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iMovie 08 - only one Sound-channel with Panasonic hdc-sd1

Hi to all,

i have got a great Probem with iMovie 08 and my AVCHD Camcorder Panasonic hdc-sd1. The import operation works fine, but I only have sound on the right speaker (right sound channel). On the left channel the sound is very quiet. You can see it also in the visual channel indicator in iMovie. It is no problem of the balance settings of my iMac. iMovie imports the data with these sound problems.

If I look my records on my tv, all is ok. Both sound channels are identical loud.

Can anybody tell me, how I fix that problem?

Greetings Michel

iMac Core 2 Duo 2.16, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Aug 9, 2007 9:49 AM

Reply
61 replies

Aug 12, 2007 12:33 PM in response to silvermine

I've got the HDC-SD1. Same problem with iMovie 7 (iLife 08). I have the same issue regardless of the machine I am using (MacBook Pro 15/17, iMac, or MacPro). I too, believe that the issue lies in the fact the the audio is encoded as 5.1. I cannot find a way to force the camera to record in 2 channel stereo. If someone knows how to force this, they may be able to record somethign this way and see what happens upon import. I guess that the camera used in the keynote didn't present this issue ;^).

Aug 14, 2007 9:12 AM in response to Michael Hank

Apple has shipped out the new iMac along with iLife 08 and iWork 08, plus the Panasonic HDC-SD1 to some reviewers. Gizmodo says they have a walkthrough on the way. So one would have to ask the question, would Apple ship this package out to reviewers if iLife 08 could only import one channel of audio from the HDC-SD1. Gizmodo is asking it's readers for questions, so I have submitted the audio question to them.

htp://gizmodo.com/gadgets/special-delivery/our-imac-arrives-walkthrough-on-the-w ay-287444.php

Aug 21, 2007 6:51 PM in response to Michael Hank

Hello all,

I found a solution finally, because I have the same problem and the same camcorder. After importing, just find the clips in finder by right clicking on them and selecting "reveal in finder." Open the .mov in Quicktime Pro (might be able to use something else, but it needs to be Pro), then go to Window->Show Movie Properties. Click on Sound Track, then change the channel assignments to Center Left and Center Right. Close that window, save the .mov file, and that's it! Might need to restart imovie, but now the audio is equally balanced on both left and right.

Hope this helps, I know I was happy to figure it out! 🙂

-Stu

Aug 21, 2007 8:26 PM in response to Michael Hank

With a little more tweaking, I found the best setup to be "Left" on channel 1 and "Center" on channel 2. Also, it appears that imovie uses the audio from the thumbnail movies, found in the same location, and so these should be changed too.

Still seems like there's something not right with quicktime plugin, or the AVCHD reader/driver.... shouldn't have to go to this trouble just to get the audio balanced, in my opinion.

-Stu

Aug 22, 2007 1:58 PM in response to silvermine

Silvermine, I just got my HDC-SD1 and I'm having the same challenge. When I plug up the camera to the iMac (USB cord provided), iMovie '08 doesn't recognize the camera. If click the "Open Camera Import" function, it only shows the iSight camera as an option for video source.

Did you figure out how to get your video imported?

Let me know please,
Tony Rush

Message was edited by: TonyRush

Aug 22, 2007 2:56 PM in response to xkosmosx

Below is the official answer of the Panasonic factory:

This is the phenomenon of down mix system from 5.1ch to 2ch.
There are 2 ways:
1)Lo/Ro system
Lo = L + 0.7*C + Ls
Ro = R + 0.7*C + Rs
? L/R will be playback as same volume.

2)Lt/Rt system
Lt = L + 0.7*C - 0.7*( Ls + Rs )
Rt = R + 0.7*C + 0.7*( Ls + Rs )
? Lch sound will tend to be small.
(However surround feel could be remain than system 1).)

If these can be switchable by iMovie, but if impossible,
they have to do the the followings:

If you playback by 2ch audio, the L sound will be small,
but if you turn on the "surround" system on TV or
Dolby Pro Logic II on your audio system "on",
the sound problem of LR will be solved.

<For your info?
Sony also has same phenomenon.
It cannot be solved by video camera setting

iMovie 08 - only one Sound-channel with Panasonic hdc-sd1

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