Premiere Elements 9.0 no sound with AVCHD

Question

Hi all I'm trying to work with a new camera that I bought (primarily for stills, but the HD video is so good I'd like to use with prelements) which is the Panasonic Lumix FZ35 U.S model but when adding a AVCHD file form the camera on to PC and then into elements the video looks fine but there is no sound channel.
I've tried changing the extension to the file (.MOV) but the same problem remains.
I can switch the recording format to Motion Jpeg but the files are huge and vastly reduce my recording time
I'm wanting to know if A) these files can be easily imported into PE or B) if there is a way of converting (hopefully not a lengthy process) and how best to do it without loss of quality.
Any help or advice on this would be great.
Thanks in advance
Jon

Answer 1

It looks like that camera records in AVCHD Lite, and that the Audio is recorded with DD Stereo processing, and I would guess that it uses a single mic, but processes the Audio to simulated stereo. What I could NOT find from the specs. page, was exactly what format/CODEC is used for the Audio stream. I can only guess that it is DD AC3, which should Import fine into PrE. May be that I just missed the Audio spec.
What Project Preset did you choose?
With AVCHD (and possibly AVCHD Lite), one should have the choice of either stereo, or DD 5.1 SS. In this case, I would choose the stereo option.
When you Imported the footage, did you wait for PrE to Conform the Audio fully? This ARTICLE will give you some background and some tips.
Also, there are a couple of things to consider with Audio.
Can you hear Audio in other programs?
Can you hear Audio in PrE with other source files?
Can you see the Audio portion of the Clip, in an Audio Track in PrE? Note, depending on how one has set up the Project, one may have to use the Scroll Bars to find this, when in Timeline View Mode. The Scroll bars are to the far-right of the Timeline Panel, and are not easy to see.
Let us know about your Project Preset and the Conforming process. Then let us know about the general Audio on the system and in PrE. This ARTICLE will give you some things to check out, but those will depend on the answers to those general Audio questions.
Good luck,
Hunt