Another Audio Sync Problem- With jpegs

greg mgm · Post by **greg mgm** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 8:32 pm

I just ran into my first problem. I'm putting together a music slideshow with jpegs. As I go along lengthening or shortening the images to change with the timing of the music, things go great. The slideshow is synced perfect as I go along. But, when it's started from the beginning, by the time the 2:30 (very short) slideshow gets halfway, the images are lagging behind. If I "pause" for a few seconds, then continue, where it was previously lagging, is now synced perfectly........ My computer is Windows Xp P4 2.6 1 g ram. Unfortunately, everythings on one hard drive. Could this be a computer problem, or ?? It seems like memory needs to "catch up" or something. I read the audio sync problem threads that sjj1805 posted. Is this a situation where I need to adjust the playback speed of the audio like he posted? Sounds more like a computer issue to me. THANKS!!!

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:58 am

It does sound like a computer issue. Have you burned a dvd, or at least to a dvd folder, to see if the problem is present in the finished product?

greg mgm · Post by **greg mgm** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:05 pm

Yes. I tried rendering and burning several ways...high quality, low, and the DVD and files showed the time lag. This has never happened editing or rendering/ burning video DVD's. Kind of an odd problem. I wouldn't expect any problems working with such a short slideshow.

railroadguy · Post by **railroadguy** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:51 pm

greg mgm wrote: The slideshow is synced perfect as I go along. But, when it's started from the beginning, by the time the 2:30 (very short) slideshow gets halfway, the images are lagging behind. If I "pause" for a few seconds, then continue, where it was previously lagging

What and when are you pausing?
Are you saying you are pausing on the timeline while watching before rendering? (That is possible)
Are you saying you make a rendered version and are playing in Windows and that is where it goes out of sync and then pausing allows it to catch up? (Could be background jobs)
Are you saying after making the DVD, you pop it in a player, not the PC, and the sync goes bad and you pause the player and then it syncs back up on the TV? (As far as I know that can not happen)

Without knowing the file specs (properties) of the video and audio you started with as well as the end product it's going to be hard to figure out.

Unfortunately, everythings on one hard drive. Could this be a computer problem, or ??

How large is the HD in question and how much free space in on it?

I am no expert but have some slide shows with music sync without any problem, even using MP3 for the music which has been somewhat problematic for some.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:00 pm

Like Dan, I too am interested in your workflow.

Essentially, the one I follow would be this for a slideshow:

1) First, I tend to use Frame Based as the 'field order' for picture slideshows'.

2) Once you are finished assembling and editing, go to Share > Create Video File > DVD to produce a DVD-compatible mpeg-2.

3) During this step, again make sure the file properties you select are the same as the project -- including again Frame Based.

4) Once you have produced this mpeg-2 file, and ONLY then, go to Share > Create Disc > DVD, and in the burning module, insert the mpeg-2 file(s), create your menus and burn. Make sure the burning properties are exactly the same as those in your mpeg-2. (Check in the second icon in the bottom left of screen; and/r make sure the 'Do not convert compliant MPEG files' box in that icon is checked.) Otherwise, the program will try to render the file again, as well as all the multiplexing of video and audio, creation of menus etc, all on the fly, which is a big ask for any computer.

5) When burning, only use a low speed (we generally recommend a maximum burn speed of 4x), regardless of the rated speeds of both your burner and the discs you are using.

greg mgm · Post by **greg mgm** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:50 pm

Ya, I'm not so great with words here...but to answer your questions.....
The play/ pause was during editing/ working in VS10. That's when the lagging would happen. It will "catch up" after I pause for a few seconds, then click "play" then it plays perfect. If I render the slideshow and play it in WMP or VS10, the images start lagging about halfway through, but there's no "catching up" if I hit pause. If I burn it to DVD, I get the same results as the rendered file- lag but no catching up. My HD is 250G with 152G free. I was just working with still images (jpegs) off my still camera, and 1 mp3 song that's on my computer.
Ken- Thanks for elaborating!! I'll go through and see what the settings are on that project in the next couple days and post back. I want to take the time to work with my slideshow just as you posted, and I may not have done exactly what you said. Thanks very much for the help!!!

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 12:14 am

Have you defragmented your hard drive?

railroadguy · Post by **railroadguy** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:57 am

greg mgm wrote:I was just working with still images (jpegs) off my still camera, and 1 mp3 song that's on my computer.
I want to take the time to work with my slideshow just as you posted, and I may not have done exactly what you said. Thanks very much for the help!!!

That is just I did with my silly popcorn video. (http://ribbonrail.com/Videos/pop_corn.wmv) I made that just days after downloading the trial version of VS10+. My file info below shows that I did not follow the recommended field order. All that means is I did wrong and it still came out right

NTSC drop frame (29.97 fps)
MPEG files
24 bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-NTSC), 4:3
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 8000 kbps)
LPCM Audio, 48000 Hz, Stereo

Your system has more HP than mine does so I am thinking there is something off with the audio file. Some people have had problems with MP3's.

I don't want to bring up the digital image thread again but if you are using large, 5 to 10 Mb images, this has to have an effect on what the processor has to go through to render and display those large files in a very short amount of time as it also decodes the MP3 at the same time. Many here have had no problems with extreamly large image files, I have.

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:22 pm

There have been some problems with MP3s, but the problem is they usually don't play at all. You could try converting the MP3 to a WAV file and see if that fixes it.

greg mgm · Post by **greg mgm** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 5:18 pm

sjj1805- I defraged a month ago, and I should keep an eye on that. Maybe I'll defrag more often. I'll check it out tonight and see if my computer needs it.
You know what?? I think railroad guy may have something there. I recently bought a new still camera with a 1 G card. The image size is set to L which is something like 2816 x 2100 which is WAY larger than I used with my old camera. This problem has only surfaced after I bought the new camera. That's another thing I'll do. I'll resize the pics, and redo the slideshow to see the difference.........I just checked the image sizes which range from 3.7 mb to 1.9 mb. (2816 x 2100)
I'll take it one step at a time. If the resizing doesn't change things, I'll convert the mp3 to wav and check the results.
Thanks you guys!! Your help makes this site excellant!

greg mgm · Post by **greg mgm** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 5:36 pm

Railroad guy- That train/ popcorn slide show was very good. You must have spent a lot of time on it. Did you set the images to change manually? Did you go by watching the audio track "pulses"? Did you take all the photos? Very cool towards the middle where the images zoom in + out, and pan in different colors. I don't know enough about VS10 to do the color images merged together with motion like that....very cool.

railroadguy · Post by **railroadguy** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:41 pm

greg mgm wrote:Railroad guy- That train/ popcorn slide show was very good. You must have spent a lot of time on it. Did you set the images to change manually? Did you go by watching the audio track "pulses"? Did you take all the photos? Very cool towards the middle where the images zoom in + out, and pan in different colors. I don't know enough about VS10 to do the color images merged together with motion like that....very cool.

Thanks for the comments. Easy stuff first. Yes, those are my images that I posted to the Internet (Usenet) before the Web. Had them stored on my HD for years. When I tried to drop in new images from my digital camera without resizing, I had problems.

The color effect is just using the Color Shift filter and playing with the options and then a very fast Pan and Zoom.

As to the timing, look at this screen shot: http://ribbonrail.com/Videos/pop_screen.jpg

Once I got the timing figured out, 7 frames for the short beat, 15 for the long, you can see the repeat. That made it easy and very little tweaking.

Again all of this was done with the trial version as I was waiting to buy the video conversion equipment. Like most software, just start playing and have fun. Also, this forum is one of the best I have ever joined for help.

Another tip, I bought the program on CD. They send you a small book, I mean small as in less then 5" x 6". Hard to read in a low light room . So download the PDF version and use the search function. Much faster to look up items and easier to read

greg mgm · Post by **greg mgm** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 1:23 am

Today, I spent TONS of time working on this problem trying to get it resolved. Using what was suggested (one at a time).... I defragged the computer and it actually helped a bit, but still had the timing issues to a lesser degree. Next, I changed the music track from mp3 to WAV. The lagging got more consistant, and the "catching up" after pausing didn't happen any more. Thinking I could re set the image timing (to the music) I re set the images to change with the music...and after that, the slideshow played perfect consistantly from start to finish (in VS 10 editing).... Ignoring what Ken posted, I quickly rendered and saved a file to burn a DVD.... Again, I had timing issues!!! At this point I read every word Ken wrote, and did the render as "framed based" (same as the project settings) This time, the file played perfect, and also the DVD burned (at 4x) and played perfect. So, my opinion what happened is, having the computer converting mp3's to WAV affected the projects timing. Not having recently defraged the HD had a bit of an effect as well. Not having the project and rendering set to "frame based" DEFINITELY affected the timing. I want to thank you guys for your help!! I really appreciate it!! I wrote a work list to follow for making slideshows, which will help avoid these problems. Also, here's the slideshow I made which just got uploaded-
http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g96/g ... y4aYT3.flv

railroadguy · Post by **railroadguy** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 1:41 am

First off, very glad to see you worked it through.

Second, great video and a story... I have never been to LA but as soon as I saw the video I knew I had seen that building.

In the original 1964 TV show "The Outer Limits", (showing my age here) they used that building for one of my favorite episodes staring Robert Culp.

Checking my book, that was indeed the location for shooting, all of it done at night and inside. What a beautiful building it is both inside and out. Not sure what kind of shape it was in when they filmed in 1963 but it looked old and run down then. I suspect it's had a total renovation, but it sure set the mood for the show.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 1:56 am

Congratulations on finally getting it to work!!!!

And particular congratulations on the slideshow itself: a very nice blend of still shots with panning and zooming shots. The sync between picture change and music is well done, and the music was nice and vervy but with a touch of elegance to it all. Well done indeed!

Alludo USER to USER Web Board

Another Audio Sync Problem- With jpegs

Another Audio Sync Problem- With jpegs

Re: Another Audio Sync Problem- With jpegs