Echo in imported video

No it sounds same bad on both ears.

But maybe echo is not the absolute correct word. It sort of sounds like an echo, but at the same time also somewhat metallish, or as if you speak through a metal pipe or so (sorry I'm not english native and struggle to find the right word - in german it would be 'blechern').

thanks for the help
-Uwe

thanks - that explains where the beeps at some scene changes come from that I were hearing when turning that option off.

My hope was somehow that this option also screws up my audio, but that does not seem to be the case.

thanks
-Uwe

Just for the completeness of tests I did:

I also tried to import the video with the camcorder running only on batteries. I remember long time ago at my work we had quite some noise from powered Microphones when the were plugged into an outlet, but not when running from batteries. Didn't change anything 😟

Can you recommend any audio editors that would allow me do look at the wave form, spectrum etc from the audio?

The waveform display in iMovie and GragageBand seens to be somewhat too simple to really analyze the waveform.

I'm looking for something like the CoolEdit that I was using on Windows machines? (and it should be freeware or inexpensive shareware)

How about:
Import the tape, saving the project, quit iMovie and
THEN turn off the camera.

No difference

And while we continue to clutch straws:
Prevent Mac Disasters
Eight Simple Steps You Can Take Now to Keep Your Mac
from Falling Apart
http://www.macworld.com/2005/01/features/preventmacdis
asters/index.php
(Article is in 3 parts, don't miss parts 2 and 3)

thanks - this is very helpful


thanks again for all your help. Any further tests have to wait now 2 weeks since I will go on a 2 week trip to Europe. Once back I will make sure my system is well maintained (as described in the article above) and try again.

thanks for the help - I will try that once I'm back from vacation.

Also following the maintainance tips from above I ran several system checks including a disk verify and it turns out there is something wrong with the harddrive:

Verifying volume “Macintosh”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
%)
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume Macintosh needs to be repaired.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit


1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair


well, that has to wait two weeks while I'm gone ... I will make a new backup and shut it down until I'm back (and if I need help fixing it I will post in another more appropriate forum)

Hope I don't have to reinstall everything (... but that would probably fix my problem)


thanks again for all who contributed to try to figure out whats wrong.

-Uwe

That's a good point. I will try that (and if I remember right my PC was using 12bit audio).

The only problem that a did see a while ago with Quicktime that it crashed when there were hickups in the video (short 'empty' tape or at the end of the movie when the empty tape starts) ... iMovie start starts a new clip when that happens (that's why I never tried quicktime again).

Anyway: I will try to see if that helps for the audio - and if this makes a difference there are probably other tools out there that are more robust against those hickups if that turns out to be a consistent problem for me.

thanks
-Uwe

I'm right now importing with Quicktime Pro ... I want to import the full hour before checking the Audio quality.

But the display in the camcorder tells me that it is 12bit audio ... so I guess chances are good that this is the problem.

I will post an update once the recording is done and checked

thanks for all these useful hints
-Uwe

yes I should have stopped after 10 minutes ... Quicktime died during recording with an 'unexpected error' .... the mov left on disk is 9.5GB and unusable 😟

So you think this is also a problem when recording with Quicktime? Are there any other options to import Video with 12bit audio (without importing only 10min at a time ... it's 50+ tapes that I want to import) ? I would hate if I have to go back to my PC just to import all the tapes (well I guess I can try to do it from parallels)

thanks
-Uwe

Thanks to the help of the experts here in the forum the problem is almost solved:

It seems that the problem is that my miniDV tapes are recorded in the LP mode with 12bit audio and that iMovie has problems with 12bit Audio.

I successfully importet 5min of the tape with Quicktime, audio sounds very good.

the open questions now are:

- from what I understand the problem comes mostly when recording more than 10min. Is this true only for iMovie or also for QuickTime Pro?

- when using Quicktime Pro to record, Quicktime sometimes dies unexpected (e.g. when it hits 'unrecorded' parts of the tape

- when importing in iMovie I have to use 'split by timestamp' to import - if I don't do this, I'm not able to export the videos to any other format ('compression error'). But even if I split, I still have the problem of the screwed up audio.

- what other options do I have to import the videos? All I want to do is to store my movies from miniDV as a high quality .mov on my harddrive. I don't have to do any editing since this was done long time ago. Are there any robust DV recorders that are robust with 12bit audio and 'empty tape' segments?

thanks
-Uwe