How do I fix no audio in Photoshop CS6 video editor, (running Windows 10)?

[Chuck_Keys]

Hello Photoshop experts.  I have NO audio playback when trying to use the CS6 Photoshop video editor.    I am running Windows 10.  CS6 and Windows 10 are fully updated.

When I had Windows 8, and first installed CS6, I had no audio, and I was told to install Apple QuickTime, and that fixed my problem.  I made the forced upgrade to Windows 10 PC last year.  

But last summer, I got a warning message to uninstall QuickTime, and I did.   A few minutes ago, I looked in the Photoshop FAQ section, and found the message "Windows- Impact of uninstalling Apple QuickTime".   But it gave no clues as to what to do.

I tried to install QuickTime7, then QuickTime7 light.  Both times, I got a big red error saying something like "Blocked by Administrator".

My Photoshop Time Window shows I have audio selected (not muted), as it shows the sound waves coming from the speaker icon.  But as soon as I press play, the speaker symbol shows it has gone to mute mode (no sound waves coming from speaker icon). 

My video files have audio, as they play fine with Windows media player.   And I found a reference to an Apple site which says you can test to see if your QuickTime7 is working, by playing Apple movie previews.  And even that works (odd, as I don't have QuickTime7 installed!).

I have no idea what to do.............  I am going crazy, hours lost..............  Any help will be greatly appreciated.  Thank you, Chuck

[Trevor.Dennis]

Hi Chuck

Use Handbrake to convert to a Photoshop friendly format, which probably means MP4.  It's free, and used by video professionals all over the world.  It will even rip DVDs into MP4 with their odd assortment of files.

Apart from converting video file formats, it works magic reducing file size with no apparent loss of quality.

https://handbrake.fr/

Also great for converting downloaded TV programs into formats playable with Smart TVs (with USB sockets) and it will do batch.

[Eternal Warrior]

Whilst Adobe's Media Encoder will do this - Handbrake is used regularly by my colleagues and it gives fairly good results given the file compression results and also quality that remains.

Trevor's answer will likely solve your problem.

[Chuck_Keys]

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Thank you Trevor!!!!!!!   I took one of my files (the native file produced by the Sony camcorder was an MTS file) and used Handbrake to convert it to an MP4, and it worked!  Instant audio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow!!!!!!!!!!   Thanks so much!!!!!  I could never have figured that out in a million years.

Is a general take-away lesson for anybody using Photoshop CS6 to do video editing, that they should plan to work only with MP4 files?

Thanks so much,   Chuck

[Chuck_Keys]

Trevor, I converted a 30 second test clip using Handbrake, and it seemed to work instantly. 

I took my first real video file, which is about 16 minutes long, 1920 x1080 and used the default Handbrake preset of "Fast 1080p30".

It is telling me that this file will take about 3 hours and 30 minutes to convert.   I have 6 more files of the same size to convert. 

Should I be using a different  Handbrake handset?   The video is a community candidate forum which will be posted on YouTube.  So the quality doesn't have to be great.

Well, I'll look to see if I can find a Handbrake forum.

Thank you again for your help, Chuck

[Chuck_Keys]

Hmm, so far the conversion of this one file has taken 1 hour and 38 minutes, and it says there are 3 hours and 48 minutes left.  Can it possibly take over 5 hours to convert a 16 minute video file?  I have a 3 year old PC with a then high end processor and lots of RAM.

I have looked on the Handbrake forum, and read through their quick instructions, and didn't find anything that suggests what normal conversion times are.   I can only imagine I have messed something up.

Are such long conversion times normal? 

Thanks, Chuck