Pitch of sound too low - HD import from UK Sony HDR-HC3E

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Level 7

20,560 points

Pitch of sound too low - HD import from UK Sony HDR-HC3E

I can directly import captured HD video into iMovie6 HD but am having problems with the pitch of the sound in imported clips.

I believe iMovie6 uses an Apple intermediate codec and doesn't handle the actual HD MPEG2 video stream itself. Perhaps it also cannot directly handle the audio stream.

Sound intermittently sounds about an octave too low in iMovie6 and exported clips in other formats sound wrong too.

I have set import fps to 25 (iMovie Preferences) as it defaults to the NTSC rate but this has had no effect.

The problem is seen on both my MacBook and iMac (Core 2 Duo models).

Quicktime (7.1.3) and iMovie (6.0.3) are up to date as far as I can tell.

Both the UK and US online manuals suggest the same sound codec is used (MPEG 1 - Audio Layer 2, 16 bit, 384kbps).

Are US users having any sound issues?
If not it would seem likely that it's due to the NTSC/PAL frame rate differences as the audio stream format is the same type.

Is it that Quicktime simply doesn't support/handle this audio codec?

Thanks for any suggestions.

iMac Core 2 Duo 20", Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Dec 27, 2006 4:58 AM

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Answer 1

Dexon

Level 1

4 points

Dec 27, 2006 1:53 PM in response to Alley_Cat

I am also experiencing the same problem with my HC1 on both my MacBook Pro and Mac Pro, but found that once the clips are moved into the timeline they play at the correct pitch. I believe the problem only began when I last upgraded iMovie to version 6.0.3.

I also use Final Cut Express and that works fine with no lowering of pitch so it looks like an iMovie specific problem?.

MacPro dual 2.66 and MacBook Pro 17 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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Answer 2

Alley_Cat Author

Level 7

20,560 points

Dec 28, 2006 1:35 AM in response to Dexon

Hi Dexon

I think you're right about importing into the timeline provided you're not trying to view fullscreen.

I see the pitch change:
- when previewing clips not added to the timeline
- when previewing the movie or clips fullscreen in either timeline or clip viewer mode (intermittent)
- exporting a Quicktime movie file (limited testing)

Also:

- the sound waveforms are not displayed in the timeline view (is this normal for HD?) despite checking View Audio Waveforms option
- compared to playing imported HD in freeware/shareware app conversions the sound is not as clear almost with some added reverb or 'knocking' noise

The movie clips certainly seem to be playing real time visually when the pitch change occurs and the Activity Monitor CPU usage isn't maxed out.

Unfortunately I can't say if this problem only arose in 6.03 as I upgraded iMovie HD on both machines before buying the camera.

Not sure if I'll just try importing in standard DV quality until this get problem gets ironed out.

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Answer 3

Dec 28, 2006 2:22 AM in response to Alley_Cat

I too am having exactly the same problem.

As an experiment I videoed my watch for one minute. Imported into iMovie HD and then played it back. In 60 seconds real time the video played back only 50 seconds. That is why the tone of the audio is so low.

Also no wave form in the timeline.

Same problem on Macbook and Macpro desktop.

Final Cut Pro worked fine.

Apple needs to fix this asap.

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Answer 4

Alley_Cat Author

Level 7

20,560 points

Dec 28, 2006 6:06 AM in response to Bill William

That's interesting.

Again, could it be an NTSC compared to PAL thing?

Given that NTSC is nearly 30fps and PAL 25 fps, the 60sec>50sec things makes you wonder if iMovie is using the wrong fps somewhere in the rendering/playback algorithm.

If it was playing back at 30fps though you'd expect the video to finish quicker than a minute and the pitch to be higher so that doesn't fit.

Also, I tried exporting a Quicktime clip using each of the pre-defined settings (e-mail, web, etc) today and they all sound fine. I think I must have used a custom setting for the low pitched exports.

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Answer 5

Alley_Cat Author

Level 7

20,560 points

Dec 28, 2006 6:11 AM in response to Alley_Cat

Thinking about it if iMovie was reconverting the 25fps PAL clip to a 30fps rate by accident during playback but actually only rendering at a rate of 25fps this would have the effect of slowing the movie and lowering the pitch.

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Answer 6

Alley_Cat Author

Level 7

20,560 points

Apr 13, 2007 6:18 AM in response to Alley_Cat

Anyone had any further thoughts about or solutions to this problem with iMovie?

Haven't been browsing the forum for a few months as I haven't done much video conversion, but I recently got an AppleTV and thought it would be great to stream family videos - ok it won't use the full hi-def capability of the HC3 captured footage but then neither does a burned DVD.

I set about converting a recent HC3 tape to AppleTV compatible format with iMovie - plays fine for first five minutes or so, then I get the pitch change which ruins the rest of the video.

Given the time involved in doing these conversions, and the unpredictable results from iMovie, I think it may just be a case of capturing HD and importing as SD DV until the software glitches are worked out, or I persuade myself to buy an 8 core Mac Pro and Final Cut Express!

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Answer 7

Apr 17, 2007 6:58 AM in response to Alley_Cat

A "Me Too" for this topic: importing footage from my Canon HV10 gives me the low pitch problem. My camera model is a PAL system (European model), so it has nothing to do with NTSC conversion.

The problem exists on both my MacBook (duo core Intel) and iMac (recent model, duo core 2 Intel).

I'm rather disappointed that Apple did not fix this problem which is apparenlty very common.

See also this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=4392019

iMac/iBook/MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.9) Canon HV10

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