Sound glitches using SD card from Sony HDR-CX580 with Elements 13 Win 7

[johnl68330082]

I bought Elements 13 over a year ago and have had sound glitching problems all along but just tolerated them but I'm no longer willing to do that. I shoot with my Sony camcorder onto an SD card then take that card and load the 2 gig files into the Elements program. At the point where a new file is created by the camera while shooting is where sound glitches of ~ 1 second occur. However, the video is smooth. When playing back my camera through RCA cables on a TV, no sound glitch is heard.  What is wrong? Why is it doing that and what can I do about it?

My Windows 7 computer is a Dell Optiplex 780 with 12 gigs of RAM and use a solid state drive. The type of file is AVCHD Video (.MTS). I upgraded to Windows 7 a couple of years ago and hope that I don't have to do any further upgrading.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.

John

[Steve Grisetti]

What happens if, instead of manually copying the files over from the SD card, you plug your camcorder into your computer via USB and import the video files from camcorder to your computer using the Premiere Elements Video Importer?

Meantime, I'm not sure why say you "load the 2 gig files into the Elements program." Are the files always 2 gig? Is your SD card 2 gig?

[johnl68330082]

I take the 64 gig SD card out of my Sony camcorder and plug it into my computer.  When I shoot with the camera, even if it is continuous, the program divides it up into 2 gig files of ~17 minutes long on the card.  I've thought about playing back the camera through a USB cord but don't know if that will work like the older programs that use firewire.  I would have to invest in an adapter to make that work so I'd like to make sure it's doable before I do that.  I know that if I play my camera back through an RCA cable to a monitor. there's never a problem with sound or video.

I'm not that familiar with my Elements 13 program for other ways to get video in but if I can do it through a USB cable, that would be great as long as the video doesn't get distorted with a different aspect ratio like what happens through the RCA cord to the monitor.

[Steve Grisetti]

Please see Part 2 of my 8 part Basic Training tutorial series for instructions on how to use the Video Importer, the best and most reliable way to get video from your camcorder to your computer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U5_rShqorA

[Bill Sprague]

Steve's video and approach is very good.

The way the camera makes the 2gb files when shooting continuous video is a common challenge.  Panasonic cameras that shoot AVCHD share it.  The root of the problem is the base formatting designs of SD cards.

If Steve's solution doesn't eliminate the audio gap, you might try the Sony software that came with the camera.  It has had a couple different names.  I think the current name is "PlayMemories Home".  It has a lot of features!  One of them is to combine the video files shot continuously on Sony cameras into a single larger file on your computer.  If I remember correctly, PlayMemories requires the process to start with the SD card and all the files on it created by the camera.  If you've already transferred the MTS files to your computer, I don't think it works. 

Good luck with your video projects!

Bill

[johnl68330082]

Thank you Steve and Bill for your great feedback.  Steve, I'm very impressed with your YouTube series on Adobe Elements 15.  I'm thinking that it is a lot like 13.  Steve, in watching your video to download from camcorder, it looks like that there is no difference between taking the SD card out of the camera and plugging it into the computer or getting it direct from the camera via USB.  It looks like the same thing would result but I could be wrong.  I bought my Sony camcorder back in 2012 so I'm foggy on what it originally came with but what I have in my camera bag is half of a USB cable that plugs into the computer but I lack the second half that plugs into the camcorder.  Can that be obtained at a large computer parts store?

Bill, I think that you are on to something with "PlayMemories Home".  I downloaded this program to my Windows XP computer years ago when I first bought my HDR-CX580 but I don't recall where I got the program from.  I still have this computer to run legacy programs which also contains Adobe Elements 3.  I could never get this to work with my Sony.  If I could somehow find the Play Memories program, I'd like to try to download it into my Windows 7 computer where Elements 13 is and see if I can make the SD card record to make one continuous file.  I think that the program was derived from the camera itself so I would need to aquire the part of the USB cord that plugs into the camera,  What would be the best and easiest way to obtain one?

I've thought of a way that might work through a series of transfers of video to download into Elements 3, then transfer the raw and complete video copy to Elements 13, then using it over the parts of the sound tract that had glitches in the original but this is way too much trouble.  It should just work properly to begin with.

[johnl68330082]

I apologize about asking about the USB cord from my Sony camcorder.  I found my old manual and found out that the outgoing USB cord is already attached to my camera and it is so hidden that I had forgotten about it.  Now all I have to do is some experimenting.

[johnl68330082]

I already have the "Play Memories Home" on my XP computer via USB so I hooked up my Sony camcorder to it and started experimenting.  I could not find a way to try Steve's suggestion but I did discover something strange.  For videos that are shot continuously over 18 minutes, Sony Play Memories shows a thumbnail picture of the combined files that were shot continuously.  I thought, oh good, maybe it just combines the 2 gig files.  I tried playback of that thumbnail and at the place predicted, not only was there an interruption of the sound but the video as well.  My original problem only had a glitch with the sound.  I don't see a solution in "Play Memories" unless I'm missing something.

I don't have much confidence with the Adobe support team.  They botched a simple get started question so I'm relying on you experts on this forum to help me solve this.  I'm not very knowledgeable in the digital world but could some upgrade from Adobe fix this or a change in settings or a program like HandBrake?  These are all things above my knowledge level.