Hi,
I’m using Blender 2.56a and have not yet got sound in any rendered animation despite it playing fine in the VSE. HELP! There are quite a few posts in the forum with an array of solutions, none of which seem relevant. Never had this problem before in 2.4 so a bit perplexed. No luck using either SDL or OpenAL. Sound file is a .WAV and I really need the output in a .MOV so I can lift it in iDVD.
Thanks…
AFAIK the only Blender option that could multiplex audio/visual was FFMPEG, which doesn’t seem to be available in 2.56beta. Not sure what other options may exist.
EDIT: OOPS, seems FFMPEG is now “MPEG” in 2.56 beta. I’ll try some test outputs, see what I can get.
'NOTHER EDIT: OK, I’ve been able to get audio & visual output to .MOV using the following:
Render>Output – MPEG format
Render>Encoding: Format = Quicktime; Codec = H.264; default specs
Source imagery = .PNG image sequence via the Compositor; Audio = .WAV file placed in the VSE; default specs
Render>Post processing: Enable both Sequencer & Compositor.
Hit the Animation button!
BTW, also worked with H.264 (.avi format) and DVD preset (.dvd file format) instead of QT
Thanks chipmasque. Getting closer I think. Now got sound but no imagery! Followed the instructions but wasn’t quite sure what you meant by “Source imagery = .PNG image sequence via the Compositor”. I have .VOB files (predominately) in the VSE itself. Additionally I set the Audio Codec to MP3?
For my test I used a file I’d already set up to run some animations (rendered to image sequences) side-by-side, using the Compositor. So I just added the sound track to the VSE & set up for MPEG format, tried a few options. For your file it seems you’d probably just want to enable the Sequencer in Post-processing. I don’t know much about the .vob format, but if you can output it without sound you should be able to output it with sound using the settings I noted, other than not using the Compositor. The MP3 choice shouldn’t present any issues, it’s just another form of compression – proprietary, btw, so you may want to use the default (AC3?).
Your no-picture prob is likely caused by having the Compositor enabled in Post-processing but not having a Composite output node. AFAIK the Compositor will “trump” the VSE in terms of where to get the picture output, so if you have no nodes set, you’ll get no images. So just disable that option in Post-processing & you should be fine.
Tried AC3 and it didn’t work: no sound or pictures. Switched off Compositing but still no joy. Only thought I’ve had is that I’m doing this on a Mac. Could it be that it can’t render the playback??
My other settings are:
Bitrate = 6000, GOP Size = 15, Autosplit Output = unchecked, Rate: Minimum = 0, Maximum = 9000, Buffer = 1792, Mux: Rate = 10080000, Packet size = 2048
@Thane: note that you might select a video codec in the encoding panel but no audio codec is enabled by default so you’ll have to set one to mux any audio in the movie you’re rendering. Wav audio is uncompressed so you might use any audio codec that is supported by ffmpeg. Also make sure that (a) you use proper sampling and bitrates and (b) the container format supports the video and audio codec combo.
Secondly, chipmasque is talking about img sequences and you say that you’ve got vob files placed in the VSE. Can you hear any audio during playback in the VSE?
I made a tut on this a while ago, hope it helps. http://blendernerd.com/render-with-audio/
Apple-polly-loggies for the confusion I may have spread about audio codec. I hadn’t used 2.56beta for this yet, and my first test was using the DVD preset, which brought up the AC3 audio codec automatically. When I switched to other container formats for video, AC3 stayed up so I though it was a default, but blendercomp’s right in that there is no default audio codec except for those used with preset formats.
Also the non-proprietary alternative to mp3 audio is AAC, not AC3.
So complicated!
Thanks all for the suggestions.
gregzaal: got the sound working better with the higher bitrate (thought it sounded funny) and learnt quite a bit from your video but still no joy - still no visuals using MPEG Output
Quite frustrating as using Quicktime Output I get visuals and no sound and with MPEG Output with Quicktime encoding I get sound but no visuals. How annoying. 
Have you tried using any of the other formats/codecs available? I sometimes use the H.264 format and the video codec with the same name, in combination with the MP3 audio codec. This gives a fairly small file size and a decent video/audio quality.
Daccy, many thanks, tried your settings and still no imagery. Makes me think I’ve got some link missing somewhere? … or things well messed up. I’m also needing it in .MOV format ideally to get it into iDVD and don’t want to lose quality with a file format change.
What are you using for a player app to test your outputs, Thane? Some players (like WiMP), just can’t handle certain video codec compression schemes, but will play back the audio stream. Vice-versa for some other combinations of video and audio. V-Dub can’t play .mp4’s at all, and Firefox chokes on them, often crashing in the process.
The best all-around media player I’ve come across is VLC media player, and it’s Open Source. It has a few limitations but is by far the player with the broadest codec compatiblity I’ve yet to discover. Maybe give it a try?
Thanks chipmasque!
Got to the finish line on this now which means I can finish my project. The key was installing VLC on my Mac [got VLC on my PC but prefer using Blender on my Mini Mac - 5 years old but works just fine]. It turns out that the .MOV and .AVI files I was generating that had no visuals did have visuals it’s just that the Quicktime Player wasn’t showing them; VLC was playing both audio and visuals fine, .AVI and .MOV.
Problem still remained that they couldn’t be added to iDVD due to incompatibility. I got round this by downloading Miro Video Converter [free app from the new App Store]. I dropped the .AVI on it and asked it to convert it to a universal Mac file type (which appears to be a variant of an MP4). It also converted the .MOV files into MP4 files which also worked. I could add this to iDVD and it appears to be working fine, although I need to burn a disc to verify. Also compressed them nicely which was a bonus (although I’m probably losing some definition).
I guess the fundamental problem remains that the generated Quicktime files from the VSE don’t play in the Quicktime Player (not on a Mac anyway) and that causes problems e.g. with iDVD. However, if you’re on a Mac, there’s an easy free workaround.
Thanks to all who helped. Getting to the finish line is often more about perseverance than anything else!
Regards,
Thane
Welcome to the simple, uncomplicated and easy-to-understand world of video!
