Audio & Video out of sync

[jskwarek]

OK, I wouldn't consider myself a newbie but I'm being whooped by Elements 2.0. I've got an MPG file that I pulled from my TiVo line up. It's about 2 gig in size (1 hour long) and plays fine in any player I choose from my computer. When I import this video into PE2.0 the audio and video gradually get out of sync while playing. About 2 minutes into the clip I can see the delay, by the half way point things are so out of sync it's ridiculous. Is there any way to get this fixed? What am I doing wrong? Hardware is top notch so I don't think that's the issue.

Jason

[jskwarek]

PS - I did a forum search and found the virtualmoddub program that is supposed to resync the file but after allowing it to run and convert to AVI the clip is still out of sync. The difference is I can play the AVI in another player and see it out of sync there, with the original MPG file I can play it in another player and it is not out of sync it is only out of sync after importing to PE 2.0

Jason

[gem]

I have a previous post with a similar problem.....

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10867

Assuming you are running Windows, you may want to try Window Movie Maker. Of course your only option with WMM is to render as avi and then import to PRE2. You could also install and run a trial version of a non-Adobe NLE to maintain the mpeg format if you wish.

Good luck.

[jskwarek]

I don't understand what you mean by use Movie Maker, I should rerender the file using Movie Maker? That's what I tried to do with the DUB program and it just made things worse.

Jason

[Chuck Engels]

Premiere Elements is a DV-AVI editor and has issues with some MPEG files. The issues can usually be resolved by converting the file using Premiere Elements or another program. You can sometimes export the mpeg as an AVI file right from Premiere Elements and it will work.

Other options, and make sure you export the new file as DV-AVI, not just AVI.
VideoRedo or Virtualdubmod. If that doesn't work there is definately a problem with the mpeg file to begin with.

You may be stuck editing the mpeg file with the software that came with whatever produced it :(

[Chuck Engels]

I should also say, with VideoRedo all you do is a 'Save As' and then just save and rename the mpeg as an mpeg file, not DV-AVI. The new mpeg should work fine in Premiere Elements, the only problem is that VideoRedo is not a free program.

[jskwarek]

Chuck, thank you for the response, when I tried to use the VirualDubMod program I didn't see any difference. Like I said previously I exported it as an AVI and the AVI showed the out of sync issue where the MPEG didn't hat's the only difference. Does that mean that the MPEG is messed up just not enough to show through my Media Player. Unfortunately I pulled this from TiVo so there is no original player that I used to export, guess that means I'm pretty much SOL then huh?

Jason

[gem]

I don't understand what you mean by use Movie Maker

Simply import to WMM and render as DV-AVI. It probably would still have the audio sync problem since VirtualDub didn't work. I only suggested it since WMM it is a free app, so your only investment is time.


I assume you may have not visited my previous post. Let me be more explicit. I had what sounds like a similar problem (in my case, mpeg files of a TV program captured with an ATI AIW card). While the files played fine with any media player on my computer, several had obvious sync problems when imported to PRE2. My solution was to edit these in Pinnacle Studio (v.8) and render in the same mpeg2 format. I then imported the problem files to PRE2 and they functioned properly. While I could have used Studio for the entire project, I prefer the DVD menu options with PRE2, so that is why I finished the project in Elements.

I can't say that this will work for you, but you should be able to find a free trial version of Studio (or some other non-Adobe NLE, as previously mentioned). I happen to have Studio because it was bundled with my video card. I am switching to PRE2 for stability and greater editing control. I have Chuck's book, "Premiere Elements 2 in a Snap" and I believe I read that there can be conflicts when more that one NLE is installed on the same machine with PRE2 (sharing of codecs, I think?). I have had no problem, but perhaps Chuck could speak to that if there are issues.

Again, good luck.

[alja1]

I'm capturing into PE 1 from an analog converter. The avi's audio file syncs perfect when played in Window Media but is out of sync in PE 1. Any fixes for this? It's already a DV-avi file. I'm using PE to do the capture.

[ATR]

alja1

What camcorder are you using and what are you using as analog converter?

Are you judging your out of sync by Premiere Elements 1 Preview playback and/or playback of the Premiere Elements' generated DVD-VIDEO on the TV?

When you have your camcorder recording on the Premiere Elements 1 Timeline, do you see a red line above the video track of the Timeline? If so, do you Render in the Edit Mode by pressing the Enter Key on the computer main keyboard? If the Timeline content is DV AVI, you should not be seeing a red line above the video track of the Timeline.

Let us start here.

To be continued............

ATR

[jlunruh]

Audio, video out of sync (I wrote this for the Elements community…)
26 February 2009

Audio, video out of sync (I wrote this for the Elements community…)
26 February 2009

This has been a really big headache for me but I have found a way to get the two back into sync. This will probably work best for clips that are 10 minutes or less. Here are my steps...

1. Set clip markers at the last possible point in your clip at which you have video of something that should make a sound (hammer hitting a nail, for example). Mark the place on the video track where you see it happen AND mark the place on the audio track where you hear the sound--two separate markers, one on each track. To find markers, go to Clip > Set Clip Marker.

2. Optional: Cut the excess of video / audio that is to the right of your clip on the timeline (and past both markers!), the part you don’t need (if there is any).

3. Unlink the audio and video tracks. To unlink them, go to Clip > Unlink Audio and Video.

4. Which is more delayed, the audio or video? If audio, select the video track and use timestretch to reduce the speed. If video, select audio and do the same. To find timestretch, go to Clip > Timestretch.

The reduction should be around 99% (not as much as you might have expected). (You could actually decrease or increase the speed of either track.)

5. Experiment until the two markers, the one on the audio track and the one on the video track line up pretty well. I found that it didn't have to be exact.

The crazy thing I found was that some parts of my video were more out of sync than others and some that were later were back in sync. Perhaps the amount of data increases/decreases for video and audio if there are variations in the amount of sound or motion and that leads to the two getting out of sync with each other.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

[ATR]

jlunruh

This is a very old thread (about 2006) to begin with, and alja1 last posted in early 2008 and did not follow up. So, thank you for your 2009 feedback.

I would like to comment further, but first do you have the time for a few questions? What version of Premiere Elements were you using? And, what was the source and formats of these video clips that were out of sync? How did you get the video into Premiere Elements Timeline? What Premiere Elements project preset did you use at the onset and what was the export that you used for your end product? For the end product, did the sound stay in sync on the various players that were used for playback?

Also, when you are using Time Stretch, have you had to check the Maintain Audio Pitch option in Time Stretch to avoid any sound distortion? If the reduction is just 1%, probably not???

ATR

[ATR]

jlunruh

I am not sure of the details that generated your out of sync, but, if you started with linked video/audio that got unlinked after it reached the Timeline, you might want to check out:
"Synchronize linked clips" in the Help of whatever version of Premiere Elements that you are using.

This is the writeup from Premiere Elements 7 PDF Help:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/PremiereElements/7.0/WS21A41563-8714-4f36-BABA-D28E19837C58.html

ATR