audio files distorted in archiving?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

After I archive .avi files onto DVD and re-import them, I seem to be getting
some portions of the audio that are distorted, i.e., prone to "stuttering"
on playback. Apparently the audio portion of the files is getting corrupted
in the archiving process. Has anybody run into this, and are there solutions
(other than archiving on portable hard drives, which is where I may go with
it)? I'm using the software that came with my HP +R DVD burner to transfer
files to DVD, and I'm not using the dla feature, I'm archiving as standard
"read in any machine" DVD's. I haven't experimented with it very much yet,
just isolated the problem.

Thanks,
Steve S.
ssake@goldthread.com

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

"Steve S." <ssake@goldthread.com> wrote in message news_idnfYO6aPnX5XfRVn-tg@comcast.com...
> After I archive .avi files onto DVD and re-import them, I seem to be getting
> some portions of the audio that are distorted, i.e., prone to "stuttering"
> on playback. Apparently the audio portion of the files is getting corrupted
> in the archiving process. Has anybody run into this, and are there solutions
> (other than archiving on portable hard drives, which is where I may go with
> it)? I'm using the software that came with my HP +R DVD burner to transfer
> files to DVD, and I'm not using the dla feature, I'm archiving as standard
> "read in any machine" DVD's. I haven't experimented with it very much yet,
> just isolated the problem.
>
> Thanks,
> Steve S.
> ssake@goldthread.com
>
I trust that by "archive" you mean you copy the .avi data files to DVD+R.
After you have copied one over, rename the original file on the hard drive
and then copy the file back. Then do a bit-for-bit file compare. If they
don't match, your burner has problems or your blanks are incompatible.
Data backup should be perfect, of course. And it would be amazing
if only the audio portion gets corrupted.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

I know how to compare file size, but what do you mean by a "bit-for-bit file
compare"? I can play the re-imported clip, and see if it has audio
distortion compared with the original, but if that's the case, I'm not sure
what I will have proven beyond what I already knew.
Steve S.



Then do a bit-for-bit file compare. If they
> don't match, your burner has problems or your blanks are incompatible.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

"Steve S." <ssake@goldthread.com> wrote in message news:UOSdnfYvZpXyGJTfRVn-tg@comcast.com...
> I know how to compare file size, but what do you mean by
> a "bit-for-bit file compare"? I can play the re-imported clip,
> and see if it has audio distortion compared with the original,
> but if that's the case, I'm not sure what I will have proven
> beyond what I already knew.
> Steve S.
>
Digital video files are just like any other computer files, but
bigger than most. There are file utilities that can compare
the complete contents of one file with those of another.
In DOS days there was the command-line utility FC.
It's still there on my Win98SE system, and on my WinXP
system. There was also a program called WinDiff that
could be installed from the Win98SE CD. It also seems
to be on my WinXP CD, but I haven't installed it yet.
There were also commercial and shareware utilities
available, and surely some have been updated to run
under WinXP. You need to find a local computer geek.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

On 2/8/2005, L David Matheny managed to type:
> "Steve S." <ssake@goldthread.com> wrote in message
> news:UOSdnfYvZpXyGJTfRVn-tg@comcast.com...
>> I know how to compare file size, but what do you mean by
>> a "bit-for-bit file compare"? I can play the re-imported clip,
>> and see if it has audio distortion compared with the original,
>> but if that's the case, I'm not sure what I will have proven
>> beyond what I already knew.
>> Steve S.
>>
> Digital video files are just like any other computer files, but
> bigger than most. There are file utilities that can compare
> the complete contents of one file with those of another.
> In DOS days there was the command-line utility FC.
> It's still there on my Win98SE system, and on my WinXP
> system. There was also a program called WinDiff that
> could be installed from the Win98SE CD. It also seems
> to be on my WinXP CD, but I haven't installed it yet.
> There were also commercial and shareware utilities
> available, and surely some have been updated to run
> under WinXP. You need to find a local computer geek.

I'm geek enough for this.

Open up a command window (Start | Run, type command and Enter). Go
there and type cd "your directory name" Enter. (You need the quotes if
there are spaces in the path name, and you should for safety's sake
type the whole path name starting with C:\Program Files (or whatever)
inside the quotes.

Once there, do a dir command (dir Enter) to make sure your two files
are there (i.e., that you got to the right place).

Now type fc "original file name" "copied file name" Enter. Again you
need the quotes if there are spaces in the names. And since you're in
the right directory (folder) you don't need to qualify the file names -
that is, no path names in front of the file names. You do need the
extensions (.avi in your case, judging by your original post).

If you see "No differences encountered" or some such, you've got a
perfect copy. If you see a (possibly huge) list of differences, you've
got troubles. Even one byte's difference could be fatal, depending on
which byte it is, but there shouldn't be even one difference...

Unfortunately, if you have a perfect copy, you've got another mystery.

HTH,
Gino

--
Gene E. Bloch (Gino)
letters617blochg3251
(replace the numbers by "at" and "dotcom")