Topic: Mini DV + Audio matrix

[pielsticker]

Question:
I have a Mini DV (Hi8 I believe) recording of a show and I am awaiting the aud recording that was done. 
What program is the best to combine the video with audio so I can create a DVD?
I run a Mac I5 and have iDVD and iMovie, but throught I probably need more software.
What is the best audio format to combine with the digital video?  flac? wav?

Any help is GREATLY appreciated! thanks

[BayTaynt3d]

Uh, something's not right here. You EITHER have a MiniDV OR you have a Hi8 -- they are mutually exclusive, and capturing video and/or audio off of one or the other are VERY different things.

MiniDV = Digital Video DV with 16/48 digital audio on MiniDV tapes.
Hi8 = Analog video and audio on Hi8 tapes
Digital8 = digital a/v (not sure of audio specs) on Hi8 tapes

[ShawnF]

You can't natively use FLAC in creating a DVD.  You would most want to have a WAV file in 16/48.  If thje audience recording was done to DAT at those specs, you should be good to go; otherwise you'll likely have to upsample from 44.1.  If the audience recording is much superior to the camcorder sound (whatever format it is), you might be better off just using the other recording instead of making of matrix of the two, though you'll still have to go through the process to get the sound in synch.  I've only worked with this in Cool Edit Pro on a PC, so I don't know what to tell you would be best for a Mac.

[pielsticker]

OK, thanks>
It is a MiniDV recording (small tapes) which is 16 bit sound, however, the small piece of crap mic on my camera gets overwhelmed some of the time, especially when the monitors were turned up for the second set.
I want to completely scrap the sound from the video tapes and replace with what I believe will be a 16 bit recording that will be wav.
Programs to combine the audio/video?  Not looking to combine both audios.
thanks guys

[BayTaynt3d]

You can probably just use iMovie, but I'm on a PC and also use higher-end s/w. At the high end of video editing on the Mac, you could go with Premiere or Final Cut Pro, but I bet iMovie will work just fine if this is just a one-off project for you. Just bring in the audio files and capture the video files, then open a new iMovie project, import the video/audio, and try to sync. Once you've got it, then render out to MPEG2 for the video and AC3 for the audio and burn a DVD. You might be able to just let iMovie take care of all of the rendering for DVD authoring crap for you I bet, but not sure.

[hummat]

Find access to a copy of Final Cut or Final Cut Express.  If you're a student/teacher (or know one) you can get the education FCE for about $150.  And it is well worth it.  I've used this workflow to do exactelyu what your talking about.  With the right tools, it's a piece of cake.

[ShawnF]

Again, I've never done this on a Mac before, so my input is pretty limited, but in my experience of using a DAT source with miniDV video, I've had to do the matrix on both audio sources to avoid getting eventually getting enough out of synch with the video to be annoying.  Even if I then mixdown using only the DAT source by itself.  I then just use that for the audio and forget the miniDV audio.   If you have the DAT source synched to the original miniDV audio, there shouldn't be any effort in synching up the audio and video at all.  Why would you convert the audio to AC3, though, unless space is more a consideration than quality?  I'd suggest leaving it alone if possible.  If it weren't a concert we were talking about, then sure, but I'd prefer the sound as uncompressed as possible.  Run to two discs if that's going to significantly impact the video encoding rate.

[BayTaynt3d]

The key on syncing is getting both audio tracks (really probably 4 tracks, 2 stereo pairs) into the same format. The audio on the MiniDV is going to be 16/48. So, you might want to take the DAT source and get it into 16/48 first. Then bring in the DAT 16/48 into your video editor with the MiniDV footage. Having both sources be 16/48 with help tons in keeping sync over long periods of time. Also, you can usually blow-up/zoom-in the sound waves in the tracks really big, which can help visually sync the sound as well. Finally, you can employ some phase cancelation on purpose to help with the syncing. Reverse one track, so it tends to cancel the other track. If you're getting bigtime cancelling, you know your sync is good (then flip it back of course). Since, I think, you are just ditching the other audio altogether, I'd just make sure to get the DAT source to 16/48, then try to sync it to the video. Finally, on the AC3 front, I guess that's just a habit of mine. When I author DVD's with video, I pretty much always render out to Dolby Digital (AC3), which is pretty much how every commercial movie DVD you'll ever buy does it. However, you can use straight PCM if you want, but if you're video is long, you might have space problems. Anyway, PCM and AC3 will pretty much play on any DVD player with video, SACD and DVDA maybe not. At least that's my understanding.