No sound in AVCHD files

emmrecs wrote on 1/27/2016, 9:03 AM

The only thought that occurs to me as a possible reason is that the Audio Sampling Frequency and/or bit rate of your video files is different to what MEP is expecting. Normally the settings are 48kHz, 16 bit but it is possible that either your files are not recorded in this format OR MEP has been set to something like 44.1kHz, 16 bit. I don't have any very recent version of MEP but the page to check in the program should be File>Settings>Movie>Movie Settings, shortcut E.

Jeff

Gredsted wrote on 1/27/2016, 10:06 AM

Thank you, Jeff, but by now I'm beginning to suspect that the simple explanation is, that the trial version doesn't support AVCHD audio for licensing reasons! If this is the explanation I think the Magix sales department have shot themselves in the foot because such a severe limitation really turns you off when you spend several hours trying to determine if you should move from the current video editor (PowerDirector) to Magix.

Thanks for your help anyway...

Gredsted wrote on 2/1/2016, 5:07 AM

Thank you very much. I have checked my video files, and the sound is 256 Kbps, 48,0 Khz, 2 channels, AC-3. The setting in Magix is also 48.000.

So it's hardly a question of the settings i Magix, I'm afraid.

Gredsted wrote on 2/1/2016, 5:18 AM

I have now received an official answer from Magix:

"The problem is with the fact that Dolby Digital decoding is unfortunately no longer supported in the trial version of the program. We needed to change the Dolby Digital activation and implementation for licensing reasons, which now calls for an online activation and the download of actual Dolby Digital decoding components from our server, which is only possible in the full version. As a result, you won't have any audio on formats using Dolby Digital audio (e.g. AVCHD and a lot of MPEG-2 files). We hope for your understanding. The full version will support the decoding of this kind of audio after performing the necessary online activation."

I don't know how these people believe they can sell software in a market with so much competition when they force potential buyers to try out a severy crippled version. For the time being I'll stay with my usual video editor, PowerDirector, which is fast and competent and has never pulled my legs in the way Magix did.

But at least I got my problem solved.

bryan-t wrote on 12/13/2016, 6:37 AM

I have the full boxed Magix Edit Pro 2017 Same problem I just cant find a way to fix this

browj2 wrote on 12/13/2016, 7:34 AM

Hi,

Can someone post a short video clip in Dropbox for us to try out. My camera files are AVCHD and I have no problem with the sound.

bryan-t wrote on 12/13/2016, 3:58 PM

I thought that the problem was with AVCHD for Sony camcorders. It turned out that some years ago I had a Magix sign in with a different email address & pasword and previously purchased the codex for AVCHD.

Anyone with this problem should first go to the Magix website & sign in with there old email & pasword (that will also link you to your home address) & change your sign in details to your new email & password "& address corrections if applicable to you" then uninstall the Magix Edit Pro followed by a re-install.

It totaly worked for me.

Incidently the Magix Suport team never got back to me even although I had a ticket no. (poor backup by them I think).

browj2 wrote on 12/13/2016, 4:24 PM

Mine is a Canon, which is why I haven't had the problem.

emmrecs wrote on 12/14/2016, 3:45 AM

Canon for me also, and no problem. It would be interesting to see what MediaInfo reports about the audio content of a Sony AVCHD file as compared with that for a Canon one.

In order to perhaps help with this I paste below what it says for the audio for one of my AVCHD files. Could someone with a problem Sony file post similarly and let us see the result?

Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 17 min 7 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 256 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 spf)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -80 ms
Stream size : 31.3 MiB (2%)

Scenestealer wrote on 12/14/2016, 4:23 PM

Here is a Media info report for interest sake, on my Panasonic AVCHD files which work fine in MEP2017

Audio
ID                                       : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID                                  : 1 (0x1)
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                           : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness              : Big
Codec ID                                 : 129
Duration                                 : 7s 232ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 384 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 fps (1536 spf)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : -40ms
Stream size                              : 339 KiB (0%)

@emmrecs

Have you any idea why MI reports the audio as having a frame rate of 31.250 fps?

Peter

emmrecs wrote on 12/15/2016, 3:08 AM

@Scenestealer, interesting question! Yes, I had noticed that very strange figure and no, I really don't know why, unless it is somehow connected to the possibility that AC3, like mp3, actually records audio in discrete "frames"?

If I have the time later today I will try and explore the AC3 format in more detail.

Jeff

johnebaker wrote on 12/15/2016, 5:51 AM

Hi

My Sony AVCHD files, AVC video codec with AC3 Surround Sound audio, work OK in all versions of MEP from MEP 14 through to the current version with no audio issues.

MediaInfo data:

Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 21 s 856 ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 spf)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -80 ms
Stream size : 1.17 MiB (0%)

@Peter and Jeff

For some reason MediaInfo, 0.7.91 shows frame rates for audio whereas the previous version I had - 0.7.75 did not show framerates - I remember seeing a discussion about the newer inclusion of framerate for audio, however I cannot locate it at this time.

Audio does not have a framerate only bitrate, sample frequency (in the above example a nominal 48 kHz - see below) and time.

IIRC the framerate above is a calculated 'artificial' value which will vary depending on the fps of the video and the degree of compression in reducing the bit sampling rate count - shown above as 1536 samples per frame - the above video being 25fps interleaved the audio 'sample rate' is 38.4 kHz which is 'rebuilt' upon decoding to 48kHz.

HTH

John EB

bryan-t wrote on 12/15/2016, 1:02 PM

I will look at my settings and get back, meanwhile I have waited for 2 days for magix suport to get back to me, but nothing yet, how long do they normally teke to reply !

Scenestealer wrote on 12/15/2016, 4:22 PM

Hi John EB

depending on the fps of the video and the degree of compression in reducing the bit sampling rate count - shown above as 1536 samples per frame - the above video being 25fps interleaved the audio 'sample rate' is 38.4 kHz which is 'rebuilt' upon decoding to 48kHz.

Hmmm.....my video is 50fps progressive but shows the same values as yours?

I wonder what determines the stream size as there is quite a bit of difference betwwen the 3 posted MI results?

Peter

johnebaker wrote on 12/15/2016, 5:28 PM

Hi Peter

. . . . my video is 50fps progressive but shows the same values as yours? . . . .

Interleaved 25 fps video comprises of two half frames which result in a field rate of 50 fields per sec, which I suspect is being used by MI rather than framerate.

. . . . I wonder what determines the stream size as there is quite a bit of difference betwwen the 3 posted MI results? . . . .

AFAICS it is the proportion of the total stream size that is audio compared to the video, the values will be different depending on the compression of the video eg if there is little action in the video it will be compressed more than a video clip with a lot of action, in the clip I analysed, the video is 29.9GB. (96%).

IIRC this is a minor bug in MI with shorter video clips - the audio ratio is being calculated incorrectly as it works out to 4% not 0% as MI reports.

While checking other AVCHD clips with MI another anomoly is present - it is reporting a 16m 24s long video clip as 21s 776ms, Windows Explorer and MEP report the length correctly.

HTH

John EB