Two issues with CVS Pro X7 and a performance observation

[dpack4]

I have two issues and one observation with Corel VideoStudio Pro X7 64 Bit. The issues are severe enough that I cannot use the software I just purchased and have had to fall back to using Microsoft Live Movie Maker. I am posting here to see if anyone can enlighten me on anything I am doing incorrectly.

I capture video game play in 1080p HD. I also use Windows Sound Recorder to record commentary. I split and trim the video as needed and then align the commentary on the Voice Track. I select “Same as project settings” on the Share tab and render the file. Once it has completed, I can play the video back on my computer and all is fine. The issue is once I upload the video to YouTube. The video playback in YouTube has the in-game audio slightly out of sync with the video but my commentary is spot on for where it needs to be. The in-game audio happens about 1-2 seconds after the action in the video.

I use a custom template to render the file (listed below). I researched YouTube’s recommended settings for standard 1080p videos and adhered to it as close as possible.

Source HD Capture File
File Format: MPEG-4
Video Type: H.264 High Profile Video
Attributes: 24 bits, 1920 x 1080, 16:9
Frame Rate: 29.970 frames/sec
Data Rate: 2606 Kbps
Audio Type: MPEG AAC Audio
Attributes: 48000 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo
Bit Rate: 126 Kbps

In CVS – Settings > Preferences > Performance Tab
I created a custom video template with the following setup. After selecting custom template, I check auto generate template (Recommended). The “Create proxy when video size is above” drop down is set to 720 x 480.
Video proxy options:
MPEG-4 Files
24 bits, 1920 x 1080, 29.97 fps
Frame-based
H.264 High Profile Video: 8000 Kbps
48000 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo
MPEG AAC Audio: 128 Kbps

All four hardware acceleration check boxes are checked. I also created a duplicate template in Project Settings that matches the template in the Performance tab. I use it to set the stage before editing.

Anyone have any suggestions/comments? Need more details than the above? If so, tell me what you need to know.

The second issue is when I split the video and voice track to remove a section out of the middle. I have to enable Ripple Editing to lock the Voice Track to the Video Track keeping my commentary aligned. Once the split on two sides is complete and the middle section is deleted, I wish to add a transition effect at the split point. CVS will not allow me to do this with the tracks locked. I get a “For ripple editing, there is no gap to apply a transition effect” message popup. If I unlock the tracks, I can then insert the video transition but then my commentary is out of alignment. I don’t have this issue in Windows Live Movie Maker. It lets me place a transition at any split I perform. Granted, you can’t lock the tracks in WLMM. This forces me to use the Narration feature of WLMM and do post-commentary instead of live commentary. I’ll do all my splits and transitions and then talk over it. How can I insert a transition in CVS without getting my commentary out of alignment?

FYI – For those of you wandering, I do not record my commentary into the gameplay video. I have to keep the commentary as a separate file so I can edit it in Audacity. This lets me remove Noise Hiss and any clicks or pops. I can’t do that if my voice is embedded into the game audio.

That’s my two issues. The remainder of this post is just my observation of rendering speed and what the software utilizes on the computer. On my old computer, as a baseline test, it took two minutes to render one minute of 1080p HD video. (Windows 7 64 Bit) Watching the Task Manager Performance Tab while running GPUZ, it shows Windows Live Movie Maker utilizing both the CPU cores and GPU. In CVS, it took almost the exact same amount of time to render one minute of video but never touches the GPU. It only uses the processor. Now, on my old computer, I could only check one of the four hardware acceleration check boxes.

I got tired of waiting how long it took to render my full files so I bought a custom built computer just for video editing. I now use Windows 8.1 64 Bit with a very powerful system. I then repeated the baseline test to see how the new computer stacks up to the old. WLMM now renders a one minute HD video in 28 seconds. It still utilizes the CPU cores and GPU. CVS now gives me the ability to check all four hardware acceleration boxes. It renders the one minute HD video in the same amount of time as WLMM: 28 seconds. It still doesn’t touch the GPU. So, as far as I can tell, no matter what software you use, it will only render as fast as the CPU and GPU you have. I get no speed advantage by using CVS over WLMM, nor can I get CVS to take advantage of the GPU like WLMM does.

Thanks for any assistance that can be provided!

[asik1]

Very interesting, but one thing you need to clarify.
Regarding UT, you write that the final rendered MP4 clip is all in sync and is 100% OK ... but once on UT one audio track drifts away while the other keeps in sync?

[dpack4]

Hello asik1,

You are correct. When I play the MP4 back on any computer, the in-game audio is perfectly in sync with the video and my commentary is also perfectly aligned. Once the video is uploaded to YouTube, only the commentary stays aligned. The in-game audio drifts away from the video by a second or two. It did this every time if my source file was an M2TS, which I had set by accident. I normally capture as MP4 and have it set back to MP4 as it should be now. But, apparently, it doesn't matter if the source file is M2TS or MP4 I still have the issue. CVS is doing something to the file YouTube does not like. If I take the same source files and render the project in WLMM, YouTube has no issues. All audio and video are perfectly in sync.

Very weird indeed and I can't find any solutions for this online. This is the main issue and is why I can't use CVS and have reverted back to using WLMM.

[dpack4]

These are the type of issues I normally have: the ones no one else has or there is no resolution to it. If Corel support doesn't charge an arm and a leg and a processor to assist, I'll see if they can help. At least I can still use the screen capture feature so the purchase wasn't a total loss. I think it's funny, I built a super computer to run Windows Live Movie Maker! At least it works, it's quick, and FREE!

Thanks to all who looked at this thread!

[asik1]

What is your rendered MP4 settings?
Do you select "same as first"? or other?

[lata]

Hi

The first part of your post Settings Preferences Performance is referring to Smart Proxy, this has nothing to do with your output video, at least we have not noticed an association.

Set Performance tab to use Auto Generate…

Give some details of your original video files.
From the timeline right click a clip and choose properties, what are they?
Create an image of that window to attach to your post.

Go to Settings - Project Properties, are those properties the same as above?

When you render your video via Share what options do you choose?
At the bottom of that window, deselect Smart Render.

On some occasions Smart Render can cause audio sync issues, I believe that does depends on the audio codecs, difficult to prove.

Ripple Editing
When we use a transition the two clips are overlapped reducing their overall length, that affects Ripple Editing, set all transitions before syncing the audio?

[dpack4]

What is your rendered MP4 settings?

The MP4 template settings are listed in my original post. If you are looking for the details of the completed rendered file, I’ll have to render one to get that info. The files are too large to keep so they are discarded after the YouTube upload.

Do you select "same as first"? or other?

Yes, I select “Same as project settings.”

The first part of your post Settings Preferences Performance is referring to Smart Proxy, this has nothing to do with your output video, at least we have not noticed an association.

Correct. I merely stated that to show the full setup of how I have the software configured.

Set Performance tab to use Auto Generate…

Yes, I check auto generate template (Recommended).

Give some details of your original video files.

Reference “Source HD Capture File” in my original post.

Go to Settings - Project Properties, are those properties the same as above?

I also create a duplicate template in Project Settings that matches the template in the Performance tab. I use it to set the stage before editing.

When you render your video via Share what options do you choose?

I select “Same as project settings.”

At the bottom of that window, deselect Smart Render.

This I’ll have to try. Smart Render has always been checked. I can try one without this checked to see what the results are.

Ripple Editing
When we use a transition the two clips are overlapped reducing their overall length, that affects Ripple Editing, set all transitions before syncing the audio?

I can’t set all transitions before syncing the audio. I have an approx. 30 minute MP4 and an approx. 30 minute WMA file. I import those to the tracks and then trim out sections in the middle of footage I want to skip. I have to trim the audio file in the same place as the video file to keep the tracks aligned. My workaround for this was to just simply forgo the use of transitions and have a direct cut. IMO, it makes the video looks less professional with the sudden change. In WLMM I do all the trims and transitions first and then do post-commentary. I could do the same in CVS but one of the main reasons I bought it was to do live commentary. WLMM you can't lock tracks and it doesn't play well with splitting audio and video.

[aljimenez]

I can’t set all transitions before syncing the audio. I have an approx. 30 minute MP4 and an approx. 30 minute WMA file. I import those to the tracks and then trim out sections in the middle of footage I want to skip. I have to trim the audio file in the same place as the video file to keep the tracks aligned. My workaround for this was to just simply forgo the use of transitions and have a direct cut. IMO, it makes the video looks less professional with the sudden change. In WLMM I do all the trims and transitions first and then do post-commentary. I could do the same in CVS but one of the main reasons I bought it was to do live commentary. WLMM you can't lock tracks and it doesn't play well with splitting audio and video.

Perhaps insert a black frame instead of a transition? Not sure if this works as I have not tried it... Al

[lata]

Hi

You said “I also create a duplicate template in Project Settings that matches the template in the Performance tab. I use it to set the stage before editing.”
Why?...The performance tab has nothing to do with rendering your project, so why go there?

You should use the properties of your video file to create your final output video. That’s if they are suitable.


I notice the data rate as 2606kbps, is that correct or simply a typo. I would expect larger?

With one of your MP4 clips as the first clip, Share – “Same as first clip” would be suitable.
Same as Project Properties are ok provided they are set correctly, all I am saying is just make sure they are same as original Mp4?

Editing the clips.
You say you record the audio separately to the video, I assume recording a voice over if so can you do that after cutting / trimming clips and applying transitions. Then audio would be in sync with the edited clips.

You could consider inserting video and audio in sync to the timeline, render to create a new video file.
Add that to the timeline to Cut to remove unwanted frames.

You could try editing using the Overlay Track, then cut and remove will stay in position, unfortunately will leave gaps
It’s a little difficult to explain when we do not have the clips available to see?

[dpack4]

There is some testing I need to do. I noticed that my YouTube channel intro video that I place at the beginning of the main video has different specs. I'm wondering if that is what throws it off when it embeds the two videos together. I will try rendering a test video without the intro video to see if the audio still gets out of sync. If not, that may be the culprit. I can also uncheck Smart Render and see if that fixes the issue.

While playing in Windows Live Movie Maker, just for grins and giggles, I tried splitting and adding a transition. It worked! On my old PC, I had Windows 7 with the older version of WLMM. My new PC has Windows 8.1 and the latest version of WLMM. I will need to do some more testing but it appears Microsoft corrected the issue of the audio track messing up if you split the video. Granted, you still can't lock the tracks, but for my process, it works and it still lets me insert transitions. If it stays true to what I have already seen, then I can go back to doing live commentary and still be able to cut out sections without it making the project useless.

Since I still have to keep posting new videos to my channel, I'll use WLMM in the interim while I continue to play with CVS on the side. I still use CVS for screen capture. I love the fact it gives me the choice of using full screen or dragging a custom sized box around just what I want it to capture. My monitor displays at 1080p and these older DOS games I am recording run in a DOSBox window. I can set CVS to capture just that window excluding the window borders. Cool deal.

[canuck]

Could you provide a link to the youTube video that shows the problem?

[dpack4]

Could you provide a link to the youTube video that shows the problem?

https://youtu.be/XDHUmeKjdgA

Here is one of the videos that has the in-game audio out of sync. Mind you, it is only out of sync on YouTube. If I play the file back on my computer, all is fine. While all the audio has drifted about two seconds past the action on the screen (not the commentary though), you can easily tell by listening to when I collect coins. They make a chime sound when collected. The chime is normally heard the instant the coin is collected, not a couple of seconds later.

I have my next video ready to be edited. Over the next few days, I will play with the different settings in CVS and also exclude adding my front intro video to see what combination makes YouTube process the file correctly.

I also attached a screenshot of the source HD file. The original specs I provided was from a one minute test video. This is the real thing and is most likely why 2606Kbps data rate was listed earlier. I also included the Performance tab settings.

[asik1]

I'm not a gamer, unless you give me a specific time to check I can't hear any major sync problem within the minute or two I watched. I looked closely at change of scenes where I guess there should be some kind of sound cut and there is.
If recheck and recheck... maybe ~6 frames delay

[lata]

Hi

Again the “Performance tab has nothing to do with your video output, it is purely there to create Proxy files used to smooth timeline playback, providing details of the performance tab is only confusing the issue.

If D:\Editing\ is used to store your MPEG4 video files then change that location for proxy files.
Do not store proxy files along with your video files. Doing so will only confuse you further.
First clean / purge your proxy folder.
Go to Settings Smart Proxy – Smart Proxy Manager- Select all – Delete selected proxy files. Change the Proxy folders location to another folder.

Editing Workflow
Go to Settings Preferences – tick Show Messages when inserting First Video.
Start a new project, add one of your Mpeg4 video files.
You should get a message to match the properties choose yes.
Go to Settings Project Properties – copy and paste the details in the right hand panel to this forum.
Are you able to do that?

They should be your video files properties.

Edit your project

To create a new video file
Share – Same as first video or same as project properties, providing those match your original video files.

[dpack4]

I'm not a gamer, unless you give me a specific time to check I can't hear any major sync problem within the minute or two I watched. I looked closely at change of scenes where I guess there should be some kind of sound cut and there is.
If recheck and recheck... maybe ~6 frames delay

While the entire in-game audio is off, go to 1:15 of the video I referenced. I collect two coins right there. You'll notice the "chime" comes seconds after collection when it should be at the exact same time. I do a cut at 20:00 and then again at 20:33. These cuts, however, I do not use transitions to keep the commentary aligned. It is a direct cut to the next section of the video.