Music is not syncing up correctly with video when shared

[jcarsten]

Hi there,

I have spent ages syncing music perfectly with accompanying video in my timeline. When I create the movie though and turn it into an MPEG-4, the entire audio seems to be delayed by a half second or so. It might not sound like a lot but it means all the video that I timed to music is now off. I've had this problem with previous versions of Ulead. Can anyone help?

Thanks.

[Ken Berry]

Since this post is obviously linked to Video Studio, I am moving it to that forum...

[Ken Berry]

I have been doing a little thinking about your post overnight. You don't tell us much except that you have an out of sync problem when producing mp4 video. But we don't know what the original format was, what TV system you use (PAL or NTSC) or even which version of VS you are using.

Just thinking out loud, I am wondering, though, whether you are starting off with PAL video (25 fps) but converting to NTSC (29.97 fps) or vice versa. If going from PAL to NTSC, 4.97 fps have to be invented, usually by simply doubling some existing frames. If going from NTSC to PAL, 4.97 fps would be lost. But if the music seems to play right in either direction, then it would be using its original speed and soon get out of sync with the new mp4 video.

But then again, you would notice that the video might be a bit flickery or jerky in either direction if that was the case, and you don't mention that.

So provide a bit more information and someone may be able to come up with a better explanation.

[jcarsten]

Hi there,

Sorry I didn't realise you'd need that information. I'm very new to the technical side of things.

I'm using Video Studio Pro X4. How do I figure out what TV system I am using? Never even of heard of this being relevant to video editing.

Regarding the video. I've taken quite a lot of different clips from various downloads from torrents. I converted them all to MPEG-4, before using them for my final video edit. Some clips are very slightly jerky, but some are OK.

Your help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

[Ken Berry]

Yes, the television system is pretty central to most video editing. Where in the world do you live?

[jcarsten]

Is that supposed to be patronizing or relevant to my question? If the latter, Brisbane Australia.

[Ken Berry]

Not meant to be patronising at all - it tells us now that your television system is PAL. So some of your videos are likely to be PAL (25 frames per second) and some NTSC (29.97 or 30 frames per second). So if you mix them in one project and use PAL settings, then the NTSC clips are going to lose 4.97 frames every second, and they will look jerky as a result.

And just so you know, I was born in Brisbane and lived there for 21 years!!

[jcarsten]

Oh great thanks for the information. That probably explains a lot of the issues I've had with previous video edits as I download a lot of my content from torrents, which could possibly be using a different tv system.

I guess the only question remaining becomes, is there any way to fix it?

Oh, and Happy Anzac Day.

[Ken Berry]

There are programs out there which can convert NTSC to PAL, and vice versa, and do so smoothly. One which I have used is Canopus Procoder. It does a great job, but it is very expensive. I don't know of any cheaper options, though there may be some.

But with a cheaper, all-rounder program like VS, there is not much you can do to avoid the jerkiness -- though hopefully someone else may have suggestions.

[jcarsten]

Hi Ken,

I've just looked at the original videos I downloaded (I downloaded 6 total).

Five are 23FPS
One is 30FPS

I chopped the highlights out of each video and converted each to MPEG-4. Of those videos four are now 25FPS and 2 are 30FPS. What would explain these FPS changing? Is it Video Studio just realising I am in Australia and converting appropriately? I downloaded it from their website so maybe they just tracked the IP and assigned the appropriate TV system to my software?

Anyway, I then outputed my final video edit, which contained each of these highlight videos cut up and put to a music soundtrack. It's this final video where the highlights are not syncing up with the music. They sync up perfectly in Video Studio but not when outputed. I've put months of work into the video edit as well, only for it to fall at the last hurdle. Is there absolutely no way I can get around it now? Even if I have to go back to stage 1 and re-cut the original videos? What if I take the music track out, output the video to MPEG-4, then just drop the standalone video track to the music?

Thanks for all your help.

[skier-hughes]

Can you do a trial and see what happens if you output as a wmv and a dv.avi file.
Are they out of sync?

[Ken Berry]

Is it Video Studio just realising I am in Australia and converting appropriately?

When you first set up Video Studio, all users -- including you -- are asked what country you live in. You would have selected Australia. The TV system is then automatically selected as PAL (25 fps).

[jcarsten]

Can you do a trial and see what happens if you output as a wmv and a dv.avi file.
Are they out of sync?

Hi Graham,

I have tried this and the music and video is still out of sync. What does this indicate, dare I ask?

Is there any way whatsoever to get around this problem as I've spent ages creating a great video and, being unaware of the tv system, was none the wiser I was going to experience problems when simply outputting it.

I tried removing the audio, then outputted the video component only of my video. I then went back and removed the video, and outputted the audio component only. I then put both videos into a new edit. It still went out of sync though in the outputted video.

[skier-hughes]

I would say it is due to the different way audio and video signals are sent, mixed with the fact these are torrents, so maybe highly compressed to save space, you've converted to an mp4 another compressed format, edited and tried to output as another compressed format.

Do you have any problems with none downloaded from net files?

[jcarsten]

No, I'm not having the issue when using footage I took with my video camera. I did a quick sync and it keeps in sync after being outputted.

I am resigned to having to start my video from scratch. Is there any way then I can still use the torrent videos I downloaded? Will the software Ken mentioned be able to resolve the issue do you think?

Thanks.