Audio won't work on Optura Xi

Does the camera record the sound properly? can your hear anything, when you playback the recorded files on the camcorder?
have you tried playing back the recorded files via VLC Media player?

regarding the SD card error - what kind of sd-cards are you using? normal sd, sdhc or sdxc ? - does your camera support all of these types?

 

"no" - what....? no sound when you play your videos back on the camera or when the camera is connected to a TV? - then either your in camera settings are messed up (input or output volume set to 0 or something like this) or your camera is damaged.

no audio with playback in vlc? probably still be the camera's fault.

no audio in quicklook, quicktime or imovie? might be a codec-problem, try vlc first.

have you tried recording on dv-tape?

look at the sd-cards. does it say sd, sdhc or sdxc somewhere on the label? if the card has more tan 2gb it's probably a sdhc card, if it has more than 32gb it's an sdxc card. sdhc was introduced in 2006, your camcorder in 2003 - chances are good that it can't read the newer sdhc cards.

 

try vlc (it's free).

but i guess, when you got no sound on your recordings, and have checked that both the input & output sound level is set correctly, and tried the same with a dv-tape instead of a sd card, and still no sound then there's something wrong with your camcorder.

yes it can only "take" regular sd-cards (= equal or below 2 gb in capacity) - but sdhc and sdxc have the same form-factor - so the cards fit & look the same, it just can't read it.

 

at least you know, that there is a card that works - keep trying other cards - o bet a lot of folks got old sd-cards <2gb they don't need any more.

try VLC first with the video files.

or you could upload a real short one and i'll have a look at it.

good luck!

 

might still be a codec problem - you could try installing perian ( http://www.perian.org ) for more codecs.

otherwise i'm afraid your camera might be defect.