No audio on clip Premiere Elements 15

[peters26665600]

I'm a new user, and am having an issue.

I record off air programs on a Topfield STB as MPEG2 files and then edit them with PE15.

Sometimes - about one in ten times - one clip will be missing audio.

The original clip plays the audio fine, but the asset in PE15 will be minus its audio.

The audio shows in the timeline as a flatline, not the usual envelope display.

I've checked the mixer, and it's not muted or faded.

Other clips in the timeline work fine.

Deleting and re-adding the clip doesn't help.

Any ideas/suggestions as to what's happening and how I can fix it?

Thanks.

[Steve Grisetti]

When you first add a clip to a project, the program must conform it -- a process that interprets the video and audio.

Conforming is very fast for short clips. But, for longer clips (and I'm assuming the TV programs you're ripping are more like half an hour and less like 2 minutes), it can take a while. When you first add a clip to a project, you can actually watch the process in the lower right of the program.

If you interrupt this conforming process by starting to edit before the program has finished conforming, you can get partial or even no audio.

The solution is to be patient when you first add a clip to a project. Watch for it to finish conforming before you start editing.

But that's on the assumption that you're using pretty standard video. I don't know anything about the program you're using to rip your programs, but it may use variable frame rates or non-standard audio or video codecs that can further complicate things. Remember, Premiere Elements is primarily designed to edit camcorder video.

[peters26665600]

Thanks for the prompt response.

You are right - the clips are lengthy - 20mins plus.

I am always careful to allow plenty of time for the conforming process (thanks for the info on that process).

I deliberately go off and do something else when that's happening...

Also it always seems to be a clip in the middle of the group that has the issue- eg. 000.mpg and 001.mpg will be fine - but 002.mpg will be silent, then 003.mpg and 004.mpg will be fine also.

It seems that the conforming process for a clip happens only once in a project, as when I delete the errant clip from the project and add it again it doesn't go through the conforming process.

Is there any way to force a "re-conforming", as maybe that would fix the problem.

Thanks.