Do you mean the resulting extracted .wav files were very large?

You can produce your file to an audio .wmv. From memory, you may need to change the project AR to 4:3 in PD8 to get the .wmv audio options in the drop down profile box.

I'll have a check in a few minutes.

Cheers
Adrian

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

Hi Sdrian, Yes, the resulting wav files are very large.

: Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5

Sorry about misspelling your name.

Bohn Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5

If you want to produce to .wmv audio, change the AR to 4:3 and then choose the .wmv option, choose whichever quality audio you want.
Example
Extracted .wav 38min 425Mb
Produced .wmv 38 min 36Mb

Alternatively you could extract to wav and then convert of say .mp3 with other software. Many folk use Audacity but there's lots of freeware converters around.

Cheers
Adrian Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

Thanks Adrian. That tremendous reduction to 36 mb from 425 will solve my problems.

Please dtry to indulge my abysmal ignorance, but another question is whether I should use PD 8 to write to a standard cd. In Create Disc mode, disc preferences does not reference simple cd format, only VCD and SVCD. Will these formats be playable in a cd player without video capability, an automobile cd, for instance?

Thanks for your resolution of my problem about file size.

Cheers,

Bohn Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5

Hi Bohn & Adrian -

Different audio formats have different levels of compression, resulting in different file sizes - & resultant quality change. That can be useful, right up to the point where you burn a standard audio CD.

I just did a small test, beginning with a 3 minute AVCHD clip.
1. Extract audio to .wav file (in PD)
2. Convert clip to .wav file (in FormatFactory)
3. Convert clip to .mp3 file (in FormatFactory)
4. Produce clip to .wma (in PD)

In iTunes, I imported the extracted .wav file & the converted .mp3 file & made two separate playlists containing 20x each file.

20 x .wav file = 710.6MB
20 X .MP3 file - 64.6MB

I burnt the playlists to standard Audio CDs. Despite the difference in playlist size, each disc was "full"... because CDs are burnt in .cda format. The compressed .mp3 files were (I'm assuming) uncompressed. I don't necessarily understand it but I do know that - for burning an audio CD, there's no size advantage.

iTunes also has the option of burning an MP3 CD, which many modern CD players can read. An MP3 CD can hold about 6 times as much audio as a standard audio CD, obviously with resultant quality loss.

Hope that helps somehow -

Tony


Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

Hi Adrian and Tony, I have observed your posts in the rexcent past and know that you both are very savy about audio. It is now 7:00 pm in Miami. I will spend the rest of the evening trying to comprehand my situation and possible solutions. However, I don't have a great amount of hope.

I have not been able to properly employ Adrian's solution so far. I can change the AR to 4:3, but must do so in the timeline. This moves the audio into the voice/Music track.
However, I have been unable to isolate the video from the audio for all practical purposes.
If I remove the video from the time line, the audio also disappears.
If I produce with the video present, PD produces the whole thing.

Tony, I ran out of space and will send you a serparate grateful response. Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5

Bohn -

To extract the audio and make a separate .wav file, right click on the clip in the Media Library and a new file will be produced. This does not remove the audio from the clip.

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

Tony, your help, which was real is so far beyond my competence that I have not been able to manipulate the software you referred me to. I will keep trying, but am afraid I have an awful lot to learn.

I have 25 one half hour video speeches that I want to convert to25 discrete audio files files on one cd which will play in older cd players. When you are up to your hips in alligators, it is difficult to remember that your original intent was to drain the swamp.

Thanks for your help. I may never arrive at the goal, but you both have definitely moved me in that direction. :

Cheers & Cheerio,

Bohn Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5

Hi Tony - unfortunately, that is how I discovered my current problem. I extracted the audio from all of the clips, then both packed and saved them. After that, I discovered their large size.

Now, I am trying to reduce the size of the files. They are wma files. This is when Dana suggested that I go to a 4;3 Format and produce the file. The result is a much smaller file that I can use quite well. However, I have been unable to replicate his test.

I cannot change to the 4:3 format after the video and audio are split and even if I go back to the raw footage to start over, I cannot isolate the audio from the video, either before or after the project is produced. PD wants to include the video in the burn when I go to "create disk." It is a mystery to me.
Cheers
Bohn Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5

Sorry, I see I referred to Dana, but it was Adrian who helped me earlier.

Bohn Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5

I've rechecked this morning and, for some reason, whilst I had to change the project AR to 4:3 to get the wma profiles yesterday, today I don't.

Another strange quirk to keep me guessing. Once again PD has altered the space-time continuum and I have entered a parallel universe.

Cheers
Adrian Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

Thanks for letting me know, Adrian. It helps to remove that variable from the equation. Although separating video and audio files is easily done in PD 8, writing a pure audio file is proving difficult.

Audio only profile types are offered in the Produce menu of PD 8, but writing audio only to a simple cd, instead of a vcd or svcd is not an option that I have been able to activate in the Create Disc menu.

The trouble is that I am not satisfied whether I am confronting an actual problem inherent in PD 8 or if it is a simple ineptness in usage of the software on my part. I hate to suggest the need for a solution if there is no problem to solve.
Cheers and thanks,
Bohn Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5

Another strange quirk to keep me guessing. Once again PD has altered the space-time continuum and I have entered a parallel universe.

Pick me up a T-shirt while you're there.

I didn't see if this got answered, but PD doesn't write audio CD's as far as I know. Once you get the audio in a format that you are happy with, use a third party software to burn the CD. If you are using mp3 and want the files to play in a certain order, you will need to start each file name with a number, such as 01, 02, etc. mp3's will burn and/or play in alpha numeric order regardless of how you add them to your burn project.

I extract the audio to wave and use Audacity to convert to mp3, myself. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

Thanks Jamie, I will try to take your advice. At this stage, that does seem to be the best way to go. I am proceeding on the assumption that, after converting from wav to mp3 and writing them to a cd, the mp3 files can be read by ordinary cd readers, such as are in automobiles. :

Please correct me if you are of the opinion that my assumption is wrong.

Thanks for your help and advice. :

Cheers,

Bohn Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5

Hi Bohn -

I probably didn't explain it properly before. Changing the audio format to .mp3 or some other compressed format gives you a file size advantage on your PC or data disc...

BUT

when you burn an audio CD, that advantage is "lost" because the files are decompressed.

It doesn't matter whether you start out with uncompressed .wav files or highly compressed .wma files, when they're burnt to an audio CD they'll use up about 10MB per minute. An audio CD holds about 70 minutes of music/sound (700MB).

http://ask-leo.com/audio_cds_what_format_should_i_use_to_burn_my_audio_cds.html

Bohn - I don't think you'll be able to get all those speeches onto one standard audio CD.

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

Not all CD players will play a mp3 CD. Mine will, but I specifically made sure it will before I bought it. Most players more than a few years old will not. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

Hi Tony, Jamie and Adrian,
WOW!! I am finally starting to grasp the situation! Words cannot express my gratitude for your willingness to help me in my ignorant frustration. It really helps to understand that there are reasons why things happen the way they do. Tony, the "ask-leo" article was especially helpful in closing the issue. Now, I can go forward correctly. How do I say "thanks" to help like this? You took your time to share your knowledge and to explore these issues with me. I wish I could shake your hands individually. If you are ever in Miami, Florida, USA (who knows?), let me know. I would be pleased to welcome you. Until then, I look forward to a continuing dialog here. This is a community which makes me proud. (Thanks, Dafydd)

Cheers,
Bohn Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5

Jaime, sorry for misspelling your name. I am good at that.

Bohn Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5