Captivate records narration well, but published output is garbled

[DGarrettatZnxt]

I have tried recording with two different microphones (handheld and headset), neither of which are USB. I'm recording on the fly during the video recording. The narration sounds great in when I listen to it in Captivate, but is garbled when I run the recording in Preview or Publish the project. By garbled I mean it sounds tinny and there's more background noise. I can't call it acceptable.

I exported the audio track and when I did, Captivate created a .wav file and an .mp3 file. My intepretation of this is that the recording is being made as a .wav and is then converted at publishing time to .mp3. The deteriation in quality is quite noticeable. As an experiment, I converted the .wav to an .mp3 using some other software with a lot more in the way of control. The .wav sounded fine. So I conclude that the problem lies in the Captivate's conversion routine from .wav to .mp3, but there seems to be no way to adjust that (other than the low, medium, and high quality settings -- by the way, the "high" quality setting did not help).

Any thoughts on this situation? I'd love to use Captivate and get going on my project, but this sound issue is a big hangup.

David

[CatBandit]

Hi David,
1) How large is your project in total number of slides?
. . . number of slides containing audio?
. . . actual physical size in pixels?
All of these should be available in the movie Properties colum (left side of Storyboard view), or from "View > Bandwidth Analyser". What I'm looking for is possible "resources" issues.

2) In no order . . . yes, there are two copies of each audio file, one in WAV (PCM) format and the other in MP3. The WAV is created (if necessary) for purposes of editing - the audio editor in Captivate is a WAV editor. The MP3 is created to be included in the published output - for purposes of best "streaming" performance of the published SWF, from the web.

3) I am absolutely certain that the problem is NOT in Captivate's conversion routine. The is not to say the problem is not real - just that I don't think it is happening during conversion.

4) You mention "quality" settings. Have you tried changing the quality of all affected audio to "High" (CD, I believe)? Have you then tried changing it back to "normal" (FM, as I remember). I would try that before throwing up your hands - but it would be best if you used "Save As" liberally, to create copies so the original can be preserved . . .

Hope there is some help here - keep in touch, David.

[DGarrettatZnxt]

Thanks for that. It looks to be a "search and destroy" mission requiring lots of experimenting since it's not a Captivate problem per se. I'll try out your suggestion of changing the sound quality back and forth and see what that does. I think I'll also install Captivate on another one of my computers and see what the results are. At least that way I can begin isolating the problem.

[CatBandit]

I wouldn't even say it's not a Captivate problem. It may be, but if so it's one that doesn't easily lend itself to duplication, so a "fix" within Captivate is difficult at best.

Idle chat ... (?)
We had a similar situation with "Realtek" microphones (I don't think this is your problem, but check the brand name anyway). It took forever to realize that those users who were complaining that Captivate didn't recognize their microphones were only those using that particular brand. The problem isn't fixed yet, but at least it can now be looked at with an eye toward that support software ... it may be possible to find a solution either within Captivate or in collaboration with Realtek.

Good luck David!
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