MPEG > H.264 Sync issues

[RedRocker777]

Using version 11.5
Hi, I'm converting a 1 hr. MPEG (HD) video to H.264 1440 x 1080
Once I do this, the video is behind the audio. Tried twice.
Original footage is also 1440 x 1080 and is synced correctly.

Machine is an Intel Core Duo w/ 8gb RAM, Vista 64, with RAID10 SATA drives... I think the machine is powerful enough to keep up.

Any suggestions?
Tnx.

[DVDDoug]

Machine is an Intel Core Duo w/ 8gb RAM, Vista 64, with RAID10 SATA drives... I think the machine is powerful enough to keep up.

Computer power/speed is not an issue. When you are converting, the computer is working with digital files, and there's nothing to "keep-up" with... Speed is only an issue with real-time capture.

Where did the MPEGs come from? (Maybe somebody else has the same camera or cature card.)

I have not done any HD work, but many of us have had trouble with SD MPEG-2 files. If you search the forum for "sync" or "OOS", you will find lots of discussion & suggestions. This may be caused by slight corruption in your MPEG file. It's not unusual for a particular file to play back OK, but to cause trouble when it is edited or converted. (I call it "sneaky corruption".*) Both Womble and VideoReDo have tools that can repair some MPEG problems, and they both offer free trials. (I'm not sure if they work with HD, or if it will fix your particular problem.)

In my case it was the editing step causing the (corruption?) problem, and the solution was to switch to Womble for the editing step. ...I'm not sure if that will help with HD and H.264.


* Imagine you have an MPEG frame with a tiny bit of bad data. When the file is converted, that bad video frame is thrown away, but the associated audio remains. Now, you've got a sync problem. That may not be exactly what's going on... but it's probably something like that.

[RedRocker777]

The MPEGs came from a Sony HDR-HC7 using VS 11.
I've also tried another MPEG file just last night. This one was pulled from a TiVo file (HD). I got the same exact results and what appeared to be the same delay.

Not sure what else to try. Maybe smaller files. (both of these were an hour or more).

[etech6355]

If you captured using VS11+ then the videos are in the PS format.
I would try capturing using the program HDVSplit. It captures in the TS stream format (also has scene detect). Maybe the TS format can help fix this issue. If not when you go to create your video file before rendering the h264 file click on Options and Uncheck "Use SmartRender".
Your performing a format conversion so this will not affect quality when unchecking smartrender.

My encodes are max 20 minutes for HD so far. Haven't made any long videos yet.

[RedRocker777]

etech6355, that capture software is fantastic. Thanks for the info. Best part is the saving of files with and by date!!! I don't know if it will fix my issue (will know later today), but I'm certainly adding HDVSplit to my workflow!!!!!

Thanks again!!

[RedRocker777]

Well, that didn't fix my issue. Still same exact delay.

Anyone else try this??

[2Dogs]

I've been using a freeware program called MeGUI for encoding to H.264. I've noticed some audio OOS problems when making cuts - but the program allows you to encode the video and audio separately - then you can "mux" them with an appropriate delay to get the sync right.

Maybe H.264 encoding with VS is similar. You could use the share>create step to create a single mpg file, and then encode that single file to MP4. The downside is that it would involve an additional encoding step in your workflow. VS used to generate audio OOS when smart rendering - but maybe that's a thing of the past. In that case, with smart rendering enabled, the additional encoding would be minimal, restricted to transitions and titles etc. Might be worth a try.

[RedRocker777]

Thanks for the reply.
In doing more testing I've discovered that the sync issue is only when played in Media Player. When played back in VS again, it's ok.
Going to try playing it in TiVo (the target for this anyway). We'll see.
Tnx!

[etech6355]

Do you have any better methods to playback H264?
Like PowerDvd 7, Nero 7 Ultra or a consumer hardware playback device?

[RedRocker777]

I'll give it a try. Didn't even play at all on the TiVo. I'll keep work at it and post back.

BTW: is there an equivalent program for capturing standard def video like the HDVSplit? Maybe a SDVSplit?? Or does HDVSplit do SD as well? I've got friends/family that have SD cams and would like to suggest it if there is.

[Ken Berry]

For mini DV cameras, there is an excellent, small and free program called WinDV at windv.mourek.cz which quite a few of us here use.

[vze22jf9]

Many of the H.264 decoders currently out do poor jobs decoding H.264 files that were encoded using Main and High Profiles (and accordingly high bitrates).

As you've already discovered that the playback was normal when using VS player while in the playback in Windows Media player was not. That is because the VS player, by default, uses its own H.264 codec where as WMP uses whatever H.264 codec you have registered in your system.

So the solution is to use a different (better) H.264 decoder. You can either use a different player that allows you choose the desired H.264 codec (simplest solution) OR you will need to find a splitter that allows you to choose your decoder OR you can try to unregister the poor-performing codec or rearrange the priority windows gives each codec (not recommended unless you really know what you're doing).

I use CoreAVC for HighDef H.264 decode. The MainConcept H.264 decoder is surprisingly bad considering MC's encoder is extremely good.

[etech6355]

To playback avchd/h264 properly on a computer you need a pci-e 16x video card that has HD hardware acceleration & hardware de-interlacing.
Then after you have one of these cards installed you also need the correct playback software that can interface & use the video cards HD accelerated drivers.
ATI or Nvidia HD cards with PowerDVD7 Ultra or Windvd 8 Gold.

It is NOT just a matter of also needing a powerful cpu & cpu usage.
Don't think just because your cpu usage isn't that high that the avchd/h264 video is playing back correctly. You need hardware acceleration for avchd High Definition Video or avc/h264 for HD-DVD.

[2Dogs]

To playback avchd/h264 properly on a computer you need a pci-e 16x video card that has HD hardware acceleration & hardware de-interlacing.

Wrong. Without GPU acceleration or cpu overclocking, you simply need a fast cpu, such as an E6600 or better.

I'm not saying that this would be the best way to go. In fact any pc with a modern cpu is likely to also have a decent video card, quite possibly capable of H.264 hardware decoding. You are absolutely correct to say that you also need to use the right software DVD player to make use of GPU hardware acceleration.

Although many low end video cards are capable of H.264 decoding, amongst ATI parts the HD 2600XT should be regarded as a minimum. Using one of those, you can easily play back HD video on even a Pentium 4 system, in conjunction with one of the above DVD players.

The more expensive Nvidia solution would be an 8600GTS, which doesn't offload as much by way of cpu usage but gives more flexibility in noise reduction options - which may be important for early commercial HD titles.