Capturing AVCHD audio

I've shot a lot of video on a Sony camera that shoots AVCHD. When I imported the media into Resolve 12.5 it is without audio. I've read that AVCHD is not supported by Resolve so I thought the trick would be to transcode this footage within Resolve into Pro Res. But still no audio. (I've also read somewhere that the answer to AVCHD is to transcode in into a form that has a kind of audio file Resolve recognizes.)

Any idea why transcoding within Resolve didn't work. Do I perhaps have to transcode it through another program before I import the media into Resolve? Was the problem my trying to transcode this media within Resolve?

If there is some free standing transcoding program I should use, any suggestions? (I found a free one some time back but as I recall it would only let you transcode if you were willing to render all your clips into a singel file, which I don't ant to do.) If so what type of audio file would I choose?

Thanks.

John

If this at all helps I see that my little AVCHD shooting camera has under its audio specs: Compression Technology - Dolby Digital (AC-3); Codec - Linear PCM.

I see in the Resolve manual a list of several audio files it accepts: .wav .mov, etc. Its list of audio codec is a little more confusing to me. I do see a MOV 48Hz; 16, 24, 32 bit which looks a little more familiar.

So, if I am to download a separate trascoding program, can anyone say which of these audio formats I should transcode to?

Thanks.

John

[Dwaine Maggart]

If you use Resolve 14, it should support that CODEC.

If you'd like to know for sure, post a link to a sample file, and we'll verify.

Thanks.

Wow, I'm falling behind. Resolve 14? And here I'm happlily working (and still learning) 12.5. I'll download 14 and see if that solves my problem.

John

[Dwaine Maggart]

If you have existing important projects you are working on, export project drps before upgrading, and backup your Resolve database(s) before upgrading, in case you want to go back to 12.5.

Yeiks. Resolve 14 has solved my AVCHD audio problems. But where are my earlier project files? Seems to me, as I read your latest message, that they may have been wiped out in my making this upgrade. Could that be true? That would be disasterous. In all the years I'd upgrade Final Cut my old projects would be there when I upgraded. Now that I've upgraded to 14 is there any way to retrieve them. If not - disaster. If so, I'd say Resolve has to design its upgrades so that this can not happen. Here's hoping all my hard work of thelast year has not been lost.

[Dwaine Maggart]

What type of computer are you using? Mac, Windows or Linux?

Did you get Resolve from the BMD web site, or are you using the Apple App Store version, if you are on a Mac?

A Mac OS 10.12.5.

I went to the Resolve site this morning and downloaded 14 there.

John

[Dwaine Maggart]

But where did the Resolve you were previously using (the one that you've lost the projects from) come from? App Store or our site? Projects are stored in a different location on the App Store versions, due to Apple sandbox requirements.

The 12.5 version was also downloaded from the official Resolve site. (I recall that i'd read somewhere that it was better to get Resolve there than from Apple, so I did.)

[Dwaine Maggart]

If you were using the BMD web site version of Resolve 12.5 and you updated to the web site version of 14, all your projects should still be readily available.

However, Resolve 12.5 databases must be Upgraded before they will work in Resolve 14.

By default, when you launch Resolve 14, and the Project Manager page appears, all you see are projects for the current database. To see the Database list, click the icon next to Projects in the upper left.

This should expose the Database list. You will see whatever databases you had in 12.5. They should all have a rotating circle icon at the right of the database name, indicating that they need to be upgraded. Right click on the database icon to get the Upgrade menu selection.

BUT!!! Don't upgrade a database until it's been backed up. Otherwise, you won't be able to go back to Resolve 12.5 with those projects, should there be a need to.

If none of this helps you, run the Resolve Help - Create Diagnostics Log On Desktop menu, put the file it creates on a file sharing site, and provide a link to the file here.

Thanks very much. Shall digest this and give it a try. Thanks again for all your help

Hello again Dwaine.

Your instructions for getting back my 12.5 project files say not to upgrade the database until it's backed up. Maybe there is a tutorial on this somewhere but got to admit at this point I don't know exactly what is involved in backing up a datatbase like the one containing my project files. So once more I ask your help.

John

[Dwaine Maggart]

Assuming you installed 14.0.1, when you have the Database area exposed, select the database you want to backup (so it has a red border around it) then click the Backup icon in the upper database area, the icon with the up arrow. If you put the cursor over it, you should get a popup tool tip telling you it's the backup selection.

Then, after you have it backed up, you can Upgrade it.

Thanks Dwaine.

I followed your instructions and all went well; I now have 12.5 backups of original project files and have also upgraded these so that they now open in 14. And, of course, with 14 my AVCHD media now opens with both picture and sound. All rather amazing considering that once I thought all 12.5 files lost and AVCHD audio not playable unless I first transcoded the media somehow through a third party program.

All this leads me to a couple more questions.

When you suggested I back up my 12.5 project files before upgrading them to 14 you appeared to be saying that my 12.5 version of Resolve is still somewhere in my computer. I'd thought that it was somehow removed when I upgraded to 14. I'm thinking now that maybe it is like 12.5 project files – I just had to know how to get access to them. So is 12.5 still available to me on my computer somewhere?

Along with doing that back up of the 12.5 files, before upgrading them I also, just as an experiment, did a back up of the few 14 projects I've created since upgrading. They were all in one folder in the Database window and backed up as “ResolveProjectsME. resolve.diskdb”. When I used Final Cut I always made sure to make a back up of every project file at the end of a session. Is there a way to do something similar with 14? So far all I've seen in the Database window is one file – ResolveProjectsME – that includes all new project files. I've been stumbling around the chapter on the project manager in the manual and have yet to find my answer there (I haven't even been able to stumble on all the excellent information you gave me, though I suspect it's in there somewhere.) So is there a way to save project files at the end of a session to two separate drives?

Thanks once more for showing me how to solve my problems.

John

[Dwaine Maggart]

You are correct in that Resolve 14 has over written 12.5.

But you can always reinstall 12.5.x back over top of 14 at any time, if you needed to use 12.5.x for some reason, such as to deliver an old project that for some reason might not be acting the same in 14. Then when you are done, you can reinstall 14.

Resolve projects are backed up by Exporting them. In the File menu is an Export Project selection. You'd use that for currently loaded projects. In the Project Manager window, you can also right click any project, and have an Export option as well as an Export with Stills and LUTs option.

It's a very good idea to make project exports of important projects. If you are working on an important long term project, perhaps make a project export daily, so if anything goes wrong, you'd have a project that was only a day old you could use.

Once more Dwaine, thank you very much.

John