

Newsgroups are wide open for all to view and post... moderation is collective by the participants.

Movie Maker 2/Photo Story newsletter. The annual subscription is $20 and the link to subscribe is on the main page of my Movie Maker website at:

#48 - Converting MPEG-2 files... there are new utilities and revisions to older ones... the issue will look at the current state of the conversions needed to get files that work with Movie Maker
#49 - open
#50 - Civil War Project - part III - finishing the parts and moving toward the integrated movie project.
#51 - open
#52 - Capturing video clips from DVDs... another topic where new utilities, and changes to existing ones, are now available.
#53 - open

Older newsletters (more than 6 issues ago) are posted to an Archive Site at Windows Movie Makers.

Transition Maker 2 (TM2) is a utility for the ultimate in making your own personal and custom transitions for Movie Maker 2. It's a joint product from Patrick Leabo, the programmer, and myself. Version 2 was released a week ago and I'm still working on updating the online tutorial.

routinely beta test the Pixelan packages and think very highly of their people and products.

Managing your personal information is more of a challenge as hard drives get bigger and the internet more robust. Developing my personal database has been an ongoing project for many years and it is now available to others.

A free copy is available to the regular subscribers of this newsletter... send an email to request a copy.

To others, it's $10... to order, use the button on the top of the Managing > Personal Database page.

An online gallery that fully aligns with the main priority of the website is the 'PapaJohn Expert Zone' at neptune.

Check it at Neptune and the Distributing > Neptune page of the website, where there's a developing tutorial about how to use the service.

The Portage, Michigan library added new training sessions to their regularly scheduled ones: introduction to Movie Maker, and an Advanced Movie Maker session. Scheduled sessions are:

If you can't save a movie because your project has become too complex, e-mail a copy and I'll divide it into manageable sub-projects, and provide detailed instructions about how to render the parts and assemble them into your final movie. $49.95 - for details, see the sidebar on the Problem Solving > Can't Save a Movie page of www.papajohn.org

Movie Maker 2/Photo Story training and support services start at $50 per hour - send an email - PapaJohn@CharterMi.net and I'll help you determine your needs, and work with you to plan and implement them.

Wedding combo website/video packages - starting at $2,500 + travel expenses. See Jill-MarkWedding or the bottom branch of the Movie Maker 2 website for a sample of what you can expect for the online portion of the package.

About John 'PapaJohn' Buechler from Microsoft.com

John "PapaJohn" Buechler, of Kalamazoo, Mich., goes by PapaJohn online. An avid user of Movie Maker since its first release, and a regular supporter of the community of Movie Maker users, John received a 2003 MVP award from Microsoft for that support. In March 2003, he started a comprehensive website about Movie Maker 2 at www.PapaJohn.org. He maintains the website, writes books and articles, teaches, and provides support services - all for the community of Movie Maker 2 users. An engineer by formal education, John is a computer database and multimedia expert by business and personal experience. He co-authored the first book about Movie Maker 2 and is actively working on a second one. You can find his advice in the Windows XP Movie Maker newsgroup and in the Windows Movie Makers Forums.

This newsletter is republished with permission of John "PapaJohn" Buechler.
Please note that this is an archive of newsletters and some information may become outdated. PapaJohn, and the webmaster of this site, provides this information "AS IS" with no warranties.

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