Normalising audio from Zoom Q3HD files

[Rainboyo]

I am trying to use Avidemux to normalise the audio from .mov files generated from Zoom Q3HD camcorders.

I tried Avidemux 2.5, but the program crashed pretty much every time I tried to load up one of these files.  One of the forum threads mentioned that Avidemux 2.6 is better at dealing with HD footage (the videos are 1080), so I'm now trying that and it's getting further.

The problem is that it doesn't seem to know what to do with the audio track, and says it is an "Unknown codec".  It will convert the files without complaining, but none of the resultant video files contain audio.

The Zoom Q3HD is set to record 24-bit PCM at 48kHz, and VLC thinks that it is "PCM S24 LE (42ni)" and plays it correctly.

I'm guessing that this is some vaguely proprietary PCM format, but I'm wondering if there's maybe a way of getting Avidemux to understand it.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

Mark

[Jan Gruuthuse]

You need to provide a sample recording so developers can check it out and see if it is possible to add the audio recognizing in avidemux 2.6.
Original Video Sample should be around 20 MB in size. Upload this to the web (Rapidshare or similar and provide link to the upload.
If time and codec is available the developers might integrate this in to avidmux. No guarantee that this happens, the developers decide.

[Rainboyo]

Ok, here is a clip of me playing the piano, with Low Gain selected on the Zoom Q3HD (the audio is set to 48kHz, 24-bit PCM audio).

   http://www.sendspace.com/file/35of9s

I haven't used Sendspace before, so I don't know how long they will host the file... let me know if there are any problems in downloading the file and I will re-upload.

Is this the best place for the developers to see this feature request, or is there a better place to post this?

Mark

[Jan Gruuthuse]

that is not working for me, probably for others the same issue. Need to install downloader.exe (windows). I'm very suspicious on installing software on my computer(s) and have a non-windows computer.
Use a free service like Rapidshare or other similar.
https://www.rapidshare.com/

[Rainboyo]

I tried Rapidshare, but I couldn't get the Upload button to work for me for some reason... try this wetransfer download link:

     http://wtrns.fr/McN75SA53Y-vJAq

Does this work for you?

Mark

[Jan Gruuthuse]

yes it did

[Jan Gruuthuse]

as you say: not recognized by avidemux.
MediaInfo tells

Code Select Expand

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings, Endianness              : Little
Format settings, Sign                    : Unsigned
Codec ID                                 : in24
Duration                                 : 12s 160ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 2 304 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Stream size                              : 3.34 MiB (20%)
Title                                    : Ambarella AAC / Ambarella AAC
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2011-07-09 09:31:42
Tagged date                              : UTC 2011-07-09 09:31:42

wikipedia: 'in24' denotes 24-bit, big endian, linear PCM (QuickTime ?)

There is a workaround until the developers had a look at this.
You can extract the audio track with audacity and do there what you want to do with it:
https://rapidshare.com/files/16097213/Rainboyo.mp3
Explained here how you can achieve this, hope this does what you want:
source video working, audio track problem?

[Rainboyo]

Many thanks for this Jan. 

Yes, extracting the audio and processing it in an audio editor should work.  However, it's probably best if I explain that I do have other ways of doing what I need -  the reason that I am trying Avidemux is that we deal with lots of these files on a daily basis, and I am trying to find a workflow that is more streamlined than putting everything through our Avid Media Composer 5 system one at a time.

To keep our Avid system available for serious video editing work, we currently use (and recommend to our students/staff) a free piece of software called Freemake Video Converter (http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/) to take the Zoom Q3HD files and trim, transcode and burn to DVD.

Freemake does this simply and well.  What Freemake does not do, which we often need to do, is:

-- normalise audio (scale, not compress)
-- seamlessly join selected multiple files (that were split due to the camcorder's maximum file size limit) without audible or visible glitching

Ideally this should work as a background process, allowing us to set multiple jobs number-crunching simultaneously, and giving us processed files that Freemake will accept.  It looks like Avidemux would be ideal for this job, so I am keen to try and get this working if possible.

Is this the official place to ask developers to look getting Avidemux to recognise this particular flavour of PCM audio data?  If so, it would be great to know from the developers...

-- if they are willing to look at this feature request
-- how long it might take before they can look at it

I promise I'm not being pushy, and that I don't feel like I have any right to demand updates!  But if it isn't feasible then I can concentrate on finding other workflows, so some indication of whether I should wait for this would be super.

Many thanks!

Mark

[Jan Gruuthuse]

Is definitely the correct place to ask. Best to make a new posting here with Feature Request. Just in case the developers overlooked this posting. As I'm just a user I can't tell what the reply will be: Possible/or not, biggest factor time and time frame. Sometimes implementation is very quick, sometimes it takes a while or does not happen at all.

So I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope for positive outcome.