Sound but no voice in footage HELP

[jo7nah]

Hello,

so I’ve downloaded an episode of a TV-series and when previewing all I hear is the background sound, not the voice of the actors. I’ve tried using .avi .mp4 but nothing seems to work (I‘m not really good at codecs and conversions). Help me please.

Thanks in advance,

alisic.kevin

[ToolfarmJP]

Hello,

Would you mention your version of OS, After Effects, graphic card and some more environments? Can you play it with VLC media player without problem?

[jo7nah]

I have After Effects CS6 (the newest version too I guess), Windows 10, nvidia geforce gtx 780 ti, and yes it does work perfectly fine with vlc player.

[Warren Heaton]

You would want to inspect the original file for what's actually contained in the audio tracks.  It could be that none of the audio channels contain dialog.

Quick question:  Where did the source footage come from?  In television production, there's a point in the workflow where the edited master is accompanied by "splits" (that is, the sound reduced to four tracks but still separated by dialog, music and effects).  Usually the picture and all the sound are all kept together, but it's possible to have a video file that's just the picture, music and effects with no dialog.

[jo7nah]

well, first of all thanks, but i’ve been playing that file with vlc media player and it worked totally fine. in other video editing programs all the sound is there too, it only seems to happen wih after effects so I’m either really blind for some setting or my after effects is a little corrupted...?

[Rick Gerard]

Your AE is not corrupted. AE only supports Left and Right channel 1 and 2. Some video formats have 4 or more channels. You'll have to convert the file to hear all of the dialogue.

BTW, downloading an episode of a TV series for anything other than viewing it is a copyright violation and, depending on what you do with the copy of the show, it could be a very expensive proposition for you. Make sure you understand copyright and have followed all of the rules before you publish anything to the public. Penalties can range from a scolding, a slap on the wrist and a remove or else all the way to many many thousands of dollars.

[jo7nah]

Thanks, can you tell me how to convert those 4 channels best?

Yeah, sure I know. I am really new to After Effects and just trying and figuring things out (as you might have noticed), I thought I might use my favorite TV-show as footage, but thanks for the warning anyways!

[Szalam · Accepted solution]

You might be able to use Premiere or Adobe Media Encoder to create a stereo WAV file instead - that might help.

[jo7nah]

thank you!

[Charlotte5EA7]

Hello, I have the same problem and I tried what you said, however it still doesn't work. I converted my clip with media enconder and turned it into a WAV file but I still can't hear the dialogue in my clips. Could you maybe explain step by step what I need to do? I must be doing something wrong 

[Mia23189408r7mk]

have you found the solution? i still have this problem 😞