Pinnacle Studio 8 -- sound problem when encoding from MPEG2 to DVD

I

Ivan Viswinski

Guest
Hi all,

I use Pinnacle Studio 8 to capture, edit, and encode programs from TV. All seems to be very nice when I capture video into MPEG2: picture and sound are very well... But when, after edition, I encode MPEG2 file into DVD and then play it I have a sound problem with periodic noises like mouse clicks and sometimes it is possible to hear sound noises like "digital squeaks". Video picture is perfect as I capture MPEG file with quality of 8200 Kbits/sec. Sound also should be well (16-bit stereo, at a sample rate of 48kHz), but it isn't... This problem is only after encoding from MPEG files - while encoding from AVI sound is Ok, but video picture isn't so good as it is in MPEG2...

What can you advise in this case? Is it possible to do something with Pinnacle Studio or it is worth to use another program to encode from MPEG2 to DVD? Beforehand many thanks for any help!
 
Pinnacle Studio is a funny beast. Join the forums at www.pinnaclesys.de/uk
for days of horror story reading..

I am sure your problem is listed there, but can't remember right now what the cure is.

BUT. Capturing to MPEG2 is not going to be better than capturing as a DV format AVI. The capturing process in mpeg2 in Studio8 is on the fly and inherently less good than a simple DV capture.

There are also issues about taking an MPEG2 film, editing it, then re-encoding it with MPEG2. Re-encoding mpeg material is always prone to introduce more errors and problems. Some early combinations of digital TVs and digital sources could do just this and make a worse picture than disabling the digital features on the TV.

The best (but most hard disk consuming) option is always to capture in AVI (DV), edit in AVI (DV) and then encode to MPEG2 LAST. I would also suggest not using Studio for that last mpeg encode but something like TMPEnc but that is too much for now.

SO. AVI is best, AVI isn't a problem for sound, so why not stay with AVI and then you'll avoid the sound problem until you have trawled though the PinnacleSys forums and read how they fixed it (or not!).

BTW, you didn't mention camcorder make, type, capture type or PC details so I assumed: DV camcorder, Firewire capture, Finetuned PC with lots of power and hard disk space. Finetuning the PC can be very important..
 
Yes I agreee with all the above, Studio8 is either fine or an absolute bastard to get to work properly!

Another thing to consider is that to capture live MPEG2, you do need a power PC (2.6ghz I think Pinnacle suggest) and I guess any lesser sped PC might struggle to decode 'on the fly' so to speak, which could result in lost frames and the odd pop or splutter.

It might be worth reducing the quality rate back from 8200kb/s and see if that helps at all....

It might also be worth editing in Pinnacle (a great editing program I think) and then use another program to encode it/burn it to DVD and see what happens.

I find TMPENC DVD author works well to make trouble free DVD's

I am now using Pinnacle Studio 9 and find it 100% more reliable than Studio8 BUT it still has bugs (especially that latest 9.4 update)

Can you let us know more about your cam, PC, connections etc.

oh and check www.simplyDV.co.uk forums for a dedicated Pinnacle forum with some well versed users.
 
Thanks for your replies, friends!

Today I discovered an interesting thing -- and this must be the problem we are looking for. As I wrote above I was sure that I captured in MPEG2 with 48kHz sound (these sound options for MPEG2 in Pinnacle (I have v8.4) could not be altered, they were grayed out), BUT when I checked all MPEG2 captured files it turned to be not 16-bit stereo, at a sample rate of 48kHz, but 16-bit stereo, at a sample rate of 44.1 kHz! So, the question is how to capture MPEG2 file with 48kHz sound.

My PC is Pentium4 2.4c ghz, and while working with Studio it's CPU usage is no more than 70-75% (when encoding to DVD; 30% when I do capture on HDD). So there isn't any problem.

Could you check what sound Studio 9 can do in MPEG2 capture? Is it 48kHz indeed or 44.1 kHZ like in Studio v8.4? Maybe it is worth to use Studio9?
 
But the big question is why, oh why, are you capturing as MPEG? It really isn't going to give you as good results as capturing as a standard AVI file and then encoding after you've done all your editing.

The only benefit I can see is that it saves on disc space.

Try it and see if it cures your problem.
 
melliott1963 said:
The only benefit I can see is that it saves on disc space
Well, that is why I had to use MPEG2 and not AVI, in which indeed there is no problem as Studio can capture with all range of sound (from 11.025 kHz and up to 48 kHz)...
 
Ivan Viswinski said:
My PC is Pentium4 2.4c ghz, and while working with Studio it's CPU usage is no more than 70-75% (when encoding to DVD; 30% when I do capture on HDD). So there isn't any problem.

Apart from the fact that Pinnacle, as already mentioned, is notoriously buggy. I used it for years before finally giving up on it and moving over to a more stable product.

If, as I gather from your last comment, you are short on disc space, then I would strongly recommend that you look at purchasing a second hard drive and use this new drive purely for your video files (still run the programs off your main drive). Then capture to avi. If when you encode to MPEG and DVD you still get a problem, then try an alternative method such as save your edited film as avi then use TMPEnc to encode. Actually, thinking about it, you could try using TMPEnc to encode to DVD now. The built-in encoder and DVD facilities in Pinnacle is not very refined compared with dedicated programs such as TMPEnc and, from my own, and other people's, experience I wouldn't really recommend using them unless you really had to.
 

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