Choppy audio when .wma is the source

Aurora wrote on 11/27/2008, 6:51 AM
Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 6.0b (Build 126)
XP SP2 MCE 2005
3GB (physical and addressed) DDR-2 RAM
O/S & VMSP application, source files, temp files, and rendered output each on separate physical SATA drives. All are well house-kept.

Rendered output (using MainConcept MPEG-2 with either the Default or DVD PAL templates) has unstable audio where the source is a .wma file. It doesn't matter what tool or device is used for playback; the result is the same: Imprecise stereo imaging and choppy sound as if lots of data is missing.

The original .wma source files play perfectly, and rendering one of them with Vegas as an audio-only .mp3 file also results in perfect playback.

Using the same templates as mentioned above I have tried rendering a tiny audio-only .mpg file as a test (incase I was hitting size limits with the original audio visual project) but the result is still the same; unstable, choppy audio.

What to do please, other than convert the source to another format or use a different source file?

Many thanks.

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 11/27/2008, 8:37 AM
download the Vegas Platinum 9.0b trial version, try it, and if it works better, upgrade.
Aurora wrote on 11/27/2008, 11:47 AM
Thanks for the suggestion, Eugenia, but actually I just downgraded back to 6b because 9 can't handle as many .mpg source files as Project Media before it starts locking and crashing. Sony Support were very helpful and patient in troubleshooting but eventually admitted defeat.
Aurora wrote on 11/27/2008, 1:37 PM
The plot thickens.

The original .wma files play perfectly as do the copies I have just made for trouble-shooting's sake by converting to .mp3 using Windows Audio Converter.

Using the .mp3 copies for .mpg rendering however still results in identical (to the human ear) choppy audio in the resultant file; the breakup is in the same places and in exactly the same manner as when rendering had been done with the original .wma files.

Although I had only experienced the problem with .wma files until my .mp3 experiement it therefore seems that the format itself is innocent. Have other Forum users experienced audio degradation through rendering to .mpg using the templates described in the first post, please, and if so how did you solve it?

Thank you.