Finding audio from Sony DCR-DVD201E

zooey wrote on 2/5/2005, 5:10 AM

Have recently started playing with this camcorder which records straight onto a 3" DVD. Trouble is, when I import the video files to the PC, Vegas recognises the video, but not the audio. The audio is recorded in Dolby Digital on the camcorder. I am assuming Vegas can recognise that as it can render to 5.1. If not, any help would be great.

Cheers

James

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 2/5/2005, 12:20 PM

> I am assuming Vegas can recognise that as it can render to 5.1

Unfortunately, you assumed wrong. Vegas can generate AC3 but cannot read it. You’ll need something like BeSweet or AC3Dec to decode the AC3 file to a wave so Vegas can recognize it.

What is more important is that you will likely be very unhappy with your edited DVD files anyway as the MPEG2 stream they contain are suboptimal for editing and will need to be re-encoded after you edit them which results in a further loss of quality. If you really want to edit your videos, you should get a miniDV camcorder. DVD camcorders are for people who just want to shoot and play.

~jr

zooey wrote on 2/6/2005, 11:27 AM

Thanks a lot for that. No, really, I am well aware of the disadvantages. Luckily this isn't mine, I just thought I would have a little play with it over the weekend.

I'm still churning out half decent stuff on my trusty Panasonic DS77 which is coming into its 7th year!

Thanks again for your help.

James