VS & MSP: Fix for Out of Synch Audio/Video

Tutorials using more than one Product

Moderator: sjj1805

User avatar
Administrator
Site Admin
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:45 am

VS & MSP: Fix for Out of Synch Audio/Video

Post by Administrator » Wed Oct 25, 2006 7:55 pm

How to re-align Out Of Synch Audio.
(Please note this is intended as a last resort fix only to be used when all else fails.)

A popular question posed to the forum is what to do if a video is out of sync with the audio.
There have been several posts detailing the Do's and Dons and what settings to adopt etc.
Perhaps you had no control over the capturing and digitalisation process, perhaps it was a file you've download off the internet.

OK you've browsed the forum, done everything imaginable but no mater what your video starts in synch and at the end of the program is out of synch by 1 or 2 seconds or more. You feel like grabbing the computer and throwing it into the corner. You've tried everything.

There are two types of audio/video synchronisation problems.

Type 1:
Audio/Video starts in synch but at the end of the movie they are out of synch.

Type 2:
Audio and Video are out of synch throughout the entire video.

User avatar
Administrator
Site Admin
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:45 am

Post by Administrator » Wed Oct 25, 2006 7:56 pm

Type 1:
Audio/Video starts in synch but at the end of the movie they are out of synch.

In this situation follow this method:

Here is a fix that although not perfect will get them aligned - not perfectly (but you could be lucky - I was with one I did to test this procedure out), but good enough to make the video watchable.
The theory is the same with whichever Video Editor you use.
In File | Preferences - make sure that Clip Display Mode is Thumbnail only.

Step 1. View the end of the video with something like Power DVD or Windows Media Player, watch carefully and see if the sound is ahead of the video or behind. Try and guess by how much 1/2 second, 1 second etc.
Step 2. Place the video onto your timeline in Timeline View
Step 3. Right click the video and select Split the audio from the video.

Image

Step 4. Click right click the video track and Select \"playback speed\".

Image

Now Alter the duration.
If the Video was ahead of the audio make the duration less by the amount you perceived it to be out.
If the video was behind the audio increase the duration by that amount.

Image

Step 5. Save the project so you can return to this point and adjust it again if your guestimate was too far out.
Step 6. Render the video
Step 7. View finished result. Return to Step 4 if it is still too far out.

User avatar
Administrator
Site Admin
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:45 am

Post by Administrator » Wed Oct 25, 2006 7:56 pm

Type 2:
Audio and Video are out of synch throughout the entire video.


Step 1. View the end of the video with something like Power DVD or Windows Media Player, watch carefully and see if the sound is ahead of the video or behind. Try and guess by how much 1/2 second, 1 second etc.
Step 2. Place the video onto your timeline in Timeline View
Step 3. Right click the video and select Split the audio from the video.
Step 4. Zoom your timeline to 1/5 second
VideoStudio users right click on the ruler, MediaStudio users right click just left of the ruler.
Step 5. Now click the audio track to select it and slide it along to the right.
Step 6. On the playback window select roject� and then play to see if the audio/video is synchronised. Repeat step 5 until they are in synch.
Step 7. Zoom your timeline to 1 frame and then repeat step 5 for any fine adjustment that may be required.
Step 8.
VideoStudio users:
Select the Share Tab and create Video File. Select ame as First Video Clip� and render your now n Synch� Video.
MediaStudio Users:
Right click the Thumbnail of the original video in the production library and select roperties� make a note of the video/audio settings. Use these same settings now to create a new video file using File | Create | Video file

User avatar
Administrator
Site Admin
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:45 am

Post by Administrator » Wed Oct 25, 2006 7:58 pm

bradwell777 wrote:Steve

Have been using VS7 for some years, capturing from variety of sources (JVC Mini-DV, Video-8, VHS, Beta-Max [through Canopus analogue input]). Purely for transfering material for family & friends from older media to DVD/SVCD/VCD.

Have always liked the 'feel' of VS and too set in my ways to change! Now trialling VS10 before buying and looking at functionality with all my capture sources.

Have a couple of family DVDs sent over from US. I want to take out sections to include in another family video on DVD-PAL.

Managed to rip the US DVD into avi files which plays OK in my Media Player. However VS will not load them - both VS7 and trial VS10 'lock-up'.

Have therefore converted the avi files using AOne's AVI to MPG The resultant MPG-2s do load into VS but get the audio/visual sync problem. In sync at start and about 3 secs out by end (1h30m).

Have read with interest your articles on syncs, frames and timestamping. However have follwed your guidance and tried 3 times to adjust the sound file to be 3 sec longer. No luck.

Am I reading your instructions correctly!

After splitting the video & sound in the timeline, right-click on the audio and adjust by EXTENDING the run time to 3 secs more. I do this by adding 3 secs to the time-scroll boxes. This automatically REDUCES the % figure at the top and slightly moves the pointer in the middle. Then re-render the project (which takes about 3 hours on my PC). No luck.

Have actually done a 3 sec adjustment BOTH ways and then rendered the project - still out of sync!

help!!

David (bradwell777)

User avatar
Administrator
Site Admin
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:45 am

Post by Administrator » Wed Oct 25, 2006 7:59 pm

bradwell777 wrote:.......Have a couple of family DVDs sent over from US. I want to take out sections to include in another family video on DVD-PAL.

Managed to rip the US DVD into avi files which plays OK in my Media Player. However VS will not load them - both VS7 and trial VS10 'lock-up'.
David.
The best thing is of course to try and avoid having to tackle the out of synch problem in the first place. the VOB files on a DVD are a form of MPEG2 and so by 'ripping' to AVI they are being converted once to avi and then a second time back to MPEG2 when being returned to the new DVD.

You have two options.

Option 1 - recommended.
Import the parts of the DVD you wish to use in the new one using the method shown in this tutorial by Vidoman

Option 2 - if for any reason Option 1 fails.
Rename the VOB file(s) to MPG. Example:-
VTS_01_1.VOB becomes partone.mpg
VTS_02_1.VOB becomes parttwo.mpg
and so on.

Now that you have these MPG files avoid re-rendering by matching your project settings to those files.

Should for any reason the audio and video still end up out of synch the process I have outlined in simplistic terms is:

If you stretch the audio - you hear the difference - slow the audio down and voices get gruffy. speed them up and they sound like the tin men from the 'for mash get smash' advert.

If you stretch the video - provided the audio remains in its original state - you dont notice a slight speeding up or slowing down.

Therefore split the audio from the video and then adjust the length of the video to match the length of the audio.

The probable reason you are having synch issues is because your original material is in NTSC format 29.97 frames per second
Your ouput is to PAL which is 25 frames per second.

Thre is an article here:
From PAL to NTSC it also highlights the problems with doing it the other way round.

User avatar
Administrator
Site Admin
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:45 am

Post by Administrator » Wed Oct 25, 2006 7:59 pm

bradwell777 wrote:Steve

Thanks for this....wish I knew about how to extract MPGs from DVD files some months ago. The DVD was a family wedding and has gone back to source - not sure if I can get a copy. The avi files I have are all that remain.

Just noticed a fault in my earlier post.. the video is BEHIND the audio by the end of the DVD. So I should be increasing the VIDEO duration by 3 second...I was doing the AUDIO stream.

Just to confirm though how is the best way to alter the duration on the Playback Speed menu?

Thanks

David

User avatar
Administrator
Site Admin
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:45 am

Post by Administrator » Wed Oct 25, 2006 7:59 pm

I've now put some pictures into the original post above. Hope this makes it a lot easier to follow.

User avatar
Administrator
Site Admin
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:45 am

Post by Administrator » Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:00 pm

bradwell777 wrote:Thanks Steve.

Screenshots make it much clearer.

I have now tried twice to render with Video expanded by 3 seconds (as it is this which is 3 secs behind the audio) but do not appear to be getting anywhere. The resulting MPEGs still have sound out of sync after rendering - by one whole minute (audio finishes before video)!

Something fishy is happening to the file on rendering.

The only thing I can see that I am NOT doing from your guide is to save the project once Video time has been extended in the Playback Speed screen - you say to do this so that you can return to this point later if further adjustments are needed. I try this one more time & will let you know.

Anyway I do not want to get too hung up on these particular files. I am trialling VS10 to see if it will handle most capture scenarios that I work with. Just unfortunate that I no longer have the DVDs for the avi files.

David

User avatar
Administrator
Site Admin
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:45 am

Post by Administrator » Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:00 pm

bradwell777 wrote:Steve

Would appear I have found the problem. I adjust the Video Time Stretch by adding 3 seconds but Playback Speed seems to reset this to a default of 1 minute. The Speed is reduced from 100% to 99%. Is this because an adjustment of 3 secs over a long file cannot be measured as less than 1%.

With large files then, where there is a gradual out of sync over the length of the file, it may be necessary to split the file into more manageable tranches so that the adjustment is a larger percentage of the clip.

David

User avatar
Administrator
Site Admin
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:45 am

Post by Administrator » Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:01 pm

Yes that makes sense. Hope you've got it reasonably watchable now :)

User avatar
Administrator
Site Admin
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:45 am

Post by Administrator » Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:01 pm

bradwell777 wrote:Steve

Afraid not.

From what I am experiences it appears that one of Zeno's paradoxes has kicked in...unless there is an default VS10 setting on the Playback Speed option which I am missing or can be changed.

If you have an audio/video sync problem of say 1 second gradually over a 10 minute clip, that 1 sec represents only 0.16% of the total length of the clip. When you try to increase the duration by 1 sec the 1% adjustment kicks in - and 1% of 10 minute clip is 6 seconds!

Therefore you can increase the run time of the video by, say, one second but only if the clip is not more than 1.66 mins long (i.e 100 seconds) as the Playback Speed scroller defaults to the nearest whole percentage integer.

I have experimented with shortening clips to allow for the duration adjustment to be a greater percentage of the clip...but as the clip gets shorter the delay gets shorter...Zeno's paradox.

Is there any way that you can disable the default %. It seems to me pointless having a fine adjustment to the nearest frame if a whole interger % (of the clip) which adjusts by minutes over long clips!!

User avatar
Administrator
Site Admin
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:45 am

Post by Administrator » Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:02 pm

Just a thought.....
Are you moving the slider or are you typing the values in directly?
I've used this method a few times with videos up to 1 hour long and have been able to fine tune the synchronisation.

Image

User avatar
Administrator
Site Admin
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:45 am

Post by Administrator » Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:02 pm

bradwell777 wrote:Steve

Definitely only adjusting the duration by increasing the values in the boxes. Found very early on that the % scroll and the slider are too imprecise for my needs. Have also tried incrementing in the value boxes using the scroll bar alongside the frames box.

What I find happens is that the increase input to the values box is initially accepted (for example - increase values by 3 seconds, click OK, the right click on video track again to check Playback Speed and it is still 3 secs ahead).

However if you go into Playback Speed again - before rendering - the % default appears to kick in and for a clip of say 1 hour the value boxes will increment by over 30 seconds. What happens is you see the values change as you click OK (hold down the OK button and they will change and hold).

Just noticed - trying this whilst composing this post - if you exit the Playback Speed menu by clicking the X you APPEAR to preserve the required value box adjustment and this remains whenever you go back in to the Playback Speed menu.

Well...am now about to test this out ....will report back when rendering completed in a couple of hours...memo to self..must get some more RAM/faster CPU.

Thanks

David

User avatar
Administrator
Site Admin
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:45 am

Post by Administrator » Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:02 pm

Yes I noticed the values jump when you click the box but....
before clicking make a note of the values. Click - OK it jumps - but now type in the values you want.

I came to the conclusion that the initial jump is just a little quirk and so ignored it.

User avatar
Administrator
Site Admin
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:45 am

Post by Administrator » Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:03 pm

bradwell777 wrote:Not with mine..after increasing the value in the Time Stretch seconds box I click OK - the Playback Speed box closes - and the next time you open it up the %default will have re-written the values. Even if you then X to exit (rather than OK) the seconds value has change to the nearest 1% - up to 35 seconds in the case of the clip I am working on.

Have now rendered for the 6th time - after trusting that the duration change has taken (increasing the Video duration as Video is behind sound by the end of the clip). Checked it 4 times but did not exit the Playback Speed not clicking OK.

On the rendered file video is now 6 seconds behind the audio.

Will move it the other way.....

David

Post Reply