No audio output when using Windows 8 64 and Lightworks 11.1 64 Posted by bobbradley - 25 Jun 2013 20:15 Hello I wonder if anyone can help with a problem I have encountered. I have just rebuilt my pc moving from Windows 7 to Windows 8 64. I installed Lightworks 11.1 64 but unfortunately there is no audio output. I have installed the latest Realtek audio drivers for my Mobo which are windows 8 certified, all the other programmes I have installed have correct audio. The video clips I have used to test lightworks play with correct audio using VLC player and the audio meters in the Lightworks mixer tool are moving during playback. There does not seem to be any setting or dialog that allows me to troubleshoot how Lightworks interacts with the windows audio playback hardware. My system has a number of audio devices, for example HDMI and Display port digital audio but all other software seems to correctly select the default which is "speakers". I have tried an uninstall/reinstall but that made no difference. Any help would be appreciated. Re: No audio output when using Windows 8 64 and Lightworks 11.1 64 Posted by rhinox202-25 Jun 2013 20:23 Most likely the audio of your clips is encoded with AC3 but it's hard to say without knowing what your files are. In VLC, you should be able to right-click on the video area and get Codec information. If it says that the audio is AC3, download and install AC3Filter. Keep in mind that this software has some adware (called OpenCandy) in the installer. It's not harmful but make sure that you uncheck whatever they are offering. After the installation you may need to re-import your footage. 1 / 7
Re: No audio output when using Windows 8 64 and Lightworks 11.1 64 Posted by bobbradley - 25 Jun 2013 21:02 Thanks very much for your thoughts. The clip I used was captured using a blackmagic shuttle. I have checked the codec info in VLC as you suggest and the audio is "PCM S16 LE (araw)". As the audio meters in Lightworks mixer tool move during playback this leads Me to think that the programme is processing the audio internally but not passing the output to the computers hardware. I used to use Avid professionally before the broadcaster I work for changed to FCP 7. In Avid it was possible to play a test tone without needing to play media to check audio output, FCP may do this but I have never needed to check. In Lightworks I have just found an option called hardware output tests. I clicked on this and a dialog appeared listing various test signals and tones. There is no button marked "play test tone" for instance, but it may be that the tones and video signals are enabled automatically when you select this option. Unfortunately My speakers remain silent during this test which amplifies My belief that the problem is between Lightworks and the Windows audio hardware / drivers. Re: No audio output when using Windows 8 64 and Lightworks 11.1 64 Posted by rhinox202-26 Jun 2013 01:04 As you assumed, the audio tones are played automatically. Assuming that audio works outside of Lightworks, try upgrading your audio drivers. Also, make sure that audio output is being routed properly in the mixer (on the right side). Is it possible that you "messed" with them? Beyond that I'm not sure what to say. 2 / 7
Re: No audio output when using Windows 8 64 and Lightworks 11.1 64 Posted by bobbradley - 26 Jun 2013 20:23 I have now found a solution and restored audio output but it is far from ideal. I uninstalled the Blackmagic desktop software and sound was restored to the computer speakers, all the clips I referred to above now play with sound. I assume the sound was playing through the Blackmagic shuttle, but I only need it for capture so its outputs are not connected to anything. The version I have been using is the trial of professional. It seems that Lightworks finds the Blackmagic hardware and then gives the user no choice but to use that hardware for playback. I accept that I may be wrong in this assumption but if an option exists that allows the user to select the audio device to use for playback it is not easy to find. Re: No audio output when using Windows 8 64 and Lightworks 11.1 64 Posted by bobbradley - 29 Jun 2013 11:12 Just for completeness I thought I would bring this thread full circle. It is now a couple of days since My first post and My pro trial has now expired. I have reinstalled the Blackmagic drivers and now as I suspected might be the case I can capture clips using "Media Express" and then edit them in Lightworks complete with sound. I think this is probably because Lightworks free version does not support Blackmagic hardware. If this is true then I think that the pro version should have an easy way to select the audio playback hardware when multiple devices are available. Re: No audio output when using Windows 8 64 and Lightworks 11.1 64 Posted by nearheights - 22 Oct 2013 21:32 Just started to work with lightworks a couple of days ago and run into the same issue with no sound. 3 / 7
I was testing using plain audio files and not a peep was coming out. Saw talk about blackmagic... which I also have, so i uninstalled the software. While it was uninstalling it did ask to close lightworks... which looked like a good sign. So I closed it. Once I restarted lightworks again... BOOM there was sound. So, YES, the blackmagic software is acting as the main output source for audio. Re: No audio output when using Windows 8 64 and Lightworks 11.1 64 Posted by ABCRONNIE - 23 Oct 2013 00:14 Hi nearheights I can confirm that if you have BlackMagic hardware installed, it always takes control of the audio in Lightworks. I use a Decklink Studio 2 on one machine and an UltraStudio SDI on the other. This behaviour is common to both devices. To get around the issue on the Decklink Studio 2, I use the 4 analogue O/P's of the Decklink into an audio mixer whilst using Lightworks, purely for monitoring. On the machine with the UltraStudio SDI, I use an audio de-embedder to obtain analogue audio for monitoring. It is worth noting that if you are using HDMI from your BlackMagic device to monitor video on your television, then the audio from Lightworks is embedded in the HDMI signal path so you would need to take the audio out of your TV into an amplifier and speaker set. Most recent televisions have an audio out on a pair of RCA type connections I really think the issue to correct this should lie with BlackMagic Design rather than Editshare. The reason, well Editshare did not design the plethora of cards BlackMagic Design sells. As a matter of interest, many Avid MC setups that uses BlackMagic cards also suffer from the same issue. 4 / 7
Cheers R. Re: No audio output when using Windows 8 64 and Lightworks 11.1 64 Posted by lwksjh - 24 Apr 2014 23:16 I just installed Windows 8.1 64. LWKS 11.5.1 64 would not open. I reinstalled LWKS; it opens fine. No sound out. Audio tracks look the same.? Jim 21:00 GMT +7 I updated almost all win drivers. Still no audio from any project. I never touched the audio panel. Nor the intern. Is there something I might try before I roll back, if that is an option. That or install an earlier version of W. Sage responses only please. Heh. I it possible that downloading a fresh version of 11.5.1 could contain a fix? Or one of the betas? Or a previous version? I have school-project deadlines. In the audio panel I started a tone. I could not control it. It quit only when I closed LWKS. 5 / 7
Re: No audio output when using Windows 8 64 and Lightworks 11.1 64 Posted by shaunthesheep - 25 Apr 2014 09:19 Do you get sound from other media programmes like WMP or VLC? Could it be that your OS sound is not set up properly in Control Panel > Sounds? Also try experimenting with the settings in the Lightworks audio mixer - right click on one of the viewers and select "Audio Mixer Panel". See this sticky for a good explanation of how it can be used. Make sure that left and right channels are not panned in such a way that they cancel each other out. Please also see this sticky and provide a MediaInfo analysis of your imported files Regarding the use of Beta versions of Lightworks, bear in mind that they are for testing only and should not be used for important time-critical projects. I would stick to the stable release until your college projects are finished. Re: No audio output when using Windows 8 64 and Lightworks 11.1 64 Posted by lwksjh - 25 Apr 2014 11:49 Thank you very much for your prompt assistance. Last night, after I used the audio panel to produce a tone that I could hear, but not adjust, I closed LWKS. This morning when I opened one of my projects the sound was working. Yes, other sound sources worked. I had gone through the audio settings in Windows first thing. My knowledge of these things is very limited, and I cannot offer a guess as to what happened. I had lost all sound once before. My solution then was to re-import all clips and reconstruct the entire project. I would like to understand what occurred so that I will know what to do if it happens again, but for now I a grateful that some beneficent imp apparently helped out. 6 / 7
Re: No audio output when using Windows 8 64 and Lightworks 11.1 64 Posted by shaunthesheep - 25 Apr 2014 18:57 Could it be a soundcard driver issue? If you lose the sound again, re-install the (latest) driver? Did you lose sound in all your programmes like Windows Media Player or just in Lightworks? 7 / 7