Audio Puzzle

Dan Sherman wrote on 6/15/2006, 6:08 AM
Two clips in an 40 minute project have no audio.
The project clearly has waveforms.
It plays fine on my stand alone machines and on my computer.
But my client gets nothing,---no audio when she plays this DVD.
She gets BG music only.
Anybody have any ideas on this one.
I think it's a compatibility issue that would be solved with a new 35 dollar player.
But this project will be played on many players at many schools.
So compatibility is paramount.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 6/15/2006, 6:20 AM
"But my client gets nothing,---no audio when she plays this DVD.

These two statements are contradictory, so possibly some clarification is in order. Are you saying that she hears background music while playing your DVD but doesn't hear the audio you want her to hear? Where is the background music coming from? Does it stop when she pauses your DVD? Or is this some feature that DVD player provides when there is no other audio? (Yes, that's a very weird and bizarre question, but i just had to ask.)

If the background music seems to be coming from your DVD then i think it's possible you may have created a DVD with multiple soundtracks, with BG music on the default track and the audio you want on an alternate track.
newhope wrote on 6/15/2006, 7:20 AM
A bizzare set of circumstances but one possibility is a phase error on the mono components of your sound track.

Is your client playing back the DVD on a mono television?

If it is a phasing error then in stereo you would hear the out of phase mono material but when combined into mono the out of phase components cancel each other out leaving only audio that is significantly different in it's left and right components, typically stereo material.

You can easily test your phasing in Vegas by clicking on the mono downmix button... if you used it as your NLE platform.

Some stereo simulator plugins can cause this problem when the resultant 'pseudo stereo' signal is recombined in mono replay.

Other than that do you have a phase error or phase reversal in your set up somewhere?

Stephen Hope
New Hope Media