DVD Import Audio out of Sync (VS 9)

FloatingGoatee · Post by **FloatingGoatee** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 5:47 pm

Hello,

I am having some problems importing DVD to Ulead VS 9 (Full edition). The audio is always a second or so behind the video feed. I am not sure how to go about correcting the problem. I have read the DVD import guide, etc. Any help would be great.

Thanks.

FloatingGoatee · Post by **FloatingGoatee** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 5:48 pm

I have Win XP, 1 gig of Ram if that is important to know.

FloatingGoatee · Post by **FloatingGoatee** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 5:59 pm

I noticed something else that perplexs me. Whenever I play the movie itself in Windows Media Player, the Audio is in sync, however, if you play within Ulead it is behind. Also, if I try to make a new video file out of the import, that file has the audio problem when I play it in Windows Media player.

I am not sure what that means specifically.

The DVD's are from a standalone DVD burner to which we put old home videos on from VHS.

TDK1044 · Post by **TDK1044** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 6:06 pm

What procedure are you using exactly to import these DVDs? What are the resulting file properties?

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 6:26 pm

A common, nasty problem... See my tag-line/signature below?

It's caused by a bad MPEG file. Your original file is not out of sync, but there are some bad frames, or time-stamp errors, or who knows what... that fouls-up the re-coding process. For example, it you throw-away bad video frames without throwing-away the associated audio, you will get sync errors.

Heres a detailed post regarding A/V sync problems. And, if you search for "sync", you will find much more discussion and some more suggestions.

In your case the file seems to be corrupted on the original DVD, since the problems show-up before you do any editing. (MPEGs can sometimes get corrupted simply be editing them.)

The best solution may be to use the original DVDs from the stand alone recorder as-is, or to use a different video capture method.

FloatingGoatee · Post by **FloatingGoatee** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 6:29 pm

Following the methods of going to Capture, Import from DVD/DVD-VR, going to the TS_video location on the DVD, selecting a chapter, and then hitting import.

The resulting file is NTSC DVD format with MPEG-2 for video and Dolby Digital for Audio.

Another thing I noticed, is it is not even importing the correct chapter. It seems to import something further in the timeline that is not a true chapter.

FloatingGoatee · Post by **FloatingGoatee** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 6:45 pm

Thank you DVDDoug, that stuff was helpful.

Is there anyway to import the items off the DVD as an AVI instead of an MPEG? Or will it not matter either way?

I will keep looking around and see if I can find any other things of interest to try. I have had the MPEG audio nightmares before, just didn't realize that that was happening since this was my first DVD import test.

Thanks for the input.

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 7:24 pm

Sorry... but more negativity...

Analog capture is about the trickiest thing related to digital video.

Two things that Ulead does a poor job of are importing DVDs and editing MPEGs. I assume you know DVDs are MPEG-2. While were on the subject, I wouldn't recommend trying to make a DVD from a DivX either. I haven't tried that myself, but there have been lots of posts here about it.

Even worse news - Video Studio is one of the best DVD to MPEG-2 programs. Most programs that can do it will re-code the MPEG (which degrades the video quality), and/or they don't join the VOB files seemlessly.

CAPTURE OPTIONS:
If you have a digital camcorder, you can usually connect your VCR to it, and connect the camcorder to your Firewire port. There is usually a "pass-through" mode, so that you can transfer the video (AVI/DV mode) to the computer without making a DV tape.

Or, you can get a video capture card. The ATI All-In-Wonder cards are very popular. Most capture cards have a TV tuner, so you can use your computer as a TiVo. Just make sure you get a card that can caputure to AVI/DV. I learned the hard way... I bought a Hauppauge (MPEG-only) card.

A couple of sites with tons-more information on video capture:
DigitalFAQ.com
VideoHelp.com

FloatingGoatee · Post by **FloatingGoatee** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 7:37 pm

DVDDoug you have been most helpful, thank you for the time and effort.

I will look into the Passive Mode on the Camcorder. In the past, I would just record from the DVD to the DV tape then capture it to PC, but if I can do that, that would speed up the process amazingly.

Or I can always go through the "fun" process of re-dubbing my audio from my DVD imports...heheh, but I will look into passive mode.

Thanks again.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:17 pm

Doug -- not sure why you raised the analogue/pass-through question with a VCR. He is trying to Insert DVD/DVD-VR which AFAIK is always a digital process...

Floating Goatee -- I am not sure why you are having these particular problems, though I acknowledge that the Insert DVD process in VS does not always work seamlessly.

Have you tried the alternative method of trying to copy the DVD to your computer with some other program or even just XP commands. Then go into the Video_TS folder of the disc copy on your computer and rename the VOB files with the extension .mpg. Sometimes that works. But you will then have to hunt and peck to find exactly which VOB contains the video you are after...

As for capturing from your DVD into AVI format, there is little point in doing so. That will involve transcoding from the DVD's mpeg-2 format to another, with potential loss in quality. Then if you intend to send your project eventually back to DVD, it will have to be transcoded yet again back to mpeg-2 with further loss of quality...

FWIW, I know you have VS9, but VS10 has the new ability to be able to insert VOB files with that extension. In other words, if you have a VOB file on your computer, you can simply, in VS10, right click and select Insert Video, and point the program at the VOB file. You will then normally get a message saying it has to be processed to be put into form which can be edited. But this only takes a few seconds. And hey presto! the new file appears in your library or timeline... VS9, of course, cannot 'see' VOB files.